09 May 2008

You know, normally the life of the bicycle designer is fairly glamourous. One weekend you’re sketching ideas for bike gloves by donning latex gloves and scribbling on them, and the next you’re watching your hands slowly go black Scotchbriting a Titanium frame for hours on end. Or you could be trying to fit a guy who barely fits on a 29er on something that would make a Penny Farthing blush. Or doing a Mixte.

I can’t say I ever dreamed of doing a Mixte frame when I stared Thylacine. Titanium? Sure. Suspension? Bring it on. Mixte? WTF is a Mixte? I didn’t even know what a Mixte was, but I have to say, after doing our first chick’s bike (Yes I know Mixtes were originally unisex bikes) I really, really dig it. It took more brain power than your average 29er hardtail and that was a great thing, because there’s only so many ’standard’ custom frames you can do before you wish someone would ask you to don latex gloves and design some gloves.

So here she is, our first Mixte! Ain’t she sweet?

After building her up with Evan from Cyclic (My new fave LBS. It has beer.) I actually rode it back to the studio, and I gotta say even though it is ridiculously small for me (as in, I’m almost a foot taller than the customer) it was hard to get the grin off my face as I tootled down the road.

From the great SRAM 3-speed internal hub, funky ‘three string guitar’ cable routing and luscious House of Kolor candy paint, this bike is a bagload of fun and I’m looking forward to handing it over to the customer this Sunday.

Check out the pix.

Posted by warwick @ 7:20 am

07 May 2008

Recently we’ve been playing around with the configuration of our Arete model. Until recently, both Arete and Arete SL have been very much a machine for the racing fool, with a high degree of emphasis on being lightweight.

For the latter part of this year, we’ve decided to change it up and make the Arete slightly more robust and towards the ‘All Mountain’ side of the spectrum. That means 100mm forks, stronger and larger tubing, and dedicated seat and chainstays. The seat tube is now 31.8mm and incorporates a 29.4 Thomson seatpost, which is now (from 7 May onward) included with the frame. The frame is designed to be as compact as possible for easy flickability and low centre of gravity.

Unlike the attached example, the new Arete will have single bend chainstays and a monostay seatstay arangement. Clean, simple, tough and ‘old skool’. Paint if you’re wondering is our 08 ‘Team’ orange ‘Arancio Borealis’, which also happens to be the same paint as you’d find on a Lamborghini Gallardo.

The Arete SL will now be a complete Columbus Zona tubed unit available in any wheelsize, and the Ether will be our new top end steel offering available in 26″ only. Yeah I know, we should update our website one of these days.

Posted by warwick @ 6:04 am