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It’s been a whirlwind of shows for the handmade bike scene. In the past two weeks we’ve had Spoken in Melbourne, (formerly Handmade Bicycle Show Australia), Bespoked in Manchester, and the Enve Builder Round-Up in Utah, as part of the Grodeo gravel event. And to add one more into the mix, the USA’s Made collaborated with Aussie brand Fyxo to hold the inaugural Australian edition of its show over the past weekend, an event that coincided with the legendary Melburn Roobaix bicycle party.
While Escape couldn’t be at all the shows – mainly because of a big bicycle race happening at the moment, plus a tradeshow in Germany – I at least managed to attend Spoken and Made Australia. While the two shows certainly had some builders in common, there was a surprising lack of overlapping bikes. Many of the builders who attended both events sought to showcase different bikes, while many other exhibitors chose to appear at a single show.
In the USA, Made has a simple ethos for exhibitors: if you make your own stuff, then you’re welcome to have a booth. For Made Australia and the smaller surrounding industry, it was a mix of builders new and old, a handful of local brands, some bigger industry names, a leading shop representing a number of interesting products, and even a seller of desirable NOS (new old stock) items. Some would call it a mixed bag, but for this bike geek, it was a treat.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our three-part gallery series from the Spoken show. And before you keep scrolling, please consider opening this gallery on a large screen for the best experience.
The Lost Workshop, one of the fan favourites from Spoken, was back at Made Australia with a handful of ultra-elegant steel bikes. Pictured here is the personal track bike of builder Ian Michelson, a bike that felt fitting to cover given the show was held at the DISC (Darebin International Sports Centre) velodrome.Just like the bike covered at Spoken, this track bike is built with Columbus’ 100th anniversary edition Cento tubeset.Lush paint by VeloCraft covers the smooth fillet-brazed joins.“Ride Fast, Turn Left.” The build on this one is exquisite.More Dura-Ace Track goodness. Cables are fully concealed on this one. The joke tracks. Ian joked that he’s thankful the Cento tubeset has become rarer than hen’s teeth – the golf-ball-shaped bottom bracket apparently creates all sorts of patience-testing headaches when mitering the accompanying tubes.Makers are always going to make. Ian and Natalee of The Lost Workshop have given themselves quite the reputation for feeding exhibitors at these shows. They arrived with literal buckets of baked goodness. The DISC velodrome is a proper international sporting stage. Made Australia occupied the centre of the facility (warm-up area). Meanwhile, the Cote D’Azur (inside flat part around the track) hosted the Bicycles Roadshow, where collectors could show their prized rides. I’ll soon have a gallery covering some of these bikes.Meet Sushi, the head of hospitality at Fyxo.Along with the unmissable pink bike recently shown, the Woods brothers were back in Melbourne with a few new things. Among the new builds was this gearbox-equipped version of the El Camino, Woods’ high-pivot steel mountain bike.This customer build offers a few features previously seen in mountain bikes from Woods Bicycle Co, such as the laser-cut plate brace on the swingarm, and the adjustable shock position mount on the down tube.This bike was built around the French-made Effigear Mimic gearbox. This system offers nine gears with a total range of 469%. This bike was built with the ability to run a belt-drive in place of the chain.A split chainstay awaits the belt-drive. Fabricator Zac Woods is all about simple ownership and easy access to parts. One example is that the main pivot on this bike uses a PF30 bottom bracket cup with an oversized 22 mm (ID) bearing.Another El Camino, this time built as a singlespeed park bike. Those old Marzocchi Shivers on the front are a vibe. In other big news, Woods Bicycle Co will soon offer titanium frames, too. Here is the first, a RoadRunner Titanium, being built up by SRAM as a live show feature. The brake hoses on this bike are hidden with Woods’ own design, something discussed on the latest bonus episode of the Geek Warning podcast.Formerly an Australian manufacturer, Velocity now resides in Michigan, USA. The company flew over to be at Made Australia.Coming soon from the aluminium rim specialists is the Aero disc road rim. This will feature a 23 mm internal width hooked rim, be offered in