Even today, after a couple of hundred years, the bicycle keeps evolving. Frame materials have changed, factors such as economics and fashion also exert their influence, then governing bodies like the UCI change the rules regarding equipment which inevitably filter down through the market. Cyclocross bikes and have risen sharply in popularity, due in no small part to the excitement of the sport, but also their versatility as all-rounder adventure machines.

Now the UCI has relaxed their disapproval of disc brakes on ‘crossers, we, the everyday cyclist, have increased access to the technology. The Asylum Meuse is a new carbon cross bike that fully integrates the power and reliability of disc brakes and is currently being funded on CrowdSupply, as a full-carbon, disc-only ‘cross bike. Portland’s Patrick Croasdile is the Product Manager for Asylum, which has happily reached the funding goal.

Over the course of the project, which finishes on the 18th of May, the Meuse has been offered in various configurations at a special price of $895 for a frame only and $1,595 for the complete single speed, as seen here. The Meuse, named after the Belgian river, features a PF30 bottom bracket, allowing the use of a Problem Solvers Eccentric unit for single speed conversion. The cockpit is built around a tapered head tube with a carbon Columbus fork.

Check out the full details on the Asylum CrowdSupply page where you can still secure a Meuse for the discounted price.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

2013, so far, has been a year of great contrasts, and it’s no different here on Cycle EXIF. One day you’re seeing an obscure Spanish brand of road racer favored by Miguel Indurain and the next you’ll see the latest carbon fiber 29er MTB from Bianchi. Sure, the frame was built in the Far East but when it comes to a custom build, there’s none more exacting than a champion marathon mountainbiker.

Mike Blewitt has raced mountain bikes for much of his 31 year-old life and is the team manager of the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team. This is one of their bikes, a Bianchi Methanol 29FS, assembled with personally selected parts that meet Mike’s high standards. While Bianchi may no longer manufacture their bikes in Milan, but the design and technology lying within this frame is still reparto corse.

A specialist in MTB stage races, Mike is aware of the latest and lightest technology available to the professional off-road endurance cyclist. For gear and Q factor options, he built his 29FS frame with a Cannondale crank set and outfitted the cockpit with carbon bars and accessories by Ant White’s Mount Zoom. Powered by a suite of Shimano XTR, a pair of ENVE rims were laced to Kappius hubs—featuring an astounding 240 points of engagement.

Find out more about the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team here.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Many artists achieve greatness after they die, but Barry Sheene was revered for his legend status well before he was taken, sadly, by cancer, in 2003. His antics on, and off, the track are still fondly thought of by those of us who remember them and if he were still alive, he’d definitely have a chuckle at a certain bike in the New Builder’s Room at the 2013 Bespoked Bristol show.

The UK Handmade Bicycle Show, Bespoked Bristol, profiled several new builders this year, one of them being Ped Baker, a writer for the UK publication and website, Motorcycle News. Ped is bike mad. We’ve seen another of his frames on Cycle EXIF, built under the tutelage of Dave Bohm’s frame building school in Arizona. His latest project pays homage to Barry Sheene and his Suzuki RG500.

Ped fillet brazed the main triangle from Reynolds 853, then used Columbus Zona for the seat and chain stays. The custom fork, built from Reynolds chain stay tubes, is designed to mimic a motorcycle’s triple clamp fork and achieves similar geometry to a standard gravel grinder, despite the looks. Two brass rings on the top tube represent Barry’s world championship wins in ’76 and ’77.

The number 7, carved out of the bottom bracket shell, is synonymous with Barry, who raced with it over his whole career—even when he won the world champs (riders were expected to replace it with the number 1). His team, Heron Suzuki, along with the partners of Brut 33 (the smell of the seventies), Texaco, and Champion, inspired the paint, expertly applied by Hydrographics in York.

If you’re wondering about the duck on the stem, Barry wore it on his helmet for most of his career as a summary of his Cockney ambivalence, often quoted as saying, “I don’t give a Donald Duck…” Ped intends to build more ‘Pushbikes for Petrolheads’, so bookmark his website. I’m sure we’ll see more from him soon. Special thanks to Ian Jubb for the photos.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

There’s few parts of the United States that better conjure up images of the Wild West than Arizona and, in particular, Tucson. The cactus of Saguaro National Park, the Santa Catalina Mountains and its lions, even the boneyard of the Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, are icons of both ancient and modern America. The bikes built in Tucson by Ron Stanage and his Hex American Cycle Works are equally essential parts of the landscape.

