Bikes and Builders of 2025 Bespoked Manchester (Part 1)

This year’s edition of Bespoked Manchester, one of the most jam-packed handmade bike shows in the world, kicked off on Friday. With a seemingly endless amount of things to see, our first day of the bikes and builders of the 2025 Bespoked Manchester show features a fantastic crop of bikes and small offerings from Singular Cycles, new brand No-Ni Cycles, a high-performance baker’s bike from Clandestine, and a heck of a lot more. Find them all below.

Singular Cycleslink

Chiltern Hills, UK

One of the first people I spoke to at 2025 Bespoked Manchester was Sam Alison from Singular Cycles. For years, I’ve been quite impressed with the neo-retro style of bike Sam has been designing in the UK. In person, his work wows even more than the pictures and videos online. Primarily producing production bicycles with a partner in China, things are uncertain for Singular these days. While sales are solid, tariffs and the ever-shifting nature of a world at trade war have made the outlook pretty murky for this newly full-time bike business owner. Made redundant from his corporate job last year, Sam said it was a bit of a blessing in disguise. “Having to focus on doing this and a stressful full-time job in finance was a bit much. Now, I can just focus on what I really love.”

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Sam brought a number of bikes to his booth, but the one that really stood out to me was this version two of the Kite. It’s a conversation I cautiously endeavor upon with every titanium builder I encounter, but I never really understood the rationale—besides cost—of basing what is already an expensive material around a carbon fork. That’s not to say carbon forks aren’t solid additions to steel, aluminum, or titanium bikes, rather that if you’re going to dip your foot into the titanium realm—why not just jump in? It seems Sam felt similarly as, despite it’s sleek, dainty look, this bike is fully titanium.

Made smooth by a unique sleeve and weld process that incorporates the use of a 3D-printed titanium fork crown (the future is now), Sam claims this Ti fork carries that Ti “twang” with the supple characteristics of a classic steel fork. Customers can choose whether they want the adventure mounts on the blades, and it’s a relatively competitive $3,173 USD for a frame and fork. Of course, with Sam’s frames being made in China, prices are subject to change due to import costs. He also shared with me the grim reality that it might simply not be possible to do business with the US but that nothing is concrete at the moment.

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With a background in all kinds of cycling, from single speed mountain biking to simply enjoying a solid road ride, Sam’s experiences shine through in his design. It’s considered, beautiful, simple, and elegant. He’s also an absolute gem of person. To be creating such a high-quality product at a relatively approachable prices is just another feat for the Aussie turned Brit, so if you’re in the market, I’d suggest pulling the trigger.

Singular Cycles Spitfire

Sam also had a soon-to-be-re-released Spitfire hardtail on display at the show. It’s a lovely British brown that fades to show the nature of the frame material, Ti, and can accommodate a 140mm fork. The bike also features a plated chainstay, routing for a dropper post, and a lovely English spitfire headbadge. Look out for this mountain bike to be released imminently.

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Rat Bikeslink

Somerset, UK

Paul Burford of BTR Fabrications is a well-loved framebuilder in the UK. Running BTR fabrications alongside Tam Hamilton until 2019, Paul has largely focused on custom offerings and frame kits. Alas, with some motivations to compete with the pricing available through overseas manufacturing while still making the frames himself, Paul started a new sub brand, Rat Bikes. Their first model is called the Rat Dad. Being a dad himself, this XC, 120mm suspension-corrected hardtail is an interesting testament to what Paul is currently invested in making, and one that enables him to “tool around town” with his kids in tow.

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Though he wants to keep BTR Fabrications on the same track, material motivations have pushed Paul into coming up with something more accessible. So, almost every portion of this bike is dedicated to reducing as many labor hours as possible while still creating a brilliant product. For example, the dropouts and brake mounts are bits of folded metal that make for very little time in the shop. The fork is a single bend, and one that obviously doesn’t require a significant amount of time in a tube bender or lathe. The stamped bridge? Incredibly simple and quite easy, per Paul, to affix between the chainstays.

Talk to any builder, and you’ll very quickly learn that time is money. While putting it in such terms seems a bit crass, I think Paul’s attempt to stretch his immense skill as a framebuilder to folks who can’t quite afford a $2,000+ USD frame kit from BTR is quite a noble feat. Particularly in the post-Brexit, ongoing American tradewar world, people have to adapt—chief among them frame builders. To create a high-quality, locally built, handmade frame is a task unto itself. But doing so at a high level while also taking the years of experience earned to make something that honors both the time of the builder and the budget of the consumer is a genuinely exciting concept.

