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.
Element One: Fit and Comfort
Think of the top half of the bike, where the saddle floats in space and how long a reach it is to the bars, how many hand positions you have, where the saddle sits on its rails. These things are supremely important. They are, in many ways, the ultimate arbiters of comfort. For some, this is what custom bike building is about, just geometry, how tall, how long. But this is only a beginning.
Element Two: Handling and Performance
Think of the lower half of the bike, the bottom bracket height, the wheelbase, the fork rake and resulting trail. All of these things effect how the bike feels when you’re on it, bombing twisty descents, churning up steep inclines, moving and shaking through a group of riders. By describing to us how you want your bike to feel in those visceral moments, the ones when you feel most alive on your bike, we can tailor the geometry and tubeset to deliver very specific characteristics. This is where we go beyond fit and get into ride.
Element Three: Tubing and Materials
When thinking about how you want your bike to be, we like to start at the material level, recommending a tubeset that matches your ideas for comfort, performance and feel. Each material we work with can be refined still further to give very precise ride characteristics, both through tube choice and by modifying those tubes in highly technical ways.
Element Four: Features and Options
This is where compromises evaporate, where the call for fenders or disc brakes gets answered, where you get to personalize every aspect of the bike. Infinite colors and unique paint schemes become possible. Different wheel sizes, front and rear racks, decal placement or component choice. It’s all here, and it’s all available.
Element Five: The Future
As we design your bike in the present we want to think of ways your needs might change over time. Perhaps you race now, but want to tour later. Maybe you anticipate moving to another locale, with different surfaces to ride. We want, whenever possible, to anticipate those changing needs and build adaptability into our designs.