Bespoke 2014 Round up

And so the lust for a hand made steel road bike continues! The show did not disappoint nor did the venue, held at the Lee Valley Olympic Velodrome, a slight change from the normal home routed ‘Bespoke Bristol’ venue.   I’d heard from exhibitors who spoke to Phil, the organiser of the show, that the venue wasn’t 100% practical being the spaces were so specific and contained. There wasn’t much room for catering and the side spaces were difficult to work with but the actual ambiance and impressiveness of being in a velodrome added a huge ‘wow’ factor to the over all experience!

This is just a brief round up of some of the incredible stuff that was on show – Throughout the week I’ll be covering aspects of the show in a little bit more detail.

Talbot Frameworks (Winner of ‘Most Innovative Product Design’)

Talbot

This bike caught my eye the minute I saw it, a sleek look, fast but practical geo and a subtle but beautiful paint job to finish it off. At first glance, that’s exactly what I thought it was. On closer inspection, whilst observing where the Di2 cabling attached I soon realised this frame wasn’t just following the normal suit.

Talbot2

Using ‘conductive paint’ the wiring is literally soldered onto the frame *Jaw drops*.

Slate Cycles

Safron2

It was immediately evident when I looked over the CX frame that the builder, Christy Boothroyd, had a keen eye for detail and perfection. Silversmith turn frame builder, Christy didn’t over look any detail on this bike with stunning finish to the cable guides and rear bridge.

Safron

Donhou

Donhue2

Winner of ‘Best Utility Bike’, Tom Donhou’s work continues to impress me with not only well built, beautifully crafted and designed frames but also stunning paint work to finish them off!

He also took the opportunity of launching his Signature Steel range of stock bikes where customers will be able to choose between 3 sizes of frame, all 853 and equipped with disc brakes as standard.

Donhue

Pretorius Bikes

P

There were an endless array of dazzling paint jobs through out the show but only a few really grabbed my attention. This pretorius bike didn’t only tick the boxes for build but also for paint/graphics too!

Saffron x Death Spray Custom

SaffronxDSC

Usually I’d say ‘pictures speak 1000 words’ but in this case I’d actually say you’d have to see this in person to really grasp how stunning the bike and paint job is!

Part of the Kinoko Collection, the build features Columbus Spirit HSS tubeset with Paragon Breezer dropouts, oversized head tube and beautifully fillet brazed together.