Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

East Sussex metal: Enigma Echo Ti by Skunkworks Bikes

Enigma Echo Ti

There’s no conundrum here: East Sussex’s Enigma offers a world-class titanium frame building service that’s 100% made in the UK, from bike fitting to construction to paint. The Echo Ti is one of their most popular models and this example was destined for the eastern beaches of Sydney.

enigma-echo-ti-2

Bondi’s Skunkworks Bikes have been working around the clock for the past year, building up some of the world’s best frames with the highest quality components for some of Sydney’s most passionate riders. While this frame was sourced via Ashfield Cycles, Zak at Skunkworks Bikes performed the final build.

Enigma Echo Ti

Zak’s customer is getting back into road riding, and the Echo Ti was an attractive option, coming in at around £2,599.00 for the frame — about AU$3,500 with an ENVE fork, which has since had the glaring logos blacked out by Tristan Tucker, the Carbon Bike Doctor, based in Mona Vale, for a more stealthy look.

Enigma Echo Ti

Enigma is a family business, founded by Jim Walker in 2005 and based in Westham, East Sussex, after he sold his successful distribution business. Jim’s son, Joe, is the titanium frame builder, while Matt Walker runs the day-to-day operations and Jim’s wife, Christine, is the Minister of Finance.

Enigma Echo Ti

They’re joined by a gang of machinists, engineers, painters and builders, and together their focus is the whole customer experience. Geoff Roberts is the teacher, trained from a young age by his father, the famous Charlie Roberts.

Enigma Echo Ti

Zak built up the Echo Ti with a top-shelf parts list: Campagnolo‘s 2015 Chorus gruppo forms the basis of the spec sheet, along with 3T LTD Stealth bars, a 3T Team Stealth stem, and King bidon cages. They dress up Enigma’s superb engineering well: not a bad way of rediscovering the joys of road riding.

Enigma Echo Ti

The wheels are a Skunkworks special, built by Zak to his perfectly precise standards, from a pair of Curve Cycling CC38s rims and two Extralite hubs — the rear weighs just 134 grams. For those who appreciate extra-light bikes, the complete bike weighs just 6.9 kilograms, with cages and pedals.

Enigma Bicycleworks Website | Facebook | Instagram

Special thanks to Terence Chin for the photography.

Enigma Echo Ti