One of the most striking features about Ron’s bikes are the head badges. “So far every bike I’ve done has had its own completely unique head badge. This is all thanks to Ed Foster at La Suprema. He decided to hand make me a batch of head badges that were all different so that I could chose one for every bike I make. This particular one is copper with a cloisonne white enamel inlay. The ‘H’ is the same font as my logo (or close to it… it’s changed a few times), and simply stands for ‘HEX’.”

This is the second frame of Ron’s to be featured on Cycle EXIF and is equally individual. “Its a cross bike that I made for myself when I was in the middle of having an extreme case of city-itis,” Ron tells us. “Day after day I was dreaming of riding through dusty, desolate patches of the Arizona wilderness with little more than my rifle and a good sci-fi book. I really needed an escape from my day job so I decided to manufacture a means for adventure.”

“The frame is a blend of True Temper and Columbus tubing. I’m a real fan of True Temper and I really like Hank and Monika at Henry James. They’ve always got some story to tell you. If you’re not careful you end up on the phone with them for an hour. The main triangle is a blend of OXPLAT and S3 tubing, the rear triangle is Columbus ZONA. When you use a Richard Sachs BB shell you’re kind of limited to Columbus tubing since its the only thing that seems to fit in the sockets somewhat easily.”

When I asked Ron if he really went riding with a rifle, he thankfully replied in the negative, but he did say he’d bring one along if he went on a long tour through the mountains by himself, both for peace of mind and “to see what kind of small game he could scare up”. Quite an appropriate accessory for the region. It did make me look at his ‘crosser again, which seemed to want to rear up and fire off a round even while standing still.

Yes, it’s got dust and grime on it, but that’s because Ron loves riding it. As yet, he hasn’t got a website, but you can reach him via email. Special thanks to Ed Foster for the photography and Preston, Ed’s new apprentice. From the sounds of things, we’ll be seeing more custom frames from Tucson in the future.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

The 2013 Bespoked Bristol Show has finished for another year, after profiling a varied range of exhibitors intrinsic to the UK scene. There were some well-placed bets on a few of the award winners, while others were pleasant surprises, especially the award given for Best Off Road: a heavily modified version of Shand Cycles‘ ‘all-road’ bike, the Stoater.

There’s plenty of terrain to be explored by bicycle in Scotland, home to Steven Shand, his business partner Russell Stout and some of the world’s most rugged and breathtaking landscape. Steven started Shand Cycles in 2003 and was joined by Russell in 2011—as much to help with the business as to get him away from a strong interest in fell running.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a stoater can mean “Anything that is exceptional in quality, or a person who is a bit of a fool or a chancer”. An apt title for Shand’s all-roader. Built from Reynolds 853, it’s a capable machine built with serious bike packing in mind. It’s offered as a production model, but this one features a 73mm bottom bracket shell and clearance for 2.2″ tires.

With increasing interest in bikes that can handle tarmac and fire roads equally well, it’s no wonder the Stoater was smiled upon by the judges. See more of their bikes from the Bespoked show on the Shand Cycles flickr stream, and you can contact Steven and Russell via their website. Special thanks to Gold Seal Photography for the shots.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

About two hours ride south of Sydney stands the Illawarra Escarpment, a dramatic series of cliffs that rise up from the coast, extends about one hundred kilometers south and reaches heights of almost 800 meters above the sea. It’s home to Tarn Mott and Primate Frames, who built this burly rig to blast the single trail that traces through its hills.

Tarn is a burly man himself, an adventurous frame builder who doesn’t baulk at any challenge, whether the order is for a BMX, cargo bike, kick scooter, folding bike or tandem. I recently had the pleasure of riding the Mistral, a stainless steel road frame he built for McLennan Cycles—a highly refined ride, yet I also felt like I could chop a mountain in two with it.

The All-Mountain bounces on a usable 6″ of travel, runs an Alfine internal rear hub and sports a handmade, high flange front hub that’s a robust match to the frame. A clear coated finish reveals Tarn’s engineering skill and his forté: producing bomb proof frames of all shapes and sizes that can take everything you, or the terrain, can dish out. I can vouch for that: he made my wedding ring.

Contact Tarn through the Primate Frames website.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Is there anything more appealing to the eye than a well-crafted titanium frame? Moots have been assembling frames from American-made tubes of ti, all with those perfectly spaced beads of filler, since 1981. A Moots frame is a work of art in itself, but this Psychlo X has been embellished by Justin Bauer, an LA-based artist whose work makes the MOOTS look even faster standing still.

