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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View Comments

userfriendly says:

Jan 7 2017 at 8:53 am

@JohnB

@userfriendly ‘cats are the roadies’? Aye, the roadies that barrel by and never acknowledge another cyclist, up their own arse unless they need fed.

So cats are selective about who they like. Doesn't make them wrong. There's simply no denying that they look fantastic and work meticulously on maintaining that look. Always. They're pretty much the embodiment of the Velominatus - elegant and casually deliberate. Dogs though ... smelly when wet like an unwashed polyester jersey, and always panting like the fatty on his sit-up-and-beg contraption with his YJA and trainers. Sorry, mate. But I'm quite clearly and obviously right about this.

Kudos for getting the word out about Shand Cycles, though. I really like what he's doing, and we don't have near enough frame builders in Scotland.
Teocalli says:

Jan 7 2017 at 9:03 am

@Buck Rogers

@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.

Another couple of places suggested to me Argos in Bristol, Woodrups in Leeds. I don't know of either personally.
Buck Rogers says:

Jan 7 2017 at 9:33 am

@Sowtondevil

@Buck Rogers

@JohnB

Absolutely bang on. My #1 – Shand Skinnymalinky, custom steel, Built by Hand in Scotland, 90 mins from my house. It’s not flash, it’s not carbon, its not off the shelf, as custom as my mutt Mavic, a smooth coated Wire Haired Vizsla. I like cats but they are just not dogs.

@userfriendly ‘cats are the roadies’? Aye, the roadies that barrel by and never acknowledge another cyclist, up their own arse unless they need fed.

@Buck Rogers – sadly not this year, too many other demands on my time and cash.

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!!!

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

Right! This one had actually been suggested as well at Steve Goff and Ellis Briggs so now I have a few leads to work on!
EBruner says:

Jan 7 2017 at 10:20 am

@userfriendly

Spot fucking on! Dogs are pedestrian in every way. Cats are aristocratic.

-Eddie
EBruner says:

Jan 7 2017 at 10:27 am

Oh, an did someone say custom steel?

-Eddie
Teocalli says:

Jan 7 2017 at 10:39 am

@Buck Rogers

Dylan thomas at Poetry In Motion, in York
Cary says:

Jan 7 2017 at 11:55 am

@EBruner

Oh, an did someone say custom steel?

-Eddie

are these both yours?! gorgeous bikes!
Ebruner says:

Jan 7 2017 at 12:13 pm

@Cary

Yeppers!!

-Eddie
Percy B says:

Jan 7 2017 at 12:35 pm

I have a steel custom frame made a couple of years back by Nigel Wilson of J F Wilson Cycles in Sheffield, and I love it so much that my carbon Look hasn't really had much of a look in since. Nigel still operates out of two garden sheds behind his mid-terraced shop in the middle of Sheffield, but the man is a true craftsman and loves his work. His waiting list is long, but if you ask him to make something that fires him up the waiting time can often get a lot shorter.
Stuart Fairhurst says:

Jan 7 2017 at 2:39 pm

Kelly's Bar at Brian Rourke Cycles makes for a unique venue to be measured up for your 'Rourkie'