Bikes, Booths, and Builders in Philly (Part 2)

After what felt like gale-force winds on day one, the wind settled, and the sun receded. Amid the hustle and bustle of the busy streets of Philadelphia, I got to take a closer look at some of the most interesting bikes at the show. With conversations ranging from light fare to contextualizing the work of the bike industry within the larger state of affairs that affect all of our lives, it was a pleasure to focus on the work these builders spend countless hours perfecting and bringing from their mind’s eye to ours. Let’s dive into part two to see it all in focus.

Horse Cycles link

Catskills, New York

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“Dude. We were just babies. Just babies when we met here years ago.” Thomas Callahan presented a towering figure at the Metal Guru booth. He was referencing his first meeting with Bryan Hollingsworth of Royal H Cycles, as the photo Bryan posted on Instagram a few days prior brought back great memories of the pair meeting a decade ago at the show. “I exhibited her back in 2010. It’s nice to come back and connect with old friends who started building at the same time as me. Guys like Chapman, Johnny Coast Cycles, Bryan Hollingsworth at Royal H. It’s great to show your work and connect with the community, but also to revisit old friends and connections. I love being right in the middle of town, right next to Chinatown. The food is amazing, and seeing parts of the old city is special. You really feel the life and soul of Philadelphia.”

Thomas’s reverence for the other builders shone through as he spoke to just about anything but his own bike as we walked to the parking lot behind the venue. “I’m just here to see Chris Bishop,” he joked. “One day, we’re all going to die, and the only thing people are going to remember is that guy’s bikes.” Eventually, the sun came out from behind the clouds, and the racing red paint of the Horse All-Road Elite frame glistened like a sports car. An off-the-peg offering from Thomas, it has custom stack and reach to fit its intended rider. “I’m so grateful to anyone who buys a bike from me because I still struggle to believe it sometimes. It’s such a special practice, and I feel so happy to do it. It supports me. It supports my family. It’s an incredible thing.”

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Getting his start as a builder through a space he’d used as a sculptor in Brooklyn, Thomas now has a home shop in upstate New York. When he’s not making frames, he fabricates knives and other small wares through the Horse brand that help keep the lights on. His show bike, now purchased, is what Thomas says he builds most of the time. “It’s like a gravel bike for the guys who don’t want to go full hog on the mountain bike tires. I think it’s great.”

Wake Robin Cycles link

London, Ontario

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A returning favorite, Dickson said that timing didn’t allow him to get the bike he’s currently building to a point where I could show it at the expo. So, what he brought instead is the genesis of many of the Wake Robin bikes he’s known for. The bike we focused on was a freshly painted, Dunkin Donuts inspired rando that his wife rides more than any other in their collection. Dickson let me in on the fact that, because he had the pleasure of building it, he made some minor adjustments to the geo so he can also ride it, given their similar size. The bike itself is built with Kaisei/Rene Herse extra light tubing and served as a prototype for all the 26” Kaisei Wake Robins that came after it. It’s been camping and travel tested extensively for four years and comes complete with a custom rack that Dickson says he’s put around 50 pounds of gear on.

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As for Wake Robin Cycles, Dickson said that while he considered going full-time with the business last year, tariffs and other industry headwinds have made it difficult to leave his current job at a university and take framebuilding full-time. With the flexibility afforded by the position, he still has plenty of time to iterate and build bikes for his growing queue. When asked about what keeps him inspired, Dickson said, “I rely on cycling and travel to inspire me. I know this sounds kooky, but I look at the bicycle like it’s a church. It’s like a vehicle to a higher power. You work all week and do all the things you have to do, like grocery shopping, cleaning, toiling at a job, just waiting for Sunday to come around so you can spend some time in the saddle exploring. You instantly feel grateful after you settle into your pedal stroke and feel that this is how you’re going to connect to the world. I think that’s what I’ve come to believe in and what’s become the light I choose to focus on.”

Manzanita Cycles link

Reno, Nevada

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Nick Jensen of Manzanita Cycles built the sole complete 32er of the show. Traveling all the way from Reno, Nick said that, initially, he hadn’t given much thought to the new wheel size, as he’d been focused on perfecting the release of his gravel bike, the Whippet. But when Charles from Verum Velo asked him to make one, they got to work on creating something unique. The two had a shortlist of goals for the bike: clearance for 32 x 2.4” wheels, drop-bar geo, lower rear rack mounts for carrying light loads, boost spacing for better lateral wheel strength, UDH compatible, at least two water bottle cage mounts, and no toe overlap, while also having minimal chainstay length to keep the bike feeling sporty.