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As far as getting one goes, Paul is selling these frames both direct to consumer through a forthcoming Rat Bikes site and in some bike shops in the UK he’s currently in talks with. What’s most interesting about the latter is they could potentially be made in batches for shops that will have their logo put onto the frame, adding an element of localization that we’ve missed for some time in the industry.

Wheels Manufacturinglink

Louisville, Colorado

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It’s always a pleasure to see the fellas over at Wheels MFG out and about, and this visit to Bespoked was no different. Recently having launched a new seatpost clamp, James showed me something slightly more exciting: an HG-compatible single-speed system. With XD/XDR and Microspline kits already available, it’s good to see one of the best small parts manufacturers continuing to expand their single-speed offerings. Having run their Colorado Copper kit on one of my personal bikes, I can attest to the quality of every single component. In addition to their SOLO-HG expansion, the new kit will release with this machined style of cog. It looks quite cool and improves on an already fantastic aesthetic.

Medusa Cycleslink

Salford, UK

After lusting over the uniquely alluring aesthetics of Pete Skelton’s burly gravel bikes for some time, I was happily surprised to see another offering from the Salford-based frame maker at this year’s Bespoked. Needing a road-bike for the muddy season here in the UK, Pete’s all-road Medusa is yet another work of art. Complete with the hallmarks of the young brand’s iconography, this custom-painted English bulldog of a bike is another visual and mechanical marvel from the young builder.

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One of my favorite things about Pete’s creation is the unity of form and function. Obviously, one of the most unique elements of his double triangle design is the integration of a “coin” into the framework. Inspired by an Italian road bike brand, Gios, Pete sought to add his own coin and has done so to great effect. However, the manner in which he’s done so isn’t solely for aesthetics. Within the sleeved joint that contains the platform for the Medusa coins is an internal cable routing system for a rear dynamo light. It’s something Pete says he’s dedicated to adding to every one of his frames now that he’s “fully converted” to dynamo systems, and it serves as a seamless integration of bespoke aesthetics and practicality.

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What intrigued me most about Pete’s newest offering is the tubing. Using Reynolds 931 stainless steel, Pete didn’t just leave the frame raw for the sake of exposing the nature of the tube selection. As a former sign painter, Pete has a practiced hand in creating colorful designs for businesses and small creators. Borrowing from his time doing so, Pete iterated on the blue and gold, “ultramarine” style painting of the Deka frame by adding some colorful leaves and paint matching the fenders.

Still a relatively young builder, Pete’s dream is to create frames and custom offerings full-time. He’s currently working two other jobs to support his framebuilding, but it’s been clear for some time that Pete’s talent is one to take note of. With new models like his road frame impressing just as much as his initial Deka frame, I hope it isn’t long before we see more from the English maker.

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Tailfinlink

Bristol, UK

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Though Logan covered Tailfin’s rebrand at Sea Otter, they had a new small bag to share which they are expecting launch later in May. Stay tuned…

Rasch Cycleslink

Berlin, Germany

Kata Rasch is a friend and cohort of Konstantin Drust, with 2025 Bespoked Manchester being her first official outing as a framebuilder. Learning under the careful hand of her friend Konstantin, Kata’s inspiration behind framebuilding is both unique and universal. Motivated by a desire to create bikes for people like herself, Kata’s first foray into the world of framebuilding is impressive. To make no mention of the paint selection, this subtle hardtail mountain bike is, much like Kata, understated and complex.

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Designed with a distinct bend in the top tube, Kata said she always struggled to throw a leg over some of her favorite hardtails. Making the standover that much lower without meaningfully altering the geometry of the bike, Kata combined form and function in her first frame under the brand name “Rasch,” a German word that means “fast,” and also her surname. Like Konstatin’s bikes, the welding technique Kata prefers is fillet brazing, and she paired her first build with a stem she built as well, albeit left raw.

Though she’s new to the scene, Kata says her next build—after the dog-laden tour through the balkan’s with Konstantin—is one for her mother. Despite not getting to ride with her much anymore, she says her mother was an integral part of her framebuilding journey, and someone she’d quite like to build a cargo bike for.

