Interview: Ted James Designs

I always enjoy chatting with Ted about his bikes. For one, it’s a bit like listening to Tom Waits or Iggy Pop – there’s more gravel in his voice than Kansas. But the other thing I love is that Ted makes everything. He’s not joining together pre-made head tubes and BB shells – he’s making this stuff from scratch. It’s always worth a chat to hear about the work that’s gone in behind the scenes – this year’s bikes at Bespoked, Manchester, were no different.

Unique content like this takes time to create, and would normally be paywalled. But we’d like to support the independent builders and makers behind these bikes, and Bespoked. So you’re getting to read this for free. If you enjoy it, please consider joining us, and supporting what we do.

Okay, so both the bikes here are things you’ve built for customers, they’re not ‘show bikes’ for the show?

Yeah, I’ve brought customers’ bikes that have been shredded! They’ve still got a bit of mud on some of them in places. So yeah, these are bikes for customers that have been ridden pretty hard.

The first one we’re looking at here is a Pinion Hardtail. What was the demand from the customer for this one? What were they requesting?

He requested a lot!

They always do!

They do, yeah, but it started out as a bike for some bike packing and long distance stuff and it kind of changed as time went on. Then he just wanted it to do all the kind of riding he normally does, which is winching up steep stuff and hooning it down narrow technical gnarly tracks.

That’s definitely not bike packing!

Very different! But he was just riding a coastal path in Cornwall a couple of days ago and he had the bags strapped all over it and he had his big dog with him. The dog had panniers on as well! So he does a bit of everything on it really. He’s had it out in Italy in the mountains there and he’s going away again soon to the Alps.

So when did you build this one?

I think it was only about six months ago this one was finished. I’ve got one half built for myself as well which I’ll try and find some time to get on to.

Can you remember the geometry numbers on this particular one, how it ended up?

I don’t know if I can remember all the numbers but it’s a really steep seat angle like 67 degrees I think, which for me seems ridiculously steep.

He’s got the saddle slammed forward as well.

Yeah and it’s a Brooks saddle which sits further forwards than most. Paul Components make an extra special layback post specifically for saddles like that, but he wants it super forwards – and that’s what you want for winching up steep stuff. And then you’ve got a dropper post for when you don’t need the seat. It’s not great on the flat, I wouldn’t have thought. Then a slack head angle, I think it was 64 degrees on that.

The wheelbase is 200 millimeters longer than my Grinduro bike and he’s not as tall as me, so it’s a long bike, but that’s what he wanted for stability. And obviously with the seat really forwards you can then push the bars further forwards to have the same reach, and you’ve got a longer wheelbase there. But the main thing about this bike is the Pinion gearbox making it super durable for riding in all kinds of weather, not needing to clean it, not having derailleurs to smash, and having a really good range of gears and very good low gears for winching it up steep stuff – not ever having to get off.

Have you made a bunch of Pinion bikes before?

This is the first Pinion bike I’ve made.

Were there any particular challenges in kind of figuring out that for the frame?

There’s a lot of challenges in figuring out for the Pinion, especially because what both the customer and myself wanted with this was to not have a sliding dropout ideally, and keeping it as solid as possible and simple for little to go wrong. Also to have a lot of mud clearance, which if you’ve got conventional chainstays with a Pinion it can be quite hard to get good mud clearance, so we wanted the elevated chainstay style, which gives masses of mud and tyre clearance there and helps to get the shorter rear end. I’ve used these adjustable plates so you can swivel the gearbox to tension the chain. So then it’s working out a good mounting system that’s strong enough, stiff enough and not too heavy – that’s a lot of challenges there going on, because some of the Pinion mounting can be really heavy.

I’m really pleased with the way that it’s worked out and I’m really interested to do it in some other materials as well. I’m looking to do a titanium version to get the weight down in the frame, and stiffen up the dropout area a bit, and then it gives the option of running a belt drive. You’ve got all the clearance and you don’t have to have a splitter in the chainstay because it doesn’t wrap around the stay – the stay is above the drive.

