As another preview of what’s coming to town, this short video of the 2010 show was put together by attendee Michael Wendell.

2010 North American Handmade Bicycle Show from Michael Wendell on Vimeo.

Can’t wait for 2011!

Click photo to see whole gallery

Our city also got honors at this year’s show with Austin’s own Nick Crumpton picking up the award for best carbon fiber bike. Cyclelious did some great coverage including interviews with several participants.

To whet your appetite, here are some images from the 2010 show which just wrapped up in Richmond, VA.

NAHBS Group on Flickr:

If you are looking for more professional quality and details shots of some of the featured bike, check out Urban Velo’s studio pictures from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

Richard Sachs:

Boston framebuilder Geekhouse:

Mike Flanigan of A.N.T.:

Finally, Doug Fattic, the master framebuilder who taught me how to build:

Flanigan recently produced this short video giving us a peek into the design thought process we use to create this style of bikes and some of the unique touches he puts into his frames.

From Down Under to the USA

As with every builder I’ve met, the passion for frame building began with a passion for cycling from an early age. Flatman rode BMX while growing up in Australia and eventually went on to race mountain bike and down hill. He left the racing scene once the pressure of racing ceased being fun and got a degree as an outdoor education teacher. Still being drawn to cycling, Flatman started working at a local bike shop as a mechanic.

As with most life changes in early adulthood, Flatman’s move to the US involved a girl. He settled into Colorado with his girlfriend at the time and picked up work again as a bike mechanic. Though this is a foreign concept to Texas bike shops, most Colorado bike shops serve double duty as a ski and winter sport shop during the winter months. This meant some seriously reduced hours for Flatman, and he started looking for other work. When a mechanic job at Dean Titanium Bikes came up, he applied and got the job.

At this point, Flatman harbored a dream in the back of his mind to build frames himself one day. Under the guidance of frame builder Pete Smith whom Flatman calls “one of the best damn frame builders out there”, he learned building on the side. As opportunities opened up, he moved over into the building process doing joint tacking then full on welding.

The origins of Alchemy Bicycle Company

After four years at Dean, Flatman struck out on his own and moved to Texas. Rather than try to start a framebuilding business right away and due to some bike industry burn out, he took work as a contract welder for NASA and the US military. The work wasn’t exciting, but it did improve Flatman’s welding and fabrication skills and gave him the capital to start Alchemy. In late 2008, he left the contract work and launched Alchemy Bicycle Company in January of 2009. While Alchemy is new to the Austin cycling scene, it has come on strong with a presence at the Texas Custom Bicycle Shop, ubiquitous print ads, and a sponsorship of The Driveway Crits series for 2010. Flatman invested in a large workshop with a bike showroom near South Congress and Ben White, and Alchemy is also carried by local bike boutique, Pro Cycles, and KGS Bikes in San Antonio.

Any way you want it, that’s the way we’ll build it

James Flatman takes the traditional builder approach of fully custom to all rider types and styles. Unlike most builders, he does not specialize in a particular bike style such as road or 29er and more importantly he does not specialize in any one particular material. His approach is that the design and the materials should match the needs of the rider. This means steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber are all on the table. And while he prefers titanium for its combination of light weight and durability, his goal in all his bikes is to build durability over obsession with the weight of the frame.

Equally if not more important to materials in bike construction is fit, and it is here where Flatman combines his years of experience with new hi-tech solutions to get a bike truly tailored to the rider. He does extensive interviews with clients, takes measurements, and watches them ride on a trainer. He has also begun using the ReTool Fitting System, a Wii-like system that records key points on the body while riding and then imports that data into a design program like BikeCAD.

The future of Alchemy

Flatman has brought in help to keep his build time to about 6 weeks, a relatively quick turn around for a custom builder. He currently offers steel and aluminum frames starting at $1600 and titanium at $2350. He estimates he’ll be building over 200 frames next year, and as his business and brand grows, there are plans to expand his manufacturing space and establish a dealer network. With some luck, Alchemy could be a national custom brand in a few years.

In the meantime, Flatman keeps producing well made, very nice looking bikes “transforming your dream bike into a reality.”

Alchemy Bicycle Company
209 E. Ben White Blvd., Suite 211
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 443-2900
http://alchemybicycles.com

The latest custom Ferguson city bike with Carbon Belt Drive

“Bike building is a lot like the Internet. They both involve a series of tubes.” Elliott McFadden,Violet Crown Cycles

This fall, I was contacted by a customer wanting a Ferguson city bike as a possible replacement to his car. He lives and works downtown and was ready to give car free living a try. The problem was he works in an office where he has to wear a suit so he needed a bike that would allow him to ride in different weather and not stain his clothes as well as allow him to run everyday errands.

We initial looked at a regular Ferguson with a full chain guard (as opposed to the half guard I’ve normally been putting on them.) While in the Netherlands full chain guards are sold in department stores, they are near impossible to get in the U.S. market. I with research, I found an importer, but in the meantime, the customer had grown interested in a Carbon Belt Drive after test riding a Trek Soho.

