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Spoken (formerly HBSA) is all wrapped up for another year, but you can bet many bikes are still waiting to be discussed.
In this second part (of three), we look at Aussie-made bikes and gear from Prova Cycles, Woods Bicycle Co, G-Duke, TOR, and VeloCraft. Additionally, we have some interesting stock-build titanium options from Bossi and Simpatico. All this and more awaits.
Don’t miss part one of our Spoken 2024 coverage. You can also find all of our coverage from the 2023 HBSA edition here.
Melbourne-based Prova Cycles has been turning up to the Handmade Show and consequently turning heads since the event began. Today Prova is firmly one of the most creative and highly desired builders in the world. The pictured Integrale has been out for a few years now and continues to be one of the best in show with its stunning integration of carbon fibre, 3D-printed titanium lugs, and welded titanium tubes.Prova certainly didn’t invent the idea of using carbon tubes within a titanium frame (the integrated seat tube, in this case), but they certainly helped to bring the idea back into fashion amognst the boutique bike scene. Prova Cycles is run by brother-and-sister duo Mark and Kelly Hester. Kelly makes the carbon tubes and handles the frame finishing work.Always clean. Tones of pink for this customer. That headset cover integration is made possible with a 3D-printed titanium top lug. Meanwhile that now-signature exposed paint is still done by VeloCraft.The Universal Derailleur Hanger (UDH) is considered a brand-new feature in the road world, but Prova has been equipping its road bikes with it for three years. The UDH hanger is custom made by Northshore Billet in order to provide a road-centric B-gap. There was plenty of bling to see at Spoken. For example, the public were invited to touch these iterative step samples of the new 3D-printed titanium hubs from Scope’s new premium Artech wheels. The finished product. The rims are super interesting, too. The fish-scale pattern is molded into the 23 mm-wide hooked carbon rim. The shallowest road version of these new wheels dip below 1,000 grams.This bright bike was found front-and-centre at the VeloCraft stand. It belongs to VeloCraft’s apprentice painter, Declan, who enlisted the help of others in the building to create his dream bike.
They’re not related, but Steve (owner of VeloCraft) sounded like a proud father in what he had to say of the young apprentice. The chosen brand name is DashDotDot, Morse Code for “D.”The faces behind the Lost Workshop, VeloCraft, and OzRiders Studio can be found under the same roof during the week. They each played a role in helping Declan build his bike.Ian from The Lost Workshop showed Declan the ropes in frame building. Steve, owner of VeloCraft, let Declan run wild in the paint booth as his first unassisted job. And James from OzRiders Studio walked Declan through the build.Another maker based in Melbourne, Tia of Framework Designs returned to the show with a collection of practical bags. Pictured is the Handlebar Snack Pack (AU$159) which offers both rolltop and zippered access (via the rear of the bag).It’s not just boutique Aussie makers attending Spoken. Swiss-brand ARC8 was present via its Australian distributor EightyOneSpices. Shown here is the company’s Evolve FS cross-country bike.Penny Farthing Dan is truly a maker’s maker. As Highwheeler parts are hardly production items, Dan makes just about everything you see on the bike, including the tyres, rims, saddle, and spokes. In the case of this road-going build, Dan has fitted a special-edition CaneCreek eeBrake for assisted control over the front wheel. These bikes are made to be ridden. While not all they do, Beechworth-based TOR Bikes has long experimented with custom bikes built around gearboxes. This customer’s steel trail hardtail build is centered around the new Pinion SmartShift, an electric-shifting planetary gear system.Pinion largely intends its electric system to be integrated into an e-bike system, but it can be fitted to regular bikes like this, too (albeit with a funky-shape battery that’s too big to fit within a seat tube).With some fancy Paul Klamper brakes, this build screams low maintenance and user serviceability. Abbey Bike Tools is now producing a few items from its acquired Noble Wheels collection. These bearing removers are an item I’ve covered previously that offer some unique advantages.Geoff Duke of G-Duke Bicycles is another frame builder based in Melbourne. Geoff specialises in steel repairs and modern-classic fabrication. Pictured is Geoff’s own bike, an all-road machine with an interesting lugged construction.Lugs are seen at the tapered headtube. The lug forming the lower part of the headtube is custom made by Geoff.And again at the seat tube junction. Meanwhile the T47 bottom bracket