If they’ve covered all that ground in the six months of having it they must be pretty happy with it as well, so shall we walk down the other end of the hall and look at the other bike?

Yeah.

Okay so, hang on… is this the ‘Ti Bride’?

It is the Ti Bride.

Yeah I’m not sure how I feel about that… So we have seen this bike in the pages of Singletrack before but tell us about it again anyway.

So this bike is a full-on downhill bike but single speed so that it’s very solid, rides like a big BMX, little to go wrong. And titanium so it’s not going to chip up, it’s always going to look look fresh – except it’s covered in mud! It’s still a bit filthy but the frame still looks good.

And if the customer has a change of heart could could they fit gears onto this or would they have to come back to you for some remodelling?

Yeah if you wanted to put gears on it definitely needs some some changes made. I guess you could quite easily just whack on a mech hanger and derailleur gears still with the with two chains, or I could cut out the whole bottom bracket and put in a Pinion gearbox like the other bike!

You’re quite keen on Pinion gearboxes now then?

I am. I’ve got one waiting sitting on the shelf it’s been there for two years waiting for my own Pinion bike. I was hoping to build a full suspension bike with it, with a high pivot like this with two chains – that was the plan for me. But it’s not happened and I’ve now got half a hardtail sitting there on the shelf for me to finish.

Are there just too many customers?

Well, yeah customers’ bikes tend to come first!

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about either this bike or anything else that you’re up to?

Well, there’s a lot I could tell you about this bike if you want to hear about it?

Go on, keep going then!

So we’ve got BMX cranks. The customer wanted BMX cranks and he’d got profile hubs, so it’s like a big BMX. We needed a chain tensioner for the first chain from the cranks up to the the double cog, so we’ve got an eccentric bottom bracket to tension the first chain, and then I made a horizontal sliding rear dropout to tension the rear chain. So you’ve got adjusters here to push back the sliding disc mount, and then the drive side nuts that the bolt-through axle bolts into, so you can tension the chain up. And then these plates lock into place ,and then you can leave them in place if you drop the wheel out. When you put the wheel back in, then your disc position and your chain tension is is left set up. I designed all them and made every little piece of that – and the eccentric bottom bracket, and the pivot, and this spider to hold the double cogs on the front here . So there’s a lot of work involved in trying to make a bike that’s super simple!

Do you make your own head badges?

Yes. This head badge I’ve made with aluminium and acid etched it with a vinyl – dip it in some gnarly acid that creates some horrible gas that’s probably toxic, and you get that relief.

Anything else you want to tell us about?

I make my own head tubes. So this one’s got integrated angular contact bearings and I machined each piece that press fits into the tube and then welds in. Yeah, I made every part of this bike! I made the axle for the pivot, made these cups to hold the bearings. We’ve got the same as the Spanish BMX bottom bracket bearings – double bearings on each side for the pivot because obviously it takes a massive load through a single pivot there with long stays. I’ve made the bottom bracket shell and the internals for the eccentric, because we’ve got a BMX press fit bottom bracket in the internals there. I made the cranks as well, they’re using Reynolds 853 tubing – it was an off-cut from 29er fork leg that I used for the for the arms of them – and it’s all super thick wall titanium, so it’s not a lightweight frame but super strong.

What have you got planned for the year ahead?

I’m pretty stacked up with orders actually to get through. All different kinds of bikes! There was a mini velo, a 20 inch wheel touring bike I was hoping to have here – didn’t quite make it – stainless steel. I’ve got some titanium gravel bikes, some BMX’s. I’ve just done full suspension BMX’s. I might have some more of them to do. I’m making surfboards now as well, I’ve got a few orders of surfboards to make. So yeah next year is looking pretty full on just getting through the custom orders!

Good I’m glad you’re busy! Thank you very much.

Unique content like this takes time to create, and would normally be paywalled. But we’d like to support the independent builders and makers behind these bikes, and Bespoked. So you’re getting to read this for free. If you enjoy it, please consider joining us, and supporting what we do.

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