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Great evening yesterday. Sorry to those I spoke to towards the end (after 4 pints).

General observations;

amazing paint jobs
less Mad Max craziness
several full sus mountain bikes
Chipps is shorter than I expected
I want the Swarf

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@tedjamesdesign winner of the @gritcx choice. #bespoked #bespoked2017

A post shared by theukhandmadebicycleshow (@bespokeduk) on Apr 8, 2017 at 12:30am PDT

Just L K at that headtube*!!!

*other nice detailing to be found elsewhere on frame

If I was going again this year, I’d try to get to some of the talks – missed them last year, and I think missed out on a lot of the value of the show.

They have one about ‘designing the perfect bicycle’, I see – which might help me appreciate the bikes on show a little bit more: that TJD looks lovely but, to be honest, I don’t fully understand why its headtube is better than any other headtube.

I don’t fully understand why its headtube is better than any other headtube.

Ted* doesn’t buy all of his frames components direct from a catalogue. Ted takes a piece of straight gauge tubing and machines it to whats required. In the case above its a beautifully tapered head tube to accept the chosen head set. Skinny steel frames & oversize head tubes & oversize forks can be tricky to aesthetically mate, his one above is seamless.

See this ESB – niche bike, custom machined bolt through drop outs, TJD fork etc, a lot of small custom details all brought together to make a great bike for its intended purpose.

You can buy head tubes, drop outs, BB shells etc direct from a catalogue, but if his customer wishes (& not all do) Ted will machine the item specifically for the frame build, which adds custom craftsman engineering to the build, a true on off. Won’t float all boats – but hey – its pretty cool.

Scroll through his Instagram to see more of what he does and why it adds to a custom frame. I love the bikes he’s built for his parents.

PS – theres not many places you can buy a 151.3mm head tube – but at TJD you can 😉

PPS: and he can shred on any given bike!

* other frame builders are available.

As a well known tailor said:

Good work. Nice to see something properly crafted getting respect rather than a collection of stock Paragon parts covered with fancy paint.

Yeah, I get all that.

The point I was trying to make, poorly, was how ignorant and unworthy I felt after my visit to Bespoked last year.

I stood staring at a green bike on the TJD stand for half an hour, and realised that I woulnd’t know where to start specifying a bike like that, given so much choice.

My point, here and elsewhere on the socials, is more to do with the awe in which I hold these builders and their customers who know bikes so well that they can specify them down to such fine details.

Me – I just look for ones that look good and go ‘I’ll have one of them’ (if and when I can afford it).

Hence my point about the talks – I love that the organisers are doing things to demystify the whole thing, and I’d love to go to some of them to better myself and my appreciation of bikes.

[video]http://vimeo.com/212374520[/video]

BTR Pinner was sweet. Just a shame Hope weren’t there with their handmade bike too

[video]http://vimeo.com/211693491[/video]

Dorset_Knob / Dirty Cogs – ha that was you chatting with Brant on Instagram then! 😀

The point I was trying to make, poorly, was how ignorant and unworthy I felt after my visit to Bespoked last year.

Don’t take it too seriously. Its only middle aged wo/men building & riding bikes. It’s not like they’re curing cancer. 😉

I stood staring at a green bike on the TJD stand for half an hour, and realised that I woulnd’t know where to start specifying a bike like that, given so much choice.

That’s mine. Here’s how it went for me:

Made for me, out of 853, by TJD

I’ve always been interested in the idea of a custom built frame. I live somewhere that suits a hardtail, have no plans to move, & 90% of my riding is from the doorstep. I also have a rather good bicycle frame builder down the road.

We moved to Stroud, Glos. in 2011, it takes a while to seek out the good local trails (buying a house & the ensuing DIY that went with it didn’t help), my Cove Handjob became a singlespeed and I cranked my way around the local hills, it took a while, but I eventually realized how limiting a SS is around here as it really narrows your route choice, nothings too long, but boy are some of them steep! With tired knees I lept into the world of 650b (and tubeless!!!) with an Orange Clockwork, which was a great bike, fitted well, but wasn’t quite slack enough for the downs, however its 120mm travel was all I wanted (I’d had 140mm LTHT before).

I’d been to see Ted some time before when I realized he was in Inchbrook (now Nympsfield), I’ll never forget it, I just “popped in”, with the wife, in February. Teds workshop is sunken, has a culvert running under it, is in a permafrost zone of the valleys, has no heating and is rather cold. This however did not dampen his passion & enthusiasm for showing us around his workshop & builds (I recall he had the stainless 953 retro lefty MTB in at the time) discussing pros & cons of various standards, digressing from the initial query before coming full circle back. After an hour or so of chatting, I was visibly shivering with the cold, so we made our excuses and left for the nearest source of warmth.

