U.S. Built Bicycles in Titanium and Carbon-Titanium Mix
U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix
We are, all of us, trying to get back to that moment, when we were two, or five, or ten-years-old, of first pushing off and feeling the freedom, the joy of riding a bike. The 5 Elements are meant to get us there, to strip away the fear and focus on the idea for a new bike.
Custom is not a secret language developed in shops and factories where there are initiated whispers in hushed tones about the craft of metal work. Custom is not a collection of technical terms that necessitates the reading of obscure manuals or classes in physics to understand.
If you’ve ridden a bike, you can speak the language of custom.
All week I daydream about a single, ordinary group ride. Saturday morning I wake up before the alarm clock, whirl up a sweet, creamy smoothie, jump on my bike and pedal over to the meeting spot five minutes from home. I have no interest in sleeping in since I found this ride.
More than a format, randonneuring is a culture highlighted by long routes and camaraderie. Rando legend Melinda Lyon suggested that, first and foremost, randonneurs are always polite: you can ride hard, but your speed remains secondary to consideration for everyone, whether it’s another rider, a course volunteer, a motorist, a citizen with no affiliation with the event, or your own safety. In races, other riders try to drop you; in randonnees, your company is a welcome part of the journey. The course itself is the daunting competitor.
When people find out we build custom bikes, they ask, in the grocery store, at the school drop off, at the donut shop, “What kinds of bikes do you build?” And we pause, as you do when the answer is much larger than the question, and then we say, “Well, all kinds, road, mountain, commuter, cyclocross, whatever people want.”
Except that’s not the half of it.