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It’s time for the third and final gallery from Spoken 2024, and you can bet I saved some of the best for last. Within you’ll find some stunning locally-made builds from Baum and H-Tech. A couple of lovely titanium offerings from Curve and Wondercross. And as the token international builder present at the show, I’ll wrap up the gallery with a beauty of a bike from UK-based Feather Cycles.
Before we get to the final array of bikes and gear, I will share some fairly big news for past and future attendees of Spoken/Handmade Bicycle Show Australia… the show will be moving to Sydney in 2025. Dates are not yet confirmed, but expect a show with a similar vibe to years past, just bigger, and with a whole new audience.
Don’t miss part one and part two of our Spoken 2024 coverage. You can also find all of our coverage from the 2023 HBSA edition here.
The Australian frame company that needs little introduction, Baum Cycles brought a few of its flawless bikes to Spoken. Shown here is the company’s new tradtionally styled integrated disc brake bike, the Celaris.There’s some truly unique and well-considered tech hidden away to fit the brake hoses through a regular 1 1/8in headset and head tube. Our previous coverage of the Baum Celaris explains it all.Soon headed to Germany, this customer build features a number of weight-focussed choices, yet remains wholly functional for daily use. The Celaris’ tapered head tube is all about providing a more traditional aesthetic compared to the more usual oversized head tubes used to conceal hoses. Those welds. No thick coat of paint to hide anything here either. More 3D-printed saddles seen.Baum uses just a regular Chris King Dropset headset for its Celaris builds. Read and see more about the Celaris model here.Baum Cycles is based just around the corner from Partington. I’ve previously reviewed the Australian-made R39/44 wheels, while this bike featured the newer and even lighter R31 (1,060 g claimed).Partington uses its own boomerang-like carbon spoke which is then bonded to its own hub. It’s like nothing else on the market. Baum is all about the finest of details. Note the thru-axle on the driveside (right) that has a machined end to help with guiding it into place. Project Flock has been teasing its light for years and has finally reached production. The USB-C rechargeable light adds a downward beam that illuminates your legs to gain bio-motion awareness from motorists. The lights are assembled in Melbourne.The light comes with a well-functioning rubber-strap mount, but a number of more specialist mounts are available separately, too.More from the Melbourne scene. Wondercross started as a social ride and grew into a bike brand. Pictured is the brand’s titanium all-road model, the Rambler.Wondercross has just started trialling titanium forks. Expect this concept to become a common trend over the next 12-24 months. This model offers generous endurance-style stack heights. Those obviously S-bent stays can handle up to 38 mm tyres (35 mm with fenders). Wondercross bikes are designed in Melbourne and manufactured in China.It’s custom, in a sense. The Spoken show has increasingly expanded to include items of interest for a wider cycling audience. Reserve wheels had a few things on show, but much attention was going to its Fillmore valve colour upgrades. A good number of makers and brands offer visitors insight into how the sausage is made. Grown from the messenger world, today Omnium produces some of the lightest and most nimble cargo bikes in the market.Aussie-label Curve Cycling has become increasingly high-end in recent years. Pictured here is new Belgie Air 3D, a titanium bike that integrates 3D-printing and a carbon seat tube.Curve’s bikes are still manufactured in China, but its Air range is finished in Australia, including bonding of the seat tube and paint. The paint here is done by Curve’s co-founder Steve who recently opened his own paint business, Candy Factory Paintworks. This bike is soon headed to Curve’s Sales Director Ryan Flinn who aims to race the 2,400 km Pan Celtic Race in July. This new Belgie Air 3D is UDH. A 3D-printed lug is used at the bottom bracket to provide a stable seat and reliable bond with the carbon seat tube. Overall the design uses a number of themes first seen with Prova’s Integrale model.This was one of the only bikes on show to feature Columbus’ new Trittico cockpit and fork, a system that exists to keep the hoses concealed.Ingrid parts to touch (represented by Australian distributor EightyOneSpices).Silca had a big display area (and like other vendors, were selling to the public). Company owner Josh Poertner had made the long trip for tech talks, or just to answer whatever nerdy question you could think of.
Speaking of nerdy questions, Josh is one of the voices on the upcoming bonus episode of the Geek Warning podcast from Spoken. One of my favourite makers, Perth-based Hayden Francis of HTech was back at the show with the next iteration of his Aeriform aero road bike. Simply put, this bike blows my mind.The first wooden aero road bike with UDH? Let’s take a closer look at that. The rear end is made with a laminate construction, featuring layers of carbon fibre amongst the wood. It’s even internally routed for the rear brake hose!Meanwhile the front end uses a different construction method that allows for hollow tubes. It’s all off-the-shelf carbon kit on the front end. Just stunning. More details. And while not easy to see from this angle, there is a consistent curvature to both the top tube and down tube.
Estimated labour in the creation of this single frame? 400 hours. Price guide for a SRAM Red-equipped complete bike? Less than an S-Works. As I said, mind blown.The seat tube is flattened on the driveside for the front derailleur. The head tube and bottom bracket are reinforced with carbon fibre lugs. Of course Hayden makes his own.
It’s art, but more impressively, Hayden uses FEA (finite element analysis) to ensure the designs will withstand heavy use. Spoken was living up to its new name with what felt like a huge number of wheel brands present. With a short walk you could compare Mavic, Scope, Princeton Carbon Works, Lightweight, Reserve, and more.
Pictured is the Princeton Carbon Works Mach TSV2. Making the long trip from York, United KIngdom, steel frame builder Ricky Feather was at the show with Feather Cycles.Feather Cycles are elegant machines with classically smooth fillet brazed joins. And yes, the paint is absurd! The use of carbon fibre seat tubes with handcrafted metal frames is very much in vogue. I love these lines.There is serious depth to this paint which is done by Yorkshire-based Jack Kingston. It involves silly string, paint thinners, metal leaf, and a whole lot of steps.Keep an ear out for the bonus episode of Geek Warning where Ricky explains why gold leaf is preferrable in logos over paint. To tease, it’s about light reflection. This one is a pure road bike, but Ricky makes other styles of bikes, too. With lines like these I’m thankful for Ricky making the journey. Ricky also recently launched a second brand, WKNDR (Weekender). These are still custom made by Ricky, but feature a more time-efficient TIG-welded construction and will be made in small batches in order to bring the price point down. Ricky plans to make a single Feather frame along with a handful of WKNDR’s each month (there will be a few different models to pick from).
Ricky will be in Manchseter next weekend for the annual BeSpoked show.After three days of running around and talking bikes. Not complaining.
