Categories: Defining MomentsLa Vie Velominatus

Support Your Local Framebuilder

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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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nathaniel spencer mork says:

Jan 9 2017 at 9:01 pm

@Buck Rogers

@ChrisO

Most shops will not do it because it requires a builder who has taken the Reynolds 753 building course and also it needs chroming and a lot of shops will not do that, either. A few builders I spoke to said that they had never taken the course and would not try it without having done the course and that I should not trust any builder who would do it that had not taken the course.

Bit of a fix!

Buck there are more modern better alloys out there than 753.
nathaniel spencer mork says:

Jan 9 2017 at 9:03 pm

@Oli

That is the tits, mate
Buck Rogers says:

Jan 9 2017 at 11:08 pm

@DVMR

@Buck Rogers

I ride as much as I can but when I ride, I ride for the open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at my wrist, and the wind in my hair. Not to crush my enemies, see them driven before me and to hear the lamentation of the women!

Such is best in life! May Crom be with you.

100% agree with you, Buck. Unless you’re super-competitive, and/or actually involved in competition, marginal gains are meaningless. What does it matter what you ride as long as it achieves the desired effect? Namely euphoria.

I intend to participate in my local track league this coming season on a vintage steel bike and I don’t care if I come last every week. At least I’ll have a great time doing it.

Ha! Glad someone picked up on the quote!

Yes, I used to race competitively in my teens and 20's but now, with my five kiddos and VMH, to train enough to race a bunch of guys in the Master class instead of spending the time hiking with my family, just does not make sense.

I still sneak in 3-4 hours on the average week, usually during lunch at work on my rollers in my office and the occasional long weekend ride, but rarely more.

Once all my kids are off to college, then maybe I'll think about racing again for results but not for now.
Buck Rogers says:

Jan 9 2017 at 11:09 pm

@nathaniel spencer mork

@Buck Rogers

@Nate

@frank, I suppose you haven’t made an appointment at Hampsten Towers yet?

It is your destiny.

Fucking-Amen! Do you have a Hamsten as well???

Fucking dreamingly amazing!

No, I have a Kirk. But when I go in again for a custom Hampsten is on my shortlist.

You will NOT be disappointed! I'll post pics of mine as soon as I get the wheelset next month!
Buck Rogers says:

Jan 9 2017 at 11:21 pm

@nathaniel spencer mork

@Buck Rogers

@ChrisO

Most shops will not do it because it requires a builder who has taken the Reynolds 753 building course and also it needs chroming and a lot of shops will not do that, either. A few builders I spoke to said that they had never taken the course and would not try it without having done the course and that I should not trust any builder who would do it that had not taken the course.

Bit of a fix!

Buck there are more modern better alloys out there than 753.

Right! I COMPLETELY get this as I have said two or three times already in this thread (but I really cannot blame you for not noticing as I post about 20 times a day, eh?)

I want, and will have, a custom steel made out of 753 Reynolds because that is my fucking dream bike, an ACTUALLY built out of the real early 1980's 753 Reynolds steel bike with all original bits from the early '80's for my Eroica La Vie Claire Hinault Eroica bike.

I know that I can get "better" steel but I cannot get "better" steel for the job that I will be using it for; i.e. riding a 1985 LVC Hinault bike at Eroica for the pure blissful feeling of knowing what it felt like to ride a 1985 LVC bike.

I have a lovely steel 2006 Lemond bike, I have a really awesome Merckx Scandium bike, I have a fucking amazing mind-blowing Hampsten/Eriksen Ti road bike (hell, I even have an original 1993 Team Motorola Merckx) but now I will have the dream bike of my youth.

So thanks, but there really is NOT any better steel for the job that I want.
Bart says:

Jan 9 2017 at 11:35 pm

I'll just leave this here.

Not local, but handbuilt, steel, and Scapin is a relatively small company..
KogaLover says:

Jan 10 2017 at 12:32 am

@Lukas

@HampCo

You are too modest to post some of your own work. I have lusted after a Strada Bianca for quite a while. I need to work harder so I can afford to order one.

http://www.hampsten.com/bike/strada-bianca/

Go look people, you won’t be dissapointed
@Randy C

That truck looks awful but does adhere to Rule #25
the Engine says:

Jan 10 2017 at 1:50 am

Re discussiona about dyno hubs acceptable in this context?
Randy C says:

Jan 10 2017 at 2:45 am

@Bart

WOW! The stays and the fork and the polished silver/chromed lugs. Gorgeous. That fork! Beauty. Cheers
Oli says:

Jan 10 2017 at 4:30 am

@nathaniel spencer mork

Thanks!