Justin’s good mate Steven Ocheltree owns this Moots, built up with a heady mix of Campagnolo 10-speed Record and Chorus, Tune, Thomson and ENVE. The Alpha-Q forks were handed to Justin for a bit of aftermarket artwork. Justin tells us about his process: “I work mainly on canvas. My work is often an exploration of motion and inertia centered around some stable concrete shapes.

“Since I ride though, it seemed a worthy experiment to paint on the 360 of a bike fork and see how that motion would translate to something that is used for motion. Steve was finishing up his bike so I got hold of his fork and went to town. The result of painting on a practical everyday rider could end up a little over-the-top so I painted some wild strokes in two simple colors, black and mint green.

“These primaries feature on my canvasses and they still come off as tough and aggressive on the bike. I’m now working on a more conceptual series using crashed car fenders, motorcycle tanks, bike forks etc. Often an artist will simply translate work done on a canvas directly to these parts. I’m more interested in reacting to these pieces as destroyed products and working with what’s already there.

“I’d like to explore what nature has to say about it. We all crash at some point, most of us that do usually use that point as a landmark about the mystical relationship we’ve built with our machine of choice. It’s that confrontation that I want to paint about.”

Have a look through Justin’s portfolio and his tumblr, then come back to the forks he painted for Steve—they’ll really come alive. Special thanks to Steve, Justin and especially Kyle from Golden Saddle Cyclery for the awesome photography.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

One drawback about downhill bikes is that going down hill is all they were designed to do. That’s all very well, but when it comes to the majority of terrain, if there’s not a shuttle service nearby, there’s inevitably going to be an uphill at the end. This reality has given birth to a new genre of ‘all mountain’ bikes, which can climb as well as they can descend. Enter the Nukeproof Mega AM.

Paul Petch is the photographer and creative director at Outdoor Photography, based in Auckland, New Zealand. There’s plenty of trails and breathtaking scenery to be enjoyed aboard a mountain bike in NZ, so having a versatile machine is a necessity. The Mega AM boasts 160mm of rear wheel travel, just right for both all-day enduros or technical descents.

Paul talks us through his decision to invest in the Mega: “After toying with lighter all mountain builds I decided it was time for a fun bike that could handle shuttling in Queenstown one weekend and then flowing in Rotorua the next. With a coil fork, which is a first for me in the 20+ years I’ve ridden a bike, it is one huge smile inducing ride!”

“Running 9 speed suits this bike just fine as it’s for riding down more than up—and it nails it! What makes it ride so well with a 170mm fork is the clever geometry and a longer wheel base for super stable riding.”

“The build kit is leaning on the sensible side too, with the wheel set, brake caliper, seat and dropper being transferred from my last ride. Of course there is some bling here and there with King and Hope components. With 180mm rotors, this thing rides like its stolen.”

Big thanks to Paul for the story and photos—check out his website for more Outdoor Photography.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

The 29er vs 26er continues to simmer over a medium heat, but it’s fairly obvious there’s more acceptance of the larger wheel size. Colorado’s Niner Bikes have been at the forefront of the 29er market since 2005, mainly because of founder Chris Sugai’s colossal passion for the big wheel bikes, but also because of Niner’s fresh business approach.

Chris makes sure every Niner employee is an ‘A-player’—hired, after three or four interviews, for a love for the brand and bikes that can match his. The bikes are virtually produced in the cloud: starting off as a Google Doc, brainstormed from chatrooms with customers into spreadsheets, designed with Solidworks 3D and tested with Catia 3D.

Niner riders are so enthusiastic about their brand, they’re referred to as ‘Ninerds’. Matthew Mead is an awesome wedding photographer, based in Sydney, who recently built himself up a Jet 9 RDO. These are extremely versatile frames: “I can drop the suspension down to 100mm,” Matt tells us, “add some air in the rear shock and do a 100km XC race on it, or I can put on some beefy tires, run the fork at 120mm, soften it up and bomb down Mt Stromlo with a big smile on my face.”

“I’m caught up in the hype now. To me, medium travel carbon dually 29ers are the way of the future. Especially this frame, it’s got everything you need! 12mm axle, all carbon with internal cabling (which will be more awesome when Di2 comes around for MTB).”

