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.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
@JohnB
Ohhhh! Who built your frame? I am having a FUCK ALL awful time finding someone in the UK who is qualified and willing to build but my Eroica bike project frame with the original 753 Reynolds tubing!
Totally understand about the RVV. Next year I am planning on riding Strade Bianche so mark yer calendar!!!
@the Engine
Well, it all starts with how much money can you smuggle out of the bank account without the VMH realising it!
@Buck Rogers
About £5
I have mixed feelings ...
Don't get me wrong, I agree that every cyclist should have a custom build - it's like putting on a glove. And they are surprisingly not that expensive by comparison to off-the-shelf stuff.
On the other hand the whole artisan aspect makes me think that the boom was to an extent built on hipsters and newbies who were in it for the style and the polish not the fundamental reality or the practical usage. I won't be sorry to see some of them go.
As the market boomed here my local framebuilder, a very well-known and loved brand in existence for three generations, folded because they had nobody to take over the business as the incumbent retired. Yet new artisanal builders with catchy names and sparkling logos seem to pop up every other month.
I wonder whether it's skill at brazing or just brazen marketing which is most useful.
@buck rogers Where have you looked? I would have though traditional builders like Mercian or Bob Jackson would be able to do whatever you wanted.
@the Engine
Ha! That got me!
@ChrisO
Funny you should mention Bob Jackson and Mercian. Donald at Bob Jackson said that they no longer do any custom builds, only "off the peg" stuff. I was really surprised to hear that. Mercian has not replied after three weeks of emailing and trying to contact them. Dave Yeats also said that he could not do it for me.
My view here:
Dogs being superior to cats is obvious. I'll take Lawful Stupid over Chaotic Insane any day of the week (extra points for getting that reference).
Star Wars (and yes, that includes all the prequels if anyone is wondering) is not only superior to Star Trek but to absolutely every movie or TV show that has ever been or will ever be produced. The only negative is that the Star Wars Universe does seem to need some education about riding bikes!
But steel bikes in this day and age, custom or otherwise, is where I lose interest unless it's purely for nostalgia or easy coffee runs, which is entirely valid of course. I'm well aware that modern steel frames (and some older ones) can perform very well but the limitations compared to carbon are obvious, weight, flex, and absolutely no aero element. The only steel frames that get close to matching carbon (or even aluminum) in these areas all seem to cost twice as much as a carbon frame that still does all of it better.
And then there are looks, which I'm given to understand is considered even more important here. Put simply, steel frames (to my eyes, I don't speak for anyone else of course) may look beautiful but they also universally look old, heavy and slow. That includes monstrously expensive things like Jäeghers which I know are neither heavy nor particularly slow. They still look like they are. Carbon frames on the other hand look fast, mostly due to the shaping (for extra strength, stiffness or aero sauce) which the eye probably reads similarly to the way fast movement is drawn in cartoons.
Ride feel I can not comment on as I have never ridden a steel road bike, but even if that is as great as it is described on post after post on this site that does not make up for going slower than you could be going on a carbon frame. And it will be slower, perhaps not much slower if you paid a king's ransom for the frame, but still slower. I would not say no if offered a free steel bike (I'm on this site after all!) but I would never spend money on one.
@Chipomarc
Now that's an outlier
@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 Rogers
Look no further than Garry at Argos Racing Cycles in Bristol for that elusive custom 753 steel frame. He built mine back in 2005 - it's still my #1