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What Nick ultimately created lives up to all of that. “The trickiest aspect of the design and fabrication was keeping the chainstays as short as possible. We ended up at 441mm. This pushed my tube-bending tooling and my frame jig to their limits. I was able to get a 22º bend in the seat tube at the precise location where the bend offers the most space to curl around the wheel. It’s higher up the tube than I normally go, but function had to follow form on this one. I also wanted to prevent the bottom bracket from being as high off the ground as a mountain bike. It turns out that my frame jig limits the bottom bracket drop at 109mm. I would have liked to have gone another centimeter lower to put the bottom bracket height at 285mm, but I didn’t have time to modify the frame jig to make it happen,” he said.

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When asked about the design of the front end, Nick said, “I wanted to push the wheel far enough forward to prevent Charles’ shoes from clipping the tire when making slow-speed turns. In my opinion, toe overlap is dangerous. While riders may not clip their shoes on the tire 99.5% of the time, it’s those rare, unexpected occurrences that can cause accidents. Pushing the wheel further forward has other benefits, too. The wheelbase increases for improved stability, a great asset on a bike meant to be pedaled all day. The longer front end also improves confidence on descents, since there’s less risk of flying over the bars. Lucky for me, Charles is 5’11” with long limbs. We were able to set the front wheel far enough away from his shoes using an 80mm stem, a fork with a 50mm offset, and a head tube angle of 71º. I wanted to avoid using a slack head tube angle because the extra size and mass of the oversized front wheel could potentially make the steering feel too heavy.”

Chapman Cycles link

Pawtuxet Village, Rhode Island

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Brian Chapman brought a special customer bike to Philly this year and, as always, wowed those who stopped by his booth. Complete with a set of handmade cantilever brakes, Brian got quite nerdy with me as we went over the details of this race-car-inspired randonneuring rig. “I don’t think I could make them production, but I do like making them for my bikes. It has an extra pivot point that doesn’t quite work with a lot of the other mounts out there. It makes sense for the stuff I build, but I don’t really have any plans to expand it,” he said of the custom brakes. “You don’t want to try and make these readily available?” I asked, encouragingly. In his boyish demeanor, Brian said, “Oh, I don’t know. I have this app I use to calculate the brake force and leverage. I can send it to you sometime. I just like making them for my bikes.”

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He went on to explain, “Yeah, the guy who this belongs to sent me this photo of a racing car. They’re not really my thing, but he wanted that. I had to explain to him that I don’t really do that sort of thing, but that I could take inspiration from what he sent over.” In typical Chapman style, what Brian came up with was an incredibly delicate, beautifully hand-painted set of lines that feels like a perfect encapsulation of the classic Gulf Oil livery for bikes.

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Of course, almost none of this came to fruition. As Brian was keen to remind me, when I asked him to grab the bike’s wheel while a swirling wind terrorized our photo session, he had his fair share of troubles this winter. “I nearly lopped the whole finger off. I was chopping wood and wasn’t really paying attention. Luckily, they sewed it back on. I just don’t have any feeling in that finger anymore. Oh yeah, and the snow. We got 37 inches. What a winter. All I did was shovel,” he said, rolling his shoulder back into position. “But, I’m glad to be here. Still kickin’!”

Tumbleweed Bikes link

Boise, Idaho

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Tumbleweed was also in attendance and brought a few things for attendees to take a sneak peek at. Mounted on their new olive green Prospector is a rack we’ll be hearing a lot more about in the coming months. Though I’ll wait for Miles to dive into the full details when it officially launches, Daniel Molloy says it’s a product built for the biggest and burliest adventures. They also have plans to expand the tooth sizing and offset of the Wagon Wheel chainrings they launched earlier this year. With the desire to offer greater versatility for their Shimano direct-mount offerings, Daniel says they’ve been a success and that they want to continue expanding them as appropriate.

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That’s it for part two! Stay tuned for our final roundup of the show in the coming days…

Further Reading

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