common drillings, and in a range of colours.Veteran frame builder Ken Evans was present at Made Australia with a handful of bikes, both old and new. Having built his first frame in 1976, Ken is still building today!This track bike was using Columbus’ anniversary Cento tubeset. Gorgeous lugs and an iconic Aussie name. Having made cycling bags since the mid-2000s, Melbourne-based SkinGrowsBack were present at the show with just a small handful of what they have to offer.Just two weeks after showing its new Belgie Air 3D, Curve Cycling was at Made Australia with other new bikes, including this UpRock Titanium cross-country hardtail. Curve designs its frames in Australia and outsources manufacturing to China.A frilled lizard graces the head tube badge of this UpRock.More than 10 years for Curve.The new UpRock can clear 29 x 2.4″ tyres. Meanwhile Curve’s new Seek 500 fork up front can handle far more, along with offering a flipchip for a two-position fork offset and an 8 kg carrying capacity off the fork leg mounts.Curve also teased its own titanium seatpost. The UpRock features Curve’s new modular sliding dropout system. It’s the Aussie brand’s approach to bringing more customisation options into a single frame.This particular show bike was set up with Boost wheel spacing, a post mount brake, and a UDH (T-Type) hanger interface.Curve’s design offers deep keyed slots which are intended to resist twisting forces. It all works in unison with Curve’s own mated frame dropouts.Just a few examples of the modular non-driveside dropouts. Curve will offer dropouts spanning from 135 QR with a built-in Speedbone for Rohloff hubs, 142×12 flat mount for gravel, and 148×12 post-mount for mountain bikes. On the driveside there are also single-speed specific and UDH options. Formerly known as Commuter Cycles, Melbourne-based Off Course had the biggest stand at Made Australia in order to represent a number of brands.As the name suggests, the Off Course store thrives on selling more off-beat bike brands such as Surly, Kona, and Wilde. The Wilde pictured is a custom steel Dream Engine belonging to store founder Huw Vellacott. Made in the USA, this particular model has room for up to 29 x 2.6″ tyres and is intended for long-distance bikepacking.Off Course was also representing VeloOrange’s range of accessories and components. As recently reported, there’s a trend toward reviving 26″-wheeled mountain bikes as stylish commuters, and on that theme, the shop had this classic Australian Shogun on display.Sitting alongside the Shogun was this reborn Gemini World Randonneur. Pete McLennan was at the show with an impressive collection of NOS cycling items. Most were for sale, but this 25th anniversary Shimano Dura-Ace (7700 series) boxed set was merely there for show. Note the watch in the bottom right hand corner. That’s the piece that most of these prized sets are missing.The set also includes hubs, a seatpost, a threaded headset, and pedals. The difference in your bank account between owning these and not owning them is known as the Delta. Peter sells the collection on the Retro Bikes Australia Facebook page.Campagnolo is still producing its Big Corkscrew – the type of gift you give a cyclist who has everything.And then we come to the always spectacular Baum Cycles. This is the new integrated version of Baum’s Orbis+ all-road bike. Unlike the brand’s more classically styled Celaris design that uses an in-house modified fork, the brake hoses on this are hidden by using off-the-shelf Enve components and Chris King’s new Aeroset headset (1.5″ headset bearing, top and bottom).The Orbis+ achieves room for 700 x 40 mm tyres through the use of a 3D titanium printed chainstay yoke. Fender mounts are optional. It’s hard to find a cleaner-looking bike than a Baum. When it comes to Baum, one simply must share the obligatory bottom bracket junction photo. Meanwhile Baum also had this titanium cross-country hardtail on display. The custom geometry frame offers a longer-than-normal reach figure. The frame clears a 29 x 2.4″ tyre on a wide Enve rim.Tones of blue, all painted to match. Classic design with modern geometry. Baum is one of the more vertically integrated builders out there, with head tube machining, tube butting, and even paint all done in-house. A bent seat tube affords additional tyre clearance, as does the 3D-titanium printed chainstay yoke.
There’s more to come! Expect another gallery from Made Australia, plus a little side-quest to showcase a few well-loved time capsules from the Bicycles Roadshow.
If you liked this gallery, then don’t miss our previous coverage from Spoken 2024 and Made 2023.
