English Cycles | Custom Bicycles

Posted by Rob on Jan 7, 2020

Patrick’s Pinion adventure bike

Patrick is a Brit now living in Finland – with the personal connection that his teacher in high school was my mother! So kind of fun to build a bike for him. He wanted a do anything/ride anywhere bike for adventures – be they of the daily towing-the-children kind or the more multi-day type. He requested the drivetrain be the Pinion gearbox, which gave me the chance for my first build around...

Posted by Rob on Dec 19, 2019

Alonso’s ‘Batman’ road bike

Alonso asked for a responsive road bike built to fit, with clearance for up to 30mm tires. Riding in a dry area, the performance of rim brakes – especially on an aluminium rim, are more than good enough, with the lightweight EE brakes handling this duty. The rear brake is a direct mount fitment under the chainstays. The rest of the group is Shimano Ultegra mechanical, with internal cable...

Posted by Rob on Dec 5, 2019

Jim’s super commuter

Jim wanted a bike for all-year, all-weather riding, that could be used for his commute and group rides. He also needed some extra comfort due to suffering with issues with his hands. We settled on a Gates belt drive, Shimano Alfine Di2 build, for a durable, weather-resistant drivetrain, with 35mm tires for comfort and traction. The high volume tires are accompanied by a Shockstop suspension stem and...

Posted by Rob on Nov 25, 2019

Nick’s S1 road frame

Nick was very happy with his first build, a superlight V3 road bike. When he approached me for a second build, he wanted to explore just how stiff a steel frame could be. Generally I lean on the side of tuned stiffness – where the tubes are carefully chosen to match the size and weight of the rider and their preferences, so that the frame will have just the right amount of flex to ride...

Posted by Rob on Nov 8, 2019

Odd’s road disc bike

Odd wanted a road bike to fit him perfectly, be comfortable for long rides, and have the extra security of disc brakes. The new SRAM eTap group was launched just in time to have the full AXS group, complemented by Enve wheels laced onto Chris King hubs. 28mm tubeless tires provide grip and comfort, and Brian at Kaibab Customs sewed up a pair of custom bags to match the bike. The paint is by Colorworks,...

Posted by Rob on Oct 31, 2019

Alex’s 10th anniversary road

Another anniversary build rolls out! Alex’s design features custom geometry and tubing selection to suit his size and fit, with his request for an Enve aero handlebar and mechanical shifting. To enable installing the bar, the custom stem has a Paragon four-bolt faceplate. The color scheme has custom anodized parts including the EE brakes, Lightning crank, Alto hubs, English headset and spacers....

Posted by Rob on Oct 9, 2019

Matt’s V3 disc

Matt wanted a fast road bike, and liked the V3 design with a carbon ISP and headtube insert. He also inquired if it would be possible to run all the hoses/wires fully internally. As it happened, FSA had just released their ACR system, which uses a special upper headset bearing, bearing cover and stem to route the front hose directly into the fork steerer. The rear hose and Di2 wire are sent into the...

Posted by Rob on Oct 2, 2019

Not the pink bike…..

My pink bike, which won ‘best road bike’ at NAHBS in 2016, has been fantastic – a LOT of miles on it over the last three years, and it really has performed pretty much perfectly as it was designed. So when FSA asked if I would collaborate with them on a show bike, and I decided to do another fat-tire road/gravel build, it took some thought as to what I would do differently. I kept the...