Trek was one of the first companies to use the Carbon Belt Drive technology in a stock bike. Replacing the conventional chain drive with a belt system similar to belts in a car engine, the Carbon Belt Drive has many advantages including a substantial weight savings, no greasy chain, and increased efficiency. On the down side since the belt is all one piece, you are pretty much done with your ride if the belt ever breaks. No shorting the chain or popping in a link here. It is also a couple hundred dollars more expensive for the system and replacement belts run in the $60 range. Still in an urban cycling environment, the system makes a whole lot of sense.

One other issue with the fact that the belt is all one piece is that you have to have a frame that can break apart to install the belt. This limits retrofits to steel or ti frames in the hands of knowledgeable frame builders. The design choices to make this work are either breaking the frame at the drive side dropout or on the seat stay with an S&S coupler. I found breaking the the frame at the dropout to be the simplest, structurally strongest,  and least obtrusive option.

Before getting to the frame breaking, I built up the frame to the customer’s dimensions as I would any other bike. Again since the Carbon Belt cannot be broken, I had to pay extra close attention to chain stay length and double check work along the way with the belt, crank and hub. The Carbon Belt Drive folks have you use a calculator with the cog and crank sizes as well as desired chain stay length to determine which belt size to order. There is a little wiggle room with horizontal drop outs, but I had to take care that everything fit well.

Closeup of Carbon Belt Drive and rear dropout. Stainless steel reinforcement plate holds the required split dropout together.

One difference from previous frames is that I switched to backward facing horizontal dropouts. This track style design, as opposed to the forward slanting touring style dropouts I’ve used on earlier frames, worked better with my frame break design. It also allows easier chain tensioning (or belt tensioning in this case). On the down side, it is a little more difficult to insert the rear wheel with fenders in this setup. All in all, I do think rear facing dropouts are a better match for these bikes, and I intend to make them standard on future versions.

Once the rear triangle was done and everything checked for alignment, I used a thick stainless steel cover plate to create the needed reinforcement for the soon to be made frame break in the dropouts. I drilled and taps four points on the plate and dropout for a secure fit. Out came the hack saw next, and I created a nice clean break between the seat and chain stays.

New VO saddle with copper rivets and very nice Brooks Brick Road pannier bags.

Once the bike was back from powdering coating in a nice high glossy black, I built up the bike with its new Carbon Belt Drive. I was pleased with the smoothness and quietness of the belt drive, and it added a nice modern feature to the otherwise classically designed bike. I did keep a half chain guard just to keep the odd pant leg from getting caught, but this system should provide grime free riding for the foreseeable future.

The Carbon Belt Drive does seem to be a real step forward in drive train design and certainly an option I’d recommend for future customers.

A mountain bike by True Fabrication of Austin, TX on Day 3. Image courtesy of Cory Swartz.

Marcus posted pictures from Friday, but there are also more pictures online at ACA Education Direct Wes Robinson’s Facebook page and on Flickr from show attendee Cory Swartz.

The 2010 Texas Custom Bicycle Show is already in the works with possibly some cool additional events as part of the show. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

Group Picture of the frame builders and participants at the 2009 Texas Custom Bicycle Show. Image courtesy of Tim Massengill of Massengill Frames.

Some of the details on custom bikes you can't get in a production model. Image courtesy of Southwest Frameworks.

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the finest custom bicycle builders from all over the Lone Star state (plus one honorary Texan from Philadelphia) will converge on Austin for the second annual Texas Custom Bicycle Show. The show is free and open to the public and will be a part of the Expo at the LiveStrong Challenge.

“We are excited to provide a platform to show off locally made, high quality custom bikes at a great venue, the LiveStrong Challenge,” said Glenn Thompson, the organizer of the Texas Custom Bicycle Show and the owner and frame builder of Daltex Handmade Bicycles. “I was happy to be a part of the show in our successful first year and am please to see it grow in size and diversity.”

Texas Custom Bike Show
FREE TO THE PUBLIC
Friday, October 23, Noon- 7 PM and Saturday, October 24, 9 AM- 1 PM
LiveStrong Expo, Austin Convention Center
Sunday, October 25, 8:30 AM- 5 PM
Dripping Springs Finish Line of the LiveStrong Challenge

The variety of design on head tube badges along is amazing. Image courtesy of Alchemy Bicycle Company.

Confirmed builders are Alchemy Bicycle Company, Bilenky Cycle Works, Crumpton Cycles, Daltex Handmade Bicycles, Dominion Bicycle Company, Gallus Cycles, Kirklee, Massengill Cycles, Southwest Frameworks, True Fabrication, Violet Crown Cycles, and Willits Brand Bicycles. These makers of hand built frames work in steel, titanium, aluminum, and carbon with styles as diverse as road, mountain, cyclocross, touring, track, 29er, tandems, cargo, and city bikes.

We’ll be bring you photos and interviews from the show, but in the meantime there is more info and short profiles of each of the builders at the Texas Custom Bicycle Show website. You can also follow the show and see photo galleries from the builders at their Facebook page.

Each part of the bike is hand crafted by the builders. Image courtesy of Daltex Handmade Bikes.