Inside Medusa Cycles: From Shed to Show

I first came across Pete Skelton and his Deka Rando-Trail 2 (the Bespoked 2024 Best Gravel and People’s Choice build) on a ride in the Peak District. Over the course of the day’s ride, I remember thinking, “That is a really interesting bike. I need to chat to him about where it’s from.” Little did I know, the guy riding it actually built it. I dropped Pete a message after we’d ridden together and asked him what he had going on at the moment and if I could document a build. With the Bespoked 2025 in Manchester around the corner, Pete had plans for a special build to take to the show. Perfect!

From the mean streets of Blackburn, England

Pete’s very much a humble and unassuming northern bike builder. You’d be hard pushed to know he spends every bit of spare time outside his job in a bike shop fabricating and building practical and creative solutions to riding bikes. The only hint when out riding with Pete is the unique bikes he rides. 

• 
• 

While chatting with Pete, I asked about Medusa’s ethos and why he builds bikes. “I build bikes that I think need to exist.” It’s a pretty simple motto, and Pete’s Rando-Trail 2 is testament to it. It grabs your attention quickly with its creative colour palette and unique finishing touches. The hand-painted peregrine falcon on a chainstay lug is super unique. This is something Pete adds to all his builds, and it’s one of the small details that matter to him. 

• 
• 
• 

Pete’s bikes are visually unique and practical. You wouldn’t think when pulling up to his small terraced house on the outskirts of Manchester that the Medusa brands creative hub is a 15-by-10-foot shed tucked behind his garden. I’m not sure anyone beyond his next-door neighbours and the chain-smoking tenant who shares his house would know that hidden amongst the row of small houses is a hive of welding, painting, and building. 

This can’t be the place

My first visit to the Medusa workshop was on a grey Tuesday afternoon, where Pete met me at the front door. We squeezed our way past multiple bikes and bike parts in the living room (Pete’s Rando-Trail 1, his flagship build, leaned up against the couch), through the small kitchen, and out into the slightly overgrown garden. His workshop is at the end of the garden. He’s been working out of here for around three years, and it’s here where the last five Medusa bikes have been made, from the first lug right through to the finishing paintwork.

• 
• 

How Pete designs, fabricates, constructs, and paints a bike all in the confines of a garden shed is beyond me. Add a photographer with all his gear and a Bespoked deadline not far off, and the shed suddenly felt like a much smaller place. Everything is built by hand, carefully considering what the bike is for. There are no large-scale tube benders or lathes, just smaller machines and tools that do the job Pete needs them to, a collection of tools that Pete gathered over the years that naturally fit amongst the organised, creative chaos of the workshop. 

It’s who I am

Pete’s history with bikes comes from both a love of riding and a heritage in frame building. Pete explained, “I worked at a shop in North Manchester called Butterfield Bicycles. I started off volunteering on Saturdays. It was Neil Orrell’s (renowned Manchester Frame Builder) old shop, and even in his ’80s, he still knew how to work the torch. He still had a lot to say and a lot of advice.”

• 
• 

From this hub of traditional bike building, Pete saw the opportunity to develop his craft and began to pull together all his past experiences to form Medusa Bikes. “I’ve been obsessed with bikes ever since I can remember; I’ve always loved making things. As a kid, I’d skip homework to make stuff. I’ve always loved riding bikes. I would never buy a full bike; I’d try to build some Frankenstein thing that didn’t exist on a mass-produced bike. I’ve been all over the world with my bike, and part of what I do today is influenced by a trip I did in 2018, cycling to India.”

When you start to chat with Pete, it’s easy to see where the passion for making Medusa bikes comes from. There’s no financial drive to build bikes. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Pete puts everything he has into building bikes: his money, his time—sure, it would be nice to have more of both—but Medusa Bikes comes from a place of considered passion and love of building bikes for others. 

The start of the kudos

In 2024, Pete was awarded Best Gravel Bike and People’s Choice at Bespoked Manchester, something he’s extremely proud of. The Deka Rando-Trail 2 bike also won runner-up in the paint category, which Pete was keen to replicate at this year’s event. 

“I’d worked as a coach painter when I was 21. Last year, I got runner-up for paint job, and it’s something I know I can do alright. Maybe I could win something this year to do with the paint job. That would be cool,” he said.

• 
• 

• 
• 
• 

Pete’s current build is a design for Bespoked 2025. The “Swale,” named after the river in Yorkshire, is a distinctive bike that fits right in with the Medusa ethos of a bike that Pete feels needs to be built. 

He added, “It’s a do-it-all all-road bike. It’s my answer to the endurance road bike, easy to service, works with different drive trains, clearance for up to 42mm tyres, and a comfortable road ride that’s a bit quicker than a super wide MTB tyre. Some aspects of the geometry are a bit more aggressive than an average endurance road bike, a shorter chainstay, a touring bike rake to give a stable ride for longer rides, and a low bottom bracket.”

The Swale is built from Reynolds 931 with some bespoke additions to the frame, including integrated Portland Design works mud guards. For the show, Pete set the bike up with custom gold Velocity wheels, Hope, Garbaruk, Seido, and Middleburn components, a Brooks B17 saddle on titanium rails, and custom Brooks bar tape alongside lots of well-thought-out frame integrations. 

• 
• 
• 

Speaking to his selection of parts, he said, “I chose the Dia Compe UNO shifter, a simple bar-end design that works with any derailleur up to 12-speed, alongside very reliable TRP brakes. The dynamo lighting is a setup I’ve used and had success with before, with the Son 28 front hub, Exposure Revo front light, and Red Eye rear light combo. I like to use as much UK-made stuff as possible. It’s better for the planet, and I like to support local industry, hence the Middleburn RS7-X crank,  Hope headset/stem, and the USE EVO seatpost and Handlebar. The bell is my favourite Crane bell; it’s the one that was on my Surly when I rode to India.”

Humble as ever

At Bespoked in Manchester, the Swale gained lots of attention across the weekend from peers and the public, and deservedly, Pete took home the 2025 People’s Choice Award for the build amongst tough competition that included Ballern Cycleworks, Feather Cycles, Clandestine, Creature Cycles, Rat Bikes, and Drust Cycles. “I wasn’t expecting it two years in a row, which makes me think I must be doing at least a couple of things right. Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine what people are going to think of my work, considering my rather basic workshop set up, so it does give me some confidence,” he said.

• 
• 

From the shed all the way through to Bespoked, it was a pleasure to be a fly on the wall in Pete’s company. Watching him work through his creative process during the Swale build and seeing him rewarded for his hard work and ingenuity was a pleasure. I can’t wait to see what comes out of the shed next!

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...