Please forgive the large snowbank in the background of all these photos. All the trees and rocks I normally prop the bikes up against for photos are covered and judging by the snow we’re receiving at this very moment, we’re not going to see them anytime soon.
John’s new road bike turned out amazing. It features a Columbus Spirit tube set and a matching lugged fork. What really sets this bike off is the beautiful pearl white paint job, the pictures don’t do it justice, it looks amazing in person.
John’s bike features a mix of Campy Record components, a Chris King headset, Eriksen Ti post and handbuilt wheels with Ultegra hubs and Mavic Open Pro ceramic rims. Ultegra Hubs and Campy components you ask? Not something we do every day, but in this instance John already owned a very nice wheelset but wanted Campagnolo shifting; so with the help off a Shiftmate adaptor, we made it work.
Jennie’s new touring bike makes use of 26 inch wheels to help her achieve the perfect fit. Smaller wheels increase standover and reduce toe/tire overlap which are two important factors to consider when a bike such as this is fully loaded for an extended tour. This bike features a complete 105 triple drivetrain and hand built wheels with XT hubs and Ambrosio rims. The Avid BB7 disc brakes will provide powerful and reliable braking for years to come.
Jennie decided to outfit her bike with stainless Velo Orange fenders which are not only super classy looking but also plenty useful for mitigating the effects of poor weather.
Graydon’s S&S coupling equipped touring bike stands in stark contrast to Jennie’s bike. He is far taller than her and therefore had a whole host of different considerations that factored into the design of his bike.First off, this bike is titanium. Every once in a while we get a request to have a Ti frame painted and on this frame the bare titanium shows through around the S&S couplings and on the True North down tube font. Graydon has really large feet and requested very long chainstays in order to provide ample heel clearance while using panniers. In fact the chainstays on this bike are so long that even with a 35c tire and a fender, a full water bottle can still be mounted behind the seat tube.Finally Graydon wanted to use the superb Schmidt SON dynamo front hub to power a light and rear blinker. Hugh welded on extra mounts on the top tube which allow for the wiring to easily attached and taken off when the bike gets broken down for travel.
This bike features a SRAM Apex drivetrain with R2C bar end shifters and such gems as a Phil Wood rear hub, stainless tubus racks and the ultra rare and super stunning Titanium Chris King headset.