Jeffrey’s skinny bike
After I built my skinny bike, and discovered what a lovely bike it is to ride, Jeffrey asked me to build him something similar. Handily, Jeffrey had a Lightning crank, Campy 11spd shifting and Hed alloy wheels on hand. Initially we were going to use a modern 31.8 handlebar, but with the small tubes and 1″ steerer, decided that a 26.0 bar would be a better match – Jeffrey was able to find a NOS 3T handlebar to fit the bill.
The fork crown was precisely machined to clamp the steerer with three pinch bolts, and internally drilled to remove weight. The stem and steerer are then one-piece with the headset preload applied from underneath the fork crown. There are direct mount bosses for the EE brakes, with the rear set under the chainstays.
All the tubing sizes are effectively one-size down from what would be my normal ‘standard’ for this size and weight of rider. This makes for a less stiff frame but one that can flex in harmony with the rider, and retain sufficient stiffness for secure descending and cornering. The seatmast is externally butted in house, with a reinforcement sleeve at the toptube junction and a custom cap featuring Specialized hardware to clamp the saddle rails.
The headset is a 1″ model to match the steerer, but the cups are shimmed to fit into an 1-1/8″ sized headtube – this allows room for the gear cables to have internal stops in the front of the headtube and pass through without touching the steerer. The cables cross inside the downtube to give the cleanest arc from the handlebar to the headtube.
Complete and ready to ride – with pedals and bottle cages – the bike weighs in at 15.4lbs. The beautiful paint was applied by Colorworks.
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English Cycles is Rob English, 
winner of Best in Show at the 2013 North American Handmade Bike Show. Custom bicycles built in Eugene, Oregon, USA since 2009.
Phenominal.
for me: one of the most beautiful bikes ever built! I like the “original skinny-bike” as well, but with the rear-brake behind the BB, one has a free look to the slim whish-bone…
Stunning bike. I have a steel road bike that is similar, and I really enjoy the flexy comfort of the frame. Could you build a skinny bike with big tire clearance (I ride gravel a lot)?
Hi Mark,
Absolutely, just working on a version for myself with 44mm tires :-
thanks,
Rob.
Was thinking REALLY wide, as in 50+ mm tires, or even 29×2.1 perhaps. I see a lot of bikes now that blur the lines of gravel and mountain and having the flexibility to run 700×40 or 29×2.1 really interests me.
Can design with that amount of flexibility if required. Personally I prefer to have bikes designed around a specific tire size so that the BB height, chainstay length and steering geometry can be optimised to that size. But it generally is only a minor compromise to design for a given range of tire sizes. Or a two-wheelset approach with the same outside diameters can be considered, such as 700×38 and 27.5*2.25.