Even Specialized, who dismissed 29ers as a passing trend, now offer their legendary Stumpjumper exclusively with the larger format wheels. The medium travel frames tick a lot of boxes for a lot of riders and Niner Bikes have a special ingredient: a special mix of quality, good design and passion.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

La Stazione delle Biciclette is a small, but well-stocked bike shop in Milan that, despite its size, is driven by a great passion for cycling. Apart from the usual spare parts, accessories, service and sales, they offer tourist guides and bike hire, urban planning consultancy and a velo-library. They recently built up Maggie666, a sleek cyclocross bike for a photographer, Stefano Maggi.

Stefano is an incredibly talented wedding photographer with an exacting eye for details. He also rides a Specialized MTB and a KTM enduro motorbike. He explains his need for a new bicycle from a photographer’s perspective: “Why a new bike? Because every means of transportation—car, plane, motorcycle, bicycle—has its own charm and allows me to see the world from a different angle.”

Maggie666 is titled after his nickname and is constructed from the Nivacrom-based Columbus Zona with a Salsa fork and a Shimano 105 groupset. His rig is hauled up by Avid BB7 brakes, turns on a Chris King headset and is topped with an always-handsome Brooks saddle. Sure, it’s a good looking ride but Stefano’s shots really show it off in a new light.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

A few years ago, Freemans Sporting Club, all-American-made clothier and providore, and the sadly-defunct Freeman Transport collaborated on a ‘townie’ that raised the ire of both fashionistas and velo-spotters alike. Like most things, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it did, however, provide the inspiration for a completely different interpretation of bicycle: Albert Ocampo’s FIT Bike Co. WIFI.

Albert saw, like many others, the beauty behind the Freeman project’s US$1,910 price tag but didn’t agree with paying such a price for the handmade aesthetic. So when he moved to LA and was contemplating how to best kit out his new FIT WIFI frame, he decided to add his own ‘freehand’. The result was a clean cut, metal ride with a personal touch.

The Gloss Clear WIFI does a good job of showing off the high temperatures used to create a frame from raw steel tubes. Albert selected complementary parts: a polished S&M stem, chrome Primo bars, Fit cranks, a pewter Mosh Digital 2 sprocket and a superb LEH SPLY & MFG saddle. The finishing touch is Albert’s own hand-painted insignia on the head tube. Big thanks to Alberto for the story.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

There’s a little bike shop in Shibuya, Tokyo, called Blue Lug, who never cease to amaze with me the eclectic combinations of color and styles they apply to their bikes. You’ll find them in both subtle and multi-colored schemes but never without a respectful nod to tradition. They’ve just released a production frame, the Fairweather CX, created in association with Toyo Frame.

The Fairweather is a versatile, multi-butted chromoly frame that can be dressed in any number of combinations, already evidenced by Blue Lug’s flicker set. We can see a navy blue townie, a traditionnel cork-gripped and Brooks-saddled pink tourer, and an eye-searingly colorful ‘crosser. With both horizontal dropouts and a mech hanger, the frame caters for either single speed or geared configurations and the rear 132.5mm spacing means both road and MTB hubs can be used.

Here’s another ‘cross bike, built up with Shimano’s 105 components, which are just as reliable as they were when first released. The White Industries hubs, cranks and chain rings will stand up to a vast amount of abuse, fitted alongside Paul Components and Thomson hardware. The handmade stems are supplied by Nitto and there’s even an expandable saddlebag available.

The deal includes the straight-blade fork. A completely custom paint job by Cook Paint Works requires an additional charge (a vast array of 80s inspired finishes is available), but a solid color is included in the price of ¥63,000. The frames come in small, medium and large and to top it all off, you can choose one of three different brass head badges and decal designs. The Fairweather is sold in-store only, but you can read more about the brand on the Fairweather website.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Road riding, or racing, is all very well. But for me, there’s nothing more satisfying than watching a bicycle getting really worked; whether it’s fixed freestyle, flatland BMX or 26″ street riders destroying the urban environment. When it comes to the latter, the Blackmarket Edit1 is the perfect weapon.

This one is owned by a Blackmarket team rider from Sheffield by the name of Matt Jamieson. Matt is just at home blasting trails as he is in the skate park or carving lines down the high street. After years of having to chop the mounts from his frames, he’s finally happy with the brakeless frame.

The Edit1 consists of Blackmarket’s Black Lite Heat Treated Chromoly tubeset by True Temper, American designed and handmade in Orange County CA. There’s some nice details: laser cut 1″ dropouts and bridges, CNC’d integrated head tube / BB and externally double butted seat tube.