Move along a year or two, a little bit too much spare time at work one day, some doodling on a scrap of paper and an impromptu visit to his workshop… “I’d like a MTB build for local riding, what do you think of this…”, “yea, looks ok”…. and so it began. Having seen what he’s capable of I did specifically say that I didn’t want a “show bike” and hopefully keeping it simple would limit costs (so not 953 or Ti)…. However, I wanted a bike on the lighter side of things (I’m no jumper, but I do like a bit of technical down), suited for 2-6hr rides, and yea, I’ve always really liked those cast Ritchey socket dropouts…

We looked at my options, cost implications, tubing (how many variables are there here!!!). Ted machines a lot of his own parts for builds, mine received a Ted machined 631 head tube & T45 bottom bracket shell. He introduced me to BikeCad and I went away and spent the next few months, every evening, playing on BikeCad, mimicking that onto my Clockwork, trying it out on a ride, and became a slave to the numbers on the computer for far too long and was rather fixated / obsessed. One key piece of information I gained along the way, is that “if you change a detail somewhere to improve a build, it’ll make it worse somewhere else” – it all has a knock on effect, your action of change will have a consequence of making one characteristic better & another worse, in the end the key is striking the balance of your moon on a stick requirements & achieving compromise to suit your requirements.

I looked at the current trend for “long, low & slack” and I reckon this is my conservative interpretation of that, which I think suits me, for what I want to achieve in my local riding. I read (at the extreme end) about Chris Porters, Geometron, looked at what Whyte are doing with their 130mm 650b range, looked at Orange and their Clockwork v Crush, 5 etc, Last, Breadwinners – Bad Otis, BTR, Mondraker & a lot of other companies. There is so much to choose from out there, some companies are really pushing on the “norms” for MTB geometry and producing some great bikes. RIP 71/73 for trail riding.

I finally decided on what I wanted, pushed the boat out & opted for sanded fillet braze over TIG & a simple retro looking decal. With some final advice on the geometry from Ted to achieve some desired ride characteristics, I gave him the green light, and waited….

It’s amazing how we justify things. I paid for this by selling a lot of stuff on ebay, some overtime at work, trying to reduce the impact of my new bike frame on the family pantry (its ok, they got fed), opted for no presents at Christmas (I don’t need anything else! … ooh – but 11 speed and a wonky ring looks good…). Over winter, it’s what made me go out in the rain and ride some hill reps on the road, use my rollers, head out in the rain on my MTB, reduce my ale intake (unsuccessful). It all added to my justification of want.

Teds a busy man & seems to have many fingers in many pies & rides. I waited a bit, prompted him a little, and then he started doing whatever it is that frame builders do, presumably: measure a lot, cut, heat, bend, weld, sand. Colour choice was easy, “any colour”… I opted for RAL pure green (to match the underside of the leaves in the woods when I look up in summer). I’d come up with a simple graphic and the painter (Armourtex) did his stuff and turned my welded metal tubes into a very green machine.

Irony dealt its card, and my low (for a custom) budget (stretched), build was back from the sprayers the week prior to Bespoked. Ted asked if I’d mind if it was on his stand – how could I refuse! I had a week of night shifts to deal with, so between night shifts, my befuddled brain started assembling some parts, I actually spent over an hour looking for something I thought I’d dropped which wasn’t missing, and eventually, just in time for Bespoked the bike was built ready to go. The frame only went and won one of the three MTB awards allocated by Singletrack Magazine at Bespoked!

Having specified my own geometry, the first ride was full of anticipation; would it be what I wanted? will it fit? will it climb / descend as I want? I’ve had the bike 12 months now, its been thrashed round my local trails, I’ve ridden the Dyfi on it, ridden HOTS, Sam Houghton, Brecons, trail centres etc – so a nice mix of 2 – 5.5hr rides and is best summarised in my feedback to Ted as: “The bikes riding just how i wanted: fits perfectly, loving the stability & agility, 66′ HA & 40mm stem works a treat, has the exact balance i wanted of ability to loft the front wheel on the trail & still stay planted on steep climbs, very confidence inspiring going down, loves being worked when out of the saddle (i need to stand more!!!), fantastic, well pleased. Oval ring hocus pocus i like a lot, seems to suit my style of pedaling. It had me clear a tech loose slate climb on the Dyfi that everyone else was walking 🙂 I love the green!”

