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Handmade bike shows are a chance to get up close with some of the nicest bikes in the world and speak with the people responsible for creating them. There’s always plenty to see and take in, however Made Australia, in conjunction with Fyxo, added an extra twist for bike nerds by inviting collectors and diehards to show off their own prides and joy through the Bicycles Roadshow.
Spanning the Cote d’Azur (inside flat part around the track) of the host velodrome, the Bicycles Roadshow offered a 250-metre-long walk featuring one-off creations, retro classics, former race-winning bikes, and a touch of bling. Obviously, there were countless bikes to cover, so below you’ll get just a taste of what was on display.
It’s worth noting that I often include all sorts of easter-eggs in my hyperlinks and this article is no exception. Many a rabbit hole awaits. Enjoy!
To kick things off, the Adelaide-based Australian Museum of MTB made the drive up with a few of its display pieces. Pictured is a Trek Y-22 from 1997, one of the earlier examples of a mass-production (and successful) carbon fibre full suspension mountain bike.Trek’s unmistakable Y frame shape was easily visible when ridden in the Pacific Blue TV series. Somewhat like the Unified Rear Triangle (URT) suspension design, that TV show did not age well. The build on this one isn’t original, but these USA-made Spin wheels are period-correct and also featured heavily in Pacific Blue.Once upon a time, and well before the online retail giant ChainReactionCycles bought the name, Vitus was an innovative French road bicycle manufacturer. They weren’t known for their mountain bikes, but they made two models, one of which being this soft tail.
The construction is similar to Alan Bikes of the day, with an aluminium lugged and bonded construction. Today Scott is a Swiss-based company, but it started in the USA. The company started making mountain bikes in the early 1990s, with this USA-made Scott Boulder hardtail offering an example of what came a few years in.Such a classic of the ’90s. This Doug Bradbury-designed Manitou full suspension from 1993 showcases a design not repeated since.The rear seatstay was effectively a modified suspension fork. The linkage-based Shimano V-brakes are not original; rather this bike would have originally run cantilever brakes.These Cook Bros Racing cranks should get any lifelong bike nerd over the age of 40 salivating. Joe Mullan, co-owner of the museum, proudly pointed out that all the bikes on display were not cracked or repaired – quite the claim for this generation of mountain bike.It’s 1991, Moab features heavily in the Cannondale catalogue, and the neons of this SE2000 have many aspiring mountain bikers in lust.Getting a little bit newer, this is a British-made 2002 Pace RC300. “This used to be my old race bike back in the day,” shared Joe. “It’s the roughest ride due to the square tubing. It was hell, but went like hell in a straight line.”
Also spot the Pace suspension on the front. Joe claims this was the last fork made by Pace before the suspension division was sold to DT Swiss.This now-musuem-piece is built up with a collection of UK-made parts. Middleburn is still making cranks today, but back in the early 2000s these were highly desirable (I had a pair of RS8s with a one-piece 2x ring set and a Phil Wood Titanium square taper bottom bracket. There’s no point to this sidebar, I’m just gloating).A Thrones-collab saddle for a previous edition of Fyxo’s Melburn Roobaix (the 2024 edition ran the day after Made Australia).Square tubes. These Pace frames are highly desirable, and something framebuilder Rob English sought to pay homage to at last year’s Made bike show.Pace also made frames with a square seat tube. This round tube is arguably more practical, but it makes this one a little less rare. Well before the doping scandals and telling all in his book, ‘The Secret Race,’ American racer Tyler Hamilton was one of the key names to watch. In 2004 Hamilton rode this BMC Teammachine SLT01 for the Phonak Cycling Team. That original Teammachine helped to put BMC on the global map. It was actually the heaviest frame in the WorldTour at the time, but the unmistakable aluminium lug and carbon tube construction was uniquely desirable (for some).The owner of this bike found this piece of racing history in Canada through a former team staffer. A 1997 Mongoose Pro RX 9.7. This design didn’t stick around for long. Can you even have a Bicycle Roadshow without an Allsop Softride? This Powercurve is a blast-from-the-please-don’t-come-back-past. As the Australian importer of Columbus, Sydney-based Paul Hillbrick remains a familiar face at the Australian handmade shows. Hillbrick still makes frames but not quite at the scale of previous years. This custom pursuit bike from 1996 was raced by a then-junior Shaun Hosking to an array of medals.For nearly two decades, the Hillbrick name was synonymous with Australian track racing.Custom-made handlebar and one-piece quill-stem. Ideas do indeed repeat.Another iconic name in the Australia’s framebuilding scene is Ken Evans. Still making frames today, Ken’s frames are prized by many.Like the Hillbrick above, this classic Pista build is stunningly finished by the local cycling-component-restoration expert CycloRetro. And more CycloRetro goodness can be found on this Tommasini Super Prestige. Made in 2017, this special edition frameset exists to celebrate Irio Tommasini’s 85th birthday. It’s a true Italian-made beauty. The owner of this bike built it up with a 1984 Campagnolo Super Record groupset (with a few CycloRetro touches). Tommasini still produces an array of metal frames in the Tuscany region of Italy. Polished goodness at all corners. The pantographed details and high polish finish are signature CycloRetro.To finish up we have this rather incredible 1990 Slingshot from Steve White of Melbourne-based White’s Bikes. White raced mountain bikes for the likes of Fat Chance and Slingshot, and while he sold his old race bikes off while they were still current, in the recent decade he subsequently sourced and built the shown bike to be as period-correct as possible.It may lack a rear shock, but the Slingshot was in theory the first URT full suspension mountain bike. The seat tube and top tube were connected via a fiberglass leaf spring.Meanwhile the down tube was replaced with a steel cable tensioned via a steel coil spring. Flexy, smooth, and light was the intent.Starting in the mid 1980s, the Slingshot went through many iterations.Designed in 1984, the Hite-Rite was the first dropper post. Sit on the saddle and open the quick release to drop, or stand with the quick release opened to raise. It took another two decades for the dropper post idea to return.
Amazingly you can still purchase New-Old-Stock of the Hite-Rite today. More USA-made goodness is seen with the Grafton Speed Controller cantilever brakes. The early days of through-stem cable routing (written with a smirk). Thumbies have come back into vogue with the bikepacking crowd, but there was a time where these were state-of-the-art shifting tech. Raced by the likes of John Tomac and Greg Herbold, the Tioga Tension Disc rear wheel was an iconic product of 1990s mountain bike racing. The Kevlar-spoked wheel was actually a creation of Sugino, licensed to Tioga. The state of the rim surface shows this one had a hard life, but it’s no doubt a valuable collector’s item today. Also note the period-correct tyres. Another prized possession are these Yeti/Answer Accu-trax forks that match the handlebar. Related, Answer would later acquire Manitou. More Cooks goodness. A truly marvelous time capsule of a bike.
In case you missed it, be sure to catch up on all the action from Made Australia in our part one and part two galleries.
