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
Where are the custom frame pics? I'm here for custom frame pics.
@Ben
Oh, those will presumably be here very soon!
@Buck Rogers
Apologies if it's already been mentioned but Brian Rourke Cycles surely?
I'm watching Start Trek with a cat on my lap messenging with my NAHBS show bike fram builder - so suck it like a person who is snotty because of their cat allergy.
And looking forward to a beer with you at the Shamrock booth!
@Buck Rogers
Waiting for the new wheels before posting pictures of the long awaited machine?
Regret I do not have a local frame builder to support! Local luthier yes. But frame builder no.
This idea is a lot like the idea of maintaining classic Mustangs and Camaros or even rebuilding 'em as resto-mods with modern brakes and such. I love these old muscle cars. And thank the good lord every time I see (or hear) one. And much respect to those keeping the dream alive. And even though a modern twin turbo four door sedan could outperform these old cars in about every measure, the one measure, and a very subjective one at that, they cannot is the one about being cool and grabbing the senses in a way a modern/common car cannot. And that's the local frame builder's bespoke craftsmanship.
There'll be a time and place for me to go down this road. And I so look forward to it as will have had decades of planning in my head!
In the meantime, this little beauty was built local and it's the burled walnut headstock and subtle bear claw in the spruce top that sets it apart from most any Taylor or Gibson you'll find on the wall at a shop. Mr. Woodward (right name or what?) simply loves and collects cool wood. And uses it to make guitars. Much respect. Cheers all !
@the Engine
A Don Walker. What else?
@Buck Rogers
Steven Shand at Shand Cycles, Livingston. Mine is 853. Worth a call to them to ask.
@Quasar
No need really, they look just like an off the peg sized frame in a photo plus mine has the mudguards on it for the winter and nobody needs to post pics of that!
@Buck Rogers
Mercian Cycles are the most disorganised bunch of nitwits I've ever come across. You begin to wonder what kind of future they have when you go in the store and ask for brake blocks or inner-tubes and they tell you they don't have any in stock. They're two decades out of date and vastly overpriced. Surely, the market for nostalgic old-school bikes must be dwindling faster than the market for dumb-phones and at almost £3k for a Shimano 105 bike that looks like something your granddad would ride tells you they're taking the piss. They make a big thing of the Paul Smith tie-in, but even the mugs who pay for his overpriced clothing aren't daft enough to shell out for one of his designer "track bikes" - which should really be called fixies, because they come with brakes and certainly aren't build for velodrome use. Seriously, they may have been around since the 1940's, and even though I have fond memories of the my first racing bike I brought from them back in 1989, I doubt they'll still be around in 10 years time without a radical overhaul. I don't see any reason to support such an outfit.