Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

I Dream Of Genie: SingleBe Aladdin 29er

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that under the flashy paint there is a bicycle frame that’s made entirely by hand. But the Czech builder Tom Kutin of SingleBe is a true craftsman who takes great pride in both his steel frames and the painting of them.

The customer of this SingleBe is most definitely a fan of Tom’s work: this is his third from the Choceň workshop. They were all designed for different purposes and this one was created for his participation in the 2017 Marathon MTB World Championships.

Tom built the frame’s main triangle from Reynolds 853 with Dedacciai ZeroEvo stays, which allowed him to mount the rear brake caliper directly onto the chainstay. The geometry is based on his Fluoflage SingleBe frame, tweaked for use on 12/24 hour races.

As you’d expect from a world-class European racer, it’s dripping with exotic and expensive components, like the Piccola brakes by Trickstuff, a specialist manufacturer based in Freiburg, at the base of the legendary Rosskopf, Schauinsland and Kandel trails.

The Piccola hydraulic disc brakes weigh in at 158 grams — claimed to be the lightest in the world, and they have been created without any loss of either function or aesthetics. They really are a thing to behold — if you fancy well-crafted CNC machining.

Tom’s customer is also the founder of Steelist, makers of exquisitely-machined cranks, and he provided the rear axle. The paint job is just as crafted: in total, it took 24 hours to apply. The gold base layer was applied first, then another three colors in fluid gradients.

SRAM’s Eagle groupset was installed, along with Vittoria’s Reaxcion SL wheelset, a 13-gram Trickstuff top cap, an SR Suntour Axon Werx Carbon fork, Aladdin handlebars and an Absolute Black 34T chainring. The final weight? A measly 9.5kg with pedals.

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