The Walker Hour Bike
I won’t hold liking cats against you, but if you don’t like dogs, you’re dead to me. Some things aren’t left to opinions, like whether Star Wars is good or not. You’re free to be an outlier – and I loves me some outliers and I loves me a rebel – but in some cases, being an outlier doesn’t make you clever. It just makes you wrong. Also, the Laws of Physics show that the more lightsabers you have in a movie, the better the movie. Except for Episode I and The Matrix, two anomalies which balance each other out.
Similarly, loving carbon bikes is no crime. They are light, they are stiff, and many (most) are beautiful. My stable is filled with them. But a bike handbuilt by an artisan in a small workshop is something different altogether, and each one’s singular beauty is not a matter of opinion, unless you’re comfortable being wrong. I only have one so far, and it’s the custom steel I had made by NAHBS founder, Don Walker for my failed Hour ride last summer. (I’m planning a rematch with Weather this coming June.)
At this point every bike I own is custom, if only the paintwork. But even then, having a hand in how the bike is finished bonds you to the machine in a way that off-the-peg bikes simply can’t. And my Walker, even though I don’t ride it as much as a practical bike (you know, one with gears and brakes) every time I climb on it, I can feel its magic. There is something about custom in general and steel in particular that feels uniquely magnificent.
We’re in a crisis, my fellow Velominati. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show is only a few weeks away and I just heard from Don that many of the builders who have been stalwarts of the event are struggling to the point that they can’t afford to attend, much less keep a booth there. People aren’t buying bikes as much as they were, apparently, and the bikes that are being bought aren’t custom, handmade ones. We’re buying kittens, not dogs. Cyclists are watching Star Trek, not Star Wars. It’s a fucking disaster.
This isn’t a call to go buy a custom frame, we aren’t made of money. But it is a reminder that there are giant corporations behind some bikes, and there are individuals behind others. And if you’re in the market for a bike, I’m asking you to remember that. And if you aren’t in the market for a bike but love looking at them, I’ll be at NAHBS this year (in godforsaken Salt Lake fucking City no less) and I’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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My beautiful custom Benson made from Columbus PegoRichie OS tubes is without question the best riding bicycle I've ever owned, and I've owned plenty!
Some points:
753 is junk, Buck - that ship has sailed. Let your builder select the pipes.
Dog look up to you, cats look down on you, pigs treat you as an equal. Thus our headtube badge with the cinghiale.
Support your local framebuilder. Go to Nahbs. Drink beer.
Bummer about NAHBS. I've been to a few and enjoyed it very much. Between it being in SLC (meh) and saving the cash for a week riding somewhere above freezing I choose not to go this year.
Plan to pull the trigger on a handmade frame sometime this year - at this point, I've satisfied any practical need I have so it's time to start building something special.
Odd how the fortunes of the builders seem to run in such divergent directions. Some are only doing stock sizes, some have year+ waiting lists and others aren't in a great place. No explanation, but it's interesting how much it differs.
@HampCo
Where is the friggen "like" button !?! As a matter of fact I am drinking beer btw. Cheers !
So, do I buy an off the peg Trek and mod it (wheels, saddle, bars) - or do what I did with the gravel bike (a mighty Veloforma V-bike) and spec a frame (carbon surely) and add my own stuff? More expensive I fancy to take the latter course.
Also has to be disc and Shimano for the sake of reliability, endurance and spares.
@JohnB
I usually don't acknowledge other riders when I'm rocking my Asso Zegho Werksmannschaft eye protection system.
@Quasar
Agree with the cats/dogs and Star Wars slaying all others.
But you're way off on the steel or Ti frames. I've raced all materials, never felt faster than on steel. Was faster on an Alu/carbon frame but it was godawfully painful and I attribute the speed to the team training and superb coaching during those years. Which is why I still have the old Condor (early 80's). I will ride it until I die, then my son gets it. Just got a steel CX so I can shred the mud in style next year.
@HampCo
Steve! Is that you? Lay off the hooka pipe, Mate!
I am building an exact fucking 1985 La Vie Claire Hinault bike for Eroica with all original parts.
It's going to be FUCKING Awesome!
Between that bike and my new Hampsten Ti, there will not be anything that I cannot ride!!!
@Major VVald
My post ignored titanium completely, and on purpose. It costs about as much as a ski vacation on Pluto and titanium frames are rare enough that I've never actually seen one except on pictures on this site.
But here is the thing: Feeling faster and being faster are two very different things. If you race and ride with a team on your steel bike and easily keep up with the guys on the latest and greatest it means exactly one thing: That you are strong enough to make up for the extra weight/flex/drag of your frame. That makes you cool of course, but with the right (and this is important) carbon frame you'd leave them in the dust, which is always more cool.
It is entirely possible that you would have been faster on steel than the painful alu/carbon hybrid thing purely because it would not have beaten you up as much, but carbon has evolved considerably since then. Test ride any of the models companies showcase during the cobbled classics and it will feel like you're riding in a sofa.
@Quasar
There's no bike finer than the one you're riding.
P.S. Titanium frames aren't rare at all - if you haven't seen many you must be living in a very small town.
P.P.S. Frame material matters much less than build quality. A good steel frame will smoke a bad carbon frame all day long; less mass isn't the only part of the equation.