shell looks like it’s lugged, but rather it’s fabricated by hand to provide a matching aesthetic.Geoff also made his own removable racks for the bike. They use everything-style cages to make for a lightweight pannier-alternative. It’s a clean-looking setup. Geisler Cycles wasn’t present at the show, but a still-to-be-finished Columbus XCr stainless steel frame was on display in the Ortlieb booth. With a carbon seat tube made by Prova, it’s perhaps the nicest step-through I’ve seen.Evan of Terra Rossa Gear is a collab partner of outdoor brand Arc’teryx. Impressively the former Canadian was making things on the show floor while having conversations about his bike bags, which are made from recycled materials.Never miss the hockey. Bossi Bicycles is a Sydney-based bike company that uses overseas manufacturing to unlock some features that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to pull off. Pictured is the newly refreshed Strada SS, an aero titanium road bike I reviewed at the Old Place. This one improves in a few subtle ways.One of the standout features of the Strada SS remains its cast-titanium lugged head tube. The frame and accompanying cast lugs remain unique to Bossi. The T47 bottom bracket shell remains, but Bossi has been able to increase maximum tyre clearance from 30 mm to 35 mm. James Bossi had previously avoided designing a bike with 3D-printed titanium lugs as he sought to make an aero road bike with seamless joints. The often rough finish on a 3D printed part simply didn’t offer the sought aesthetic.
That has now changed, with Bossi’s Chinese manufacturer taking the impressively labour-intensive approach of over-printing the part, and then machining it back to achieve the consistent finish as shown. Within you’ll find a revised seatpost clamp. The dropouts are another item that have changed. These were previously cast titanium, and therefore locked the bottom bracket height and seatstay drop across all sizes. The development in 3D-printed titanium finishing means these dropouts are now size-specific and the geometry has been updated to match.The new Bossi Strada SS is UDH, of course. The Strada SS offers truncated-airfoil tube shaping extremely similar to a number of popular carbon race bikes.Veteran Australian frame maker Peter Teschner returned to the show with his unique approach in frame creation. There’s a whole lot of new tech in these carbon frames, including the use of 3D-printed Scandium alloy lugs that meet with resin-transfer-moulding carbon tubes (aka, RTM, a method that TIME was a pioneer in).Teschner packed the printer, too. Paul Hillbrick is another veteran of the Australian handmade scene and continues to support builders through his importation of Columbus. Columbus had a big year in 2023. The Italian manufacturer brought back its titanium tubeset and introduced Trittico, its own integrated cockpit/fork.Simpatico launched at the 2023 edition of HBSA with a titanium production all-road/fast-gravel bike. That versatile bike remains in the line-up, but this year co-owner Brandon brought along his personal bikepacking bike, the Jamo, a bike named after Jamieson in the Victorian High Country.Simpatico seem to be doing a strong job of bringing well-featured frames into Australia at competitive prices. While the designs are unique to the Melbourne-based company, the frames are made in China.This bike is built-up with the hydraulic-actuated Kindernay geared hub. Brendon swears by it, but unfortunately the company is still looking for a saviour from its debt.A machined chainstay yoke is a proven approach to gaining more tyre clearance and not limiting chaninring options. Brandon optioned his own bike to have through-headset cable routing, but customers can pick how and where the cables go. Also, that steerer tube you see is titanium, and the truss fork that follows is a full titanium item that Simpatico offer.Last year Simpatico showed a bike with a lot of Cerakote finishing. Now the company is offering such parts under sibling Nvisage, including a collection of Cerakote rotors and lockrings.Woods Bicycle Company is edging toward production with its unique approach to routing the brake hoses through a regular tapered head tube. It was a design the makers from the Byron Bay (NSW) region first showed last year, and they remain in the process of refining and testing. The exact details are discussed in an upcoming bonus episode of the Geek Warning podcast.TIG-welded steel with the usual eye for detail that Woods Bicycle Co has become known for. Gold leaf. And the brightest bike of the show goes to….
It’s too bright for my lens! Either way the design is extremely pleasing to look at. In my opinion, it’s so obviously loud that it works wonderfully.Prototipo bolts. The Woods brothers have been producing bikes for a few years. Today those welds are look mighty neat.