Some numbers for those interested: 853, 740, 725, 631, 605, 425, 394, 110, 74, 66, T45, 40.

Teds since borrowed some of those numbers and produced his own 27.5+ / 29, beefier, fluted, bolt through version for his own local gnarr riding and dipped it in copper.

That’s it for now, that muds seems to be hardpacked (I drafted this a good while back!!!) – I’m out…

My point, here and elsewhere on the socials, is more to do with the awe in which I hold these builders and their customers who know bikes so well that they can specify them down to such fine details.

God darn bike geeks the lot of them.

Me – I just look for ones that look good and go ‘I’ll have one of them’ (if and when I can afford it).

There’s a lot to be said for simplicity!

I wish Ted would answer my emails ….. Even just to say “not interested” ….. Hope this isn’t the case though 😆

I think he has a phone.

That’s a cool story qwerty, thanks for sharing.

In the end, I couldn’t think of a bike that would suit my needs better than a Drove, so ordered one of them instead. And I do love a Shand paintjob 🙂

Good write up Qwerty, thanks for sharing. I did ride with Ted a bit on last year HOTS. Nice guy to chat with.

In the end, I couldn’t think of a bike that would suit my needs better than a Drove

And that’s what its all about. The beauty of Bespoked is that it brings all that choice under one roof for a whole weekend of gawpage. Enjoy the Drove. 😀

Went yesterday to have a natter with some frame builders and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some absolutely amazing frames and the passion from some of the guys is brilliant. Will get my grey matter going over what frame I want in the near future. It’ll be a long term project but well worth it I’m sure.

Went in yesterday. Nice to see some more bikepacking brands out there. As previously more of a roadie focus, still nice to see the shand stand, Chris King there having a chat with everyone at his stand, and the BTR and Curtis full sussers were stunning. Interesting carbon full sussers from Yorkshire (Carbon Wasp?) although personally not to my taste.

Prices not so far away from reality, although having watched a chap ride stuff on an 80mm hardtail that I couldn’t manage on my rocket, my money is going to be spent on more riding and skills at the moment!

Was there Friday, really enjoyed it. Chatting to the builders was nice. Was impressed by Moss Bikes, a teacher who is balancing a frame business with passing on skills to his students

I also liked the ColourBolt bikes, kind of almost an ‘Anti-custom’ custom bike. Black in a Spinal Tap kind of way.

Had a good chat with Craig Calfee this afternoon. Apart from that some very pretty bikes on display.

I didn’t go this year, the weather was too nice on Friday (so i rode), & i worked the weekend. Been digging around for images… I love this guys creations:

it’s very

his obsessive attention to detail is mind blowing.

I reckon that the show was better this year than last, with more variety of exhibitors. Las year seemed to be 95% fast road bikes; this year there were a few more MTBs, a couple of fatties and lots of gravel/CX+ / road bikies with fatter tyres.
There was beauty and engineeering skill in excess. And I don’t just mean SON’s CEO’s daughter.
I particularly liked Snowdon’s flat-barred roadbike, and Mercredi’s Belgian crossers.

When I was there I kept finding myself hoping to see Enid from Overbury’s – but she would probably have been too busy.

I went today, another great show and really enjoyed it (again). Loved the paint, amazing detail and tech in a shed approach from some of the builders / crafts people on show.
But depressing lack of mtb again – I guess we don’t like to spend the ££ like the roady lot do….
Also not one bamboo bike this year (even with calfee at the show)…

Also managed to get a few laps around Ashton court on the fat bike after. Not been in a couple of years and got some PB’s but it’s more worn them ever.

Also not one bamboo bike this year

Strangely as we arrived on Friday a (Chinese?) lady was being escorted to the door while carrying a bamboo frame. No idea what that was about.

This show is bad for your credit card.

I am trying, unsuccessfully so far, to devise a long-term strategy which would make it seem reasonable to my wife for me to start talking to TJD about my next bike, even though I am still paying for my last new bike…

A BMX-y mountain bike, a lot like qwerty’s green one I suppose, but finished in black chrome (like an old Super Goose).

Hmmmm.

The French company….. Cytect?? Carbon Integrated fork/mudguard/front light/front rack was amazing and beautiful

Qwerty – I saw your bike last year. Excellent to know the build story behind it….very nice bike.