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No-Ni Cycleslink

Glasgow, Scotland

Kevin Pollock of No-Ni Cycles is a one-man operation out of Glasgow, Scotland, and a first timer at Bespoked. As a custom furniture fabricator, Kevin’s experience putting unique pieces together is long and complex, but his background in cycling is not. A rider of many years of experience, Kevin’s background in art and design has allowed his creative muscles to find a unique form in the modern bike market. With just his second frame under the brand, No-Ni Cycles might be new to the world of bespoke, alt-style builds, but that doesn’t mean he’s too green for a learned hand to appreciate.

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Utilizing the latest in 3D-printing technology, the frame he made for his partner is primarily a mix of stainless steel tubes welded to 3D-printed stainless steel molds. By designing the joints of the bike in a computer program pre-fabrication, Kevin is able to save a fair bit of time and, ultimately, money, for the customer through 3D-printed parts. For example, the chainstays are essentially two large pieces of 3D-printed stainless steel welded together. Though he’s unsure of using such a large portion of pre-fabricated parts in the future, Kevin told me, “At the very least, I’ll use it for the dropouts… Mate, when I tell you I literally did 50 different chainstays because of the heat distortion on the flat mounts, I’m not lying.”

It’s an interesting concept and one that appeared in droves at this year’s Bespoked. Be it stainless or Ti, pre-made 3D-printed joints are becoming a much larger part of modern framebuilding. “It just saves so much time. And, I want to be able to offer people a full frame and fork for about 1,500 or 1,600 pounds. Taking time out of the fabrication process through parts I design lets me do that,” Kevin said.

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Of all the unique things builders are coming up with these days, I think it’s easy to look at something like this form of 3D-printing and draw some critiques. Like Kevin mentioned to me, “Some people say it’s taking the art out of framebuilding, and I understand that. It doesn’t take too much to weld, for example, these bits of the chainstay together. But, again it comes back to price, and, I still have to design these bits myself. Not everyone can do that. What I want to give people for what is still a custom bike is quite good and really difficult to achieve for the same price.” To a certain extent, I understood both elements. Shows like Bespoked are elevating the bespoke framebuilder, and there’s a lot of romance tied to that idea. People imagine someone laboring over a set of tubes for hours and coming away with some gorgeous, unique work of art. Not a box of joints that come out of a CAD design. But, there’s romance and there’s reality.

People like Kevin are still required to have an immense amount of both direct fabrication and design skill in order to make bikes like this one. Sure, there’s an artisanal aspect that falls to the wayside when parts come by way of 3D printing, but custom bikes have a use. For smaller people, irregular proportions, unique use cases, and much more. If this technology allows those individuals a better bike at a cheaper price point, who am I to argue with that?

Clandestinelink

Devon, UK

What more is there to be said about Pi Manson of Clandestine? Decorated by our site for his efforts last year, meeting Pi myself was a pleasure unto itself, and not just because of this delightful little red cargo bike he created out of backed-out bits and pieces. With a customer canceling a mini-velo build a while back, Pi had these parts on hand for quite some time. Forced to just stare at them in his shop in Devon, United Kingdom, he decided to just go for it and create this “post-box red” cargo bike that conveniently fits in and out of all standard-sized British doorways.

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To let you in on how the sausage is made, these shows are marathons you sprint. You shake hands, meet loads of amazing builders, and try to retain as much information about their highly detailed and specific work as you can. Though there is a general script from which you try and take from as far as questions go, I’ve never really been one for sticking to the book. Perhaps to the frustration of my cohorts, I like to the let the conversation flow and arrive to me, making it just as unique as the work I’m shooting. With Pi, I managed to endeavor on one of the more interesting conversations I had in Manchester.

“That’s the thing about performance. This is a high-performance bike. What does that mean? Well, look at it. It’s made to be practical, to be very good at carrying a front load in small spaces. It performs that task really well. I think this hyper-specific definition of performance is so limiting! I don’t see why it has to be solely about speed or racing. Other things, other creations can be performance centric if they perform a specific task well.” I’d poked the bear a bit and I was quite glad I did. Though everyone at these kinds of shows oozes passion, it’s always nice to be in the presence of someone that believes in their craft so much they need little more than a well-ventilated area to go off.

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As for this bike, it’s currently for sale, though I doubt it will spend much time on the market. I was taken aback by just how perfect this almost cartoonishly quaint bike was. With a removable front rack that features a waterproof support board, this just might be the perfect, high-performance baker’s bike—the colloquial name Pi decided upon at some stage.

We’ll be back tomorrow with a whole lot more from the 2025 Bespoked Manchester show. Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can dig into past coverage from previous years at our #bespoked tag, with coverage dating back to the first edition in 2019.

Further Reading

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