W-I-N-T-E-R

I've dug the winter training bikes out of the back of the garage and over the last 2 weeks I've done a ride on my old Claud Butler fixed trainer and another on my Geoffrey Butler geared bike. The Claud is a 56cm frame and is a tad too big while the Geoffrey is a 53 and an even smaller tad too small. However, the saddle is stuck in the frame on the GB and it's got a liberal coating of rust in all sorts of nooks and crannies, so it's time for a new training frame and swap the parts over. A quick browse round the web and the Dolan Preffisio looked about right and a 54cm (you only get 2cm increments) was duly ordered and has now arrived.

Slip the headset in, add the saddle and pin, put in the bottom bracket and its time to measure up for the stem length and height. I've done this hundreds of times to the point I know my measurements without reference. The top and seat tubes measure pretty much to my fit and the amount of seat post showing looks about right but It's taken me nearly an hour to work out why I suddenly have 40mm of spacers under the handlebar stem. Of course - INTEGRATED HEAD SET - no stack height over the top of the top tube so the stem height looks out of proportion. This is hardly the first bike with an integrated HS I've built up, but its the first that's come out like this. Having said that my other road bikes with integrated headsets are all 55cm C to C (and I now note have larger diameter top tubes) and I sure as hell don't want a 56. Theoretically it will all fit but at this stage I need convincing.

Bespoked

Just for a change, yesterday we took a trip to Bristol to visit the opening day of Bespoked - the UK Hand made and bespoke bicycle show. Held in The Paintworks, an old factory complex which houses a number of businesses and exhibition space near the city centre, this is the first year the show has run and I don't think anyone really knew what to expect. Not surprisingly for a new venture, the show was quite small with about 35 exhibitors. These ranged from the established - Condor, Brian Rourke & Enigma to the newly started - Feather, Paulus Quinos etc. through the slightly left field - Il Soigneur, Pete's Bikes, Paper bikes and the more traditional racing end of the market - Guru, Strada etc.
In all a very eclectic mix representing frame and wheel builders, clothing and accessory sellers and publishers, a mix I sincerely hope the organisers do not dilute when the 2nd edition takes place in March 2012. We arrived quite early to find the hall buzzing and left shortly after lunch, by which point it was getting pretty rammed, a good pointer for the future.
This is all a very welcome development from the situation about 10 years ago when you could name UK custom frame builders almost on the fingers of one hand and outside of these all you could find were mass produced alluminium and plastic bikes from the manufacturers who rule the pro peloton to this day. But, as one exhibitor noted, there is no such thing as the wrong material to make a frame out of, it all depends what you want to do with it. For an increasing number of people a reversion back to an artisan, bespoke building industry making predominantly steel frames (with a few titanium specialists such as Burls and Enigma it must be added) individually to order and specification is exactly what they want. It is also clear that recent cultural changes like Sustrans, city centre cycle routes, cycle polo and the present "Fixie" craze, not to mention the more traditional touring/audax types such as Mrs. Kipper and I are starting to exert an effect on this return to more traditional values, albeit with a bit more "street cred" than in the past - long may it continue.