Now in its 15th year, Bespoked returned to Manchester’s historic Victoria Baths, filling the stunning tiled halls with over 60 of the world’s finest independent bike builders and brands. Like last year, it was the crumbling Victoria Baths that hosted the show: all stained glass, cracked tiles, and numerous empty rooms with deteriorating interiors.
Set up literally in the old swimming pools, the show is a deep dive into the creativity that thrives among the smaller makers, the bespoke ones. It's the one show where there are more steel than carbon, more external cable routing, Brooks saddles, and moustaches.
I only spent the Friday at the show and must admit, one day wasn't enough to quite take it all in. This year’s programme was bigger than ever, featuring talks, films, food, and the first-ever Apocalypse Build-Off — a sort of tribute to garage tinkering and survival-ready bikes which you'll see towards the bottom of this gallery.
But without much further words, let's get into the pictures.
The Victoria Baths offers an unusual and visually distinctive venue for a bike show that juxtaposes odd display spaces (like old swimming pools and showers) and ornate, if somewhat dilapidated, charm.
Sturdy Cycles
Located midway through the first class swimming pool, Sturdy Cycles had a couple of recent customer builds and a frame on display. The man behind this brand is Tom Sturdy, who started making bikes a decade ago at his workshop in Frome, Somerset.
Sturdy, who runs the business with only one other employee, said that at their busiest, they were making up to 80 frames a year. But he admitted that he's since deliberately scaled that number back because it was "too stressful" and he "didn’t rate being that stressed all the time." Who does, really? When looking at the details of these bikes, it's easy to understand how making more than one each week could get a bit much.
Of the two bikes Sturdy had brought to Manchester, one was this custom road bike made for a customer named Jason uses a full titanium kit – frame, fork, bars, seatpost, and crankset – finished in white and gold. Sturdy said that the use of the ceracote coating finish rather than paint allows the finish to be thinner and harder, and lets the titanium show through.
Customer's name engraved in the chainstay is really special, and in the
Sturdy tries to make as much in-house as possible, including the cranks and chainrings. That hands-on approach is tangible in every detail.
Speaking of hands, Sturdy explained that he grew tired of writing "Made in Frome" or stamping "Made in England" onto his frames. Instead, many Sturdy bikes now feature a tiny, elegant outline of a hand with the British Isles subtly placed in the palm — a different kind of personal signature from the builder.
Sturdy also had this gravel bike with a much more affordable SRAM Apex build on show. That build is one of the stock frame sizes Sturdy introduced to his offerings just last month – similarly to quite a few of the other more premium custom frame builders with the idea of bringing the cost down. Mind you, this full build will still set you back £9,900.
The cost of bespoke bikes was a topic of more than one conversation, and though we can all agree that some of these creations are absolutely stunning, even the builders themselves admit that they'd find it hard to afford the five-figure bikes if they didn't build them themselves.
Clandestine
Based out of Devon, Pi Manson builds Clandestine bikes with a philosophy that's inspired by vintage utility bikes and infused with a focus on modern functionality such as internal hub gearing, dynamo lighting setups, and strong, purposeful frames.
At Bespoked Manchester, Clandestine showed a nifty, bright red baker's bike (Pi is vegan, so he didn't want to call this a "butchers' bike"). It was crafted using up old parts Pi had lying around, and the design isn't just for looks: it was made to easily fit through British doorways, with a detachable front rack complete with a waterproof support board.
Full mudguards are a UK bike staple, and really complete this build.
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