English Cycles | Custom Bicycles

Posted by Rob on Jan 18, 2021

Bowei’s V3 road bike

Bowei asked me to build him a lightweight roadbike for climbing and long rides. He opted for the V3 layout which has an Enve carbon seatmast and headtube insert. A custom cap allows for fine tuning saddle height. The frame has internal routing for the Di2 wires and the rear brake cable. The paint scheme was created by SvelteCycleworks, inspired by Bowei’s Husky. And then carefully applied by...

Posted by Rob on Jan 4, 2021

Andres’ gravel frameset

Andres’ first build was all in for aero road performance. This time he asked for a more classic, round-tubed build for gravel and all-road riding. So there is clearance for at least 45mm tires, or smaller tires with fenders. Andres decided to stick with a 1x setup which enabled maximising tire clearance. He intends to start off with running the new Campy Ekar groupset, but wanted a clean transition...

Posted by Rob on Dec 11, 2020

Shlomy’s all-road bike

Call it gravel, call it all-road, groad, the name doesn’t matter – Shlomy asked me to build him a fast bike with room for 35mm tires. Up front we have a US-made carbon fork from Allied, which plugs into a 44mm headtube via a Cane Creek headset. The toptube is custom ovalised and features internally brazed bosses for the Kaibab Customs framebag. The bottle cages were positioned low to allow...

Posted by Rob on Nov 22, 2020

Nate’s Super-commuter

Nate’s build is the latest interpretation of my winter bike theme. But heavily customised for Nate’s unique bicycle! We start with the ever-reliable Alfine 8spd hub, in it’s Di2 guise. To fit a Gates belt-drive sprocket with the Di2 motor unit, the cog has to be offset to the inside. So then to allow for a straight beltline whilst providing for larger tires, the whole rear-end is...

Posted by Rob on Nov 14, 2020

Andy’s road bike

Andy asked me to build him a disc brake road bike that would climb and descend well, and of course, precisely fit his size and weight. His design features a Columbus carbon fork, and Vision integrated bar/stem, both painted to match. The initial build has 25mm tires, but there is room for 30mm. SRAM AXS eTap provides the wide gear range and wireless shifting, with an upgraded Ceramic Speed pulley cage....

Posted by Rob on Oct 28, 2020

Javier’s road frameset

Javier wanted a modern, yet classic steel road bike. So we have a custom machined, round integrated seatmast, with custom made adjustable cap. A lightweight aero bladed fork. And a signature stem to match. The frame is for rim brakes and mechanical shifting, with internal routing for each. Curved stays allow for larger tires if desired, and the aero downtube gives a nod to the speed side of performance....

Posted by Rob on Oct 10, 2020

Pete’s lightweight gravel bike

I am always game for a lightweight project. Pete wondered if we could get a complete gravel bike under 16lbs, so we set about to find out…. Starting at the front, we went with a US-made Allied carbon fork. A custom EC headset with Cane Creek AER bearings mates this to the frame. The frame is mostly Columbus Life tubing. The downtube is custom ovalised at the BB, and the toptube is taper ovalised...

Posted by Rob on Oct 1, 2020

Ryan’s V3 road bike

Ryan had a good sense of what he wanted for his custom build; with a couple of conversations I was able to distill that down to a bespoke design to suit. Finalising the exact component spec took a little longer, and then making final decisions on paint a little longer still! But that is both the beauty and the trouble with the custom process – so many options…. Then end result was worth...