If you’re wondering about the piece of leather lace on the front wheel, well, Matt’s had the same piece on nearly all of his bikes. One of those funny superstitions that haunt a lot of cyclists. Special thanks to Richard Baybutt for the shots, another Sheffield local and Corpses From Hell photographer.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

One of the biggest stories to emerge from the 2013 North American Handmade Bicycle Show was the new collaboration between two of Portland’s most renowned custom builders, Ira Ryan and Tony Pereira. Ira and Tony have joined together to form Breadwinner Cycles: six models of the most essential and beautiful bicycles you’ll ever want or need.

There were six bikes presented at the NAHBS: the JB Racer (a 29er inspired by Tony’s great mountain biking friend, Jeff Bates, who was, sadly, taken by cancer), the Hole Shot (a champion cyclocrosser), the Continental (based on Ira and Tony’s experience with building frames for Rapha), Aufderheide (the ultimate tourer), Arbor Lodge (the perfect Portlander) and the Lolo (the modern club racer).

Tony and Ira share 15 years of frame building experience between them, producing elegant, sturdy and award-winning frames. They’re both hard cyclists, having covered thousands of miles on—and off—road. Each of the bikes by Breadwinner Cycles represent a genre in which they both have extensive experience riding and building frames for.

Lolo

Arbor Lodge

Aufderheide

Continental

Hole Shot

JB Racer

All of the bikes are showcased on the slick and functional Breadwinner Cycles website, but their true background is that each are built by two of Portland’s most dedicated builders. Whatever the path you choose to ride, there’s a Breadwinner built for you. Frames start at $1,795 and ship in eight weeks or less. You can also follow along on the Breadwinner tumblr, Facebook page, twitter and Instagram.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

By contributor David Rangel.

NAHBS is the ultimate bike porn showcase. Leave Interbike to the retailers; Sea Otter is for the racers. But the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is for the craftsman and innovators that forge the business from the ground up, not the lab down. Walking around the show floor it’s easy to spend three days and still not see every detail. Some bikes, however, jump out into the aisle, grab you and shake you around before you can move on. Usually those bikes are built by Erik Noren, of Peacock Groove.

More properly, I should say Erik Noren IS Peacock Groove. As the sole builder, fabricator, idea man, and sales department he is the epitome of the one-man band. Always ready to talk bikes or life or philosophy, he’s one of the highlights of the show for me. And his bikes always bring the bling. He’s been criticized for prizing fashion over function, but anyone who can see past the large-glitter candy coat can see that the pipes under the flashy paint are joined well and well thought out.

Details are the highlights of Peacock Groove, and the ‘Lunch Box’ bike in the booth this year did not disappoint. Erik deliberately refused to put pedals on it at the show for fear that someone would not be able to resist and ride it around the Denver snow. The Voltron Force track bike might have gotten a little more press, but I wanted to document, and get the story behind, the Lunch Box instead.

From Erik: “The Lunch Box bike came about after a talk with the Handsome guys after I swindled a coaster brake hub from them. They asked me what was I gonna do with it. I squealed and said “FAT TIRE COASTER BRAKE BIKE!!”

“I wanted all along a bike that could be ridden by just about anyone in the shop for small lunch runs, beer pick ups, runs over to the machinist, to the post office, or just to the closest garage sale. I didn’t want to have to pedal on clip-less on my normal shoes. Platforms was the way! I just wanted something with platforms that was still cool, ride-able anytime by anyone, and that was a monster to see. So it just popped into my head: LUNCH BOX!! I wanted to do a bike that was a throwback to 60′s choppers and Rat Fink it out. I had never seen that done on a bike, so why not? A fat-bike with a coaster brake and crazy paint, with a ‘lunchbox’ rack to put your goods in.

Pure fun and style. That’s all Lunch Box is to me.”

On top of all that Eric Baar from Ground Up Speed Shop hand striped the frame on Saturday at the show, making it impossible not to take photos of it.

Erik Noren is notoriously lax when it comes to online presence. His bikes speak for themselves and his website is seldom updated. But trust me, it’s not for any reason other than he’s too busy building bikes and thinking up the next crazy idea to turn into a workable, sensible (albeit sometimes disco) two-wheeled transportation machine. Contact him via Facebook or email, to get questions answered. Or just send him some money for a bike and let the magic happen.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.