Rob English – framebuilder and contributor to Escape Collective – returns today with a round-up of some of the standout bikes seen at the Made bike show this past weekend.
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This year, Made returned to Portland, Oregon, for the second edition. I made the short trip up from Eugene with a few bikes to display and decided to make my weekend a bit busier by doing my best with some show coverage, too. As ever there was a wonderful range of incredible craft on show, with new names alongside the more established builders.
Without actually checking any data, my impression is that gravel bikes seemed to be the style most represented, with that segment running a wide range from big-tired-road to drop-bar-mountain. As a builder, I found myself curious about the different solutions for tyre/chainring clearance and disc brake mounting – both areas of constraint when designing and building. Something I really appreciate about the handmade bicycle scene is that it proves that there is no ‘right’ way to solve a problem, and it is fascinating to see the ingenuities and subtleties of the different solutions.
The show was significantly bigger this year, with a large number of booths added outside, and several Australian builders making the trip over. Aside from the great marketing opportunity, Made is a chance to connect or re-connect with other builders and compare notes on design, fabrication, and business. It’s a time to collaborate and hopefully help us all learn and improve.
I fell far short of documenting all the bikes I would have liked to, but here is round one of those that I did. Plus, for those that want to hear more, be sure to tune into the bonus Geek Warning episode.
Neuhaus Metal Works
Based in Northern California, Nick and Daniel at Neuhaus brought a number of bikes, including their Epyon gravel bike. The titanium frame will fit 48 mm tires whilst maintaining short 425 mm chainstays. A wide-format T47 bottom bracket shell and carefully formed chainstays provide the clearance, while a printed-to-size seatstay yoke makes for a clean transition from the top tube.
The dropouts are their new UDH design, which keeps things as compact as possible whilst meeting SRAM’s specs. Meanwhile, the raw chainstay shows the combination of a printed part for the flat mount bosses welded to the machined dropout. The mitre is part of the print for a perfect fit every time.
Neuhaus offers an impressive stock size range and can build quickly. Custom sizing is available with about a three-month lead time.
Baum Cycles
Darren Baum of Baum Cycles made the trip over from Australia, and although his booth was late arriving, the bikes made it, and he did bring Phil Anderson along, who, of course, is a bit special, having been the first non-European to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. A pleasure to meet you, Phil!
The latest addition to the Baum range is the DBM (drop bar mountain). Essentially this takes the rear end of an XC race bike and combines it with the front end of a gravel bike to give an extremely capable drop-bar machine. The frame has a 12×142 rear spacing, to pair with a mountain bike crank and a 52 mm chainline. It will clear a 29 x 2.4” tire in the back, and can match that in the front with a different fork (Darren’s personal bike, as pictured, uses the Enve fork that will fit a 2.25”). The frame is intended to have a dropper post, and because they all use an in-line saddle clamp, Darren curved the seat tube not only for tire clearance, but to mimic a setback post so that a normal road/gravel riding position can be achieved.
With a 69º head tube angle and 55 mm of fork rake, handling is in the usual gravel bike range, combined with a shorter stem. As is usual with a Baum, the bike can be tailored to suit, with choices of a suspension fork, hidden cables, and various mounts.
Something that stood out to me is the shaping of the chainstays. Creating the bends is challenging enough, but in order to have the tubing at the right height for the 160 mm flat mount bosses, the rear of the chainstay flows smoothly to a square section. Darren told me there was a lot of iteration with the tooling to create this shape! The driveside uses a 3D-printed yoke for chainring clearance.
Fiddlehead Cycles
Justin was merely a visitor to the Made show last year, but he was inspired and bought a frame jig immediately afterwards. He was at the show this year as Fiddlehead Cycles, showing his fourth frame, a classic road bike with rim brakes and mechanical shifting. His philosophy is that form follows function, and he references finely crafted violins (where his logo comes from) to meld works of art with function.
Ira Ryan Cycles
Portland-based builder Ira Ryan built this bike for his best friend who hadn’t had a new mountain bike for 20 years. It is designed to be a modern version of a play bike, shreddy, versatile, and fun. Ira said he loves the cartoonish look of the huge 3” front tire against the fork that tapers up to the wide fork crown, before tapering down again along the head tube to the tiny stem. A careful build spec with carbon rims and Shimano XTR keep the build surprisingly light.
Destroy Bikes
Local to Portland, Sean got into fabrication and framebuilding when he and his friends were riding fixed-gear trick bikes and breaking – excuse me – destroying them.
He has now been building frames for 15 years, including contract building for others, doing production runs of Destroy models, and now also offering full custom builds such as this gravel bike.
Ritte Cycles
Ritte Cycles did not have a booth at the show this year, but this customer build was present, showing an example of their full custom titanium construction with an integrated seatmast and 3D-printed head tube and seatmast cap. Heavily shaped Deda chainstays provide the needed clearance, with UDH dropouts at the rear. The Enve fork and bar/stem are painted to match the raw titanium for a very clean build.
Sour Bicycles
Steel bikes made in Dresden, Germany. This ‘monster gravel’ bike will clear 57 mm tires and features Sour’s almost-UDH dropout which modifies the standard to better suit steel construction. This model is called Purple Haze and is available in stock sizing but with custom paint options – in this case a fade to raw clearcoat.
Apogee Cycles
Will debuted his modular suspension concept at Made in 2023 under the custom brand Albatross. Since then, he has joined with other partners to launch Apogee as a stand-alone brand (with stock sizing) and has further refined the kinematics of the system. Meanwhile Albatross continues for those seeking a custom bike.
All the suspension components are contained in the machined unit at the bottom bracket, which ensures that the pivot bearings are perfectly aligned and allows for selecting the frame tubing independently from the suspension to tune the ride feel. The goal is predictable suspension performance with linear progressive travel so that the bike responds the same way no matter where the suspension is in the stroke. This bike has 140 mm of rear travel and 160 mm up front. The modular dropouts allow for adjusting the geometry and wheel size if required. It’s available to order now.
The Lost Workshop
Ian and Nat of the The Lost Workshop journeyed from Australia, with their apparently endless supply of vegan cookies and brownies to keep all the builders going. Thanks guys!
This pretty steel gravel bike has clearance for 50 mm tires, and utilizes 3D-printed components at the dropouts and chainstay yoke for a very clean integration. Other details include stainless bosses that have been polished after paint, and the seatpost being stripped and polished to match. This customer personally commissioned the Jen Green head badge.
Keep an ear out for a members-only bonus episode of Geek Warning discussing the Made Bike show with Rob English, too.
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