The line that defines artist and engineer, in the world of the custom bicycle, is a fine one, and one that depends on your personal perspective. For Boston’s Nao Tomii, the line is even finer, having already a steady career as a sculptor on his resume before assembling his first frame.

This is Nao’s twelfth frame, which can categorically be described as a road bike, but one that has been created around the desire to leave the tarmac behind. Bobby Earle O’Brien commissioned Nao to build him a frame that you simply couldn’t find in your regular bike shop. Bobby was kind enough to give us an extra insight into this amazing creation:

“When I thought about this project, I knew exactly what I did NOT want: A cyclocross bike with fat slicks. I wanted a road bike with big fat slicks. This bike would be used primarily for pavement, but it would be comfortable on gravel roads too. Maybe some light touring. Maybe I’ll do some rides with the New England Randonneurs.

“I found Nao Tomii almost by accident. I sell quite a few bike parts on the web and one of my repeat customers mentioned Nao as he had built up cyclocross bikes for both him and his girlfriend. Curiosity got the best of me and I checked out the Tomii web site.

“What first caught my eye is that Nao fillet brazed many of his frames. There’s just a very nice quality with fillet brazing. It’s seamless. Plus, he’s a relative newcomer to the Boston frame building arena and I was excited to work with someone with a fresh perspective. After an initial consult, I decided very quickly to become customer #12.

“People often ask me about the bike and my experience with Nao. One description I always use is that he’s very deliberate. There were many things that struck me during the process to come to this conclusion. How he hand draws the frame geometry on an drafting table. Maybe it was adding the Tomii badge on the stem or when he filled in the opening on the fork crown. Or the attention to detail on the top of the seat tube.

“I was very explicit on things I wanted, like down tube shifter and disc brakes, but Nao was really left to his own devices during the process which is exactly what I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, we had review meetings throughout the build process. I just wanted him to be more the creative force. He is an artist after all.

Massive thanks to Bobby for the words and Nao for the photos. See more on his flickr, including those of the build process.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Even today, after a couple of hundred years, the bicycle keeps evolving. Frame materials have changed, factors such as economics and fashion also exert their influence, then governing bodies like the UCI change the rules regarding equipment which inevitably filter down through the market. Cyclocross bikes and have risen sharply in popularity, due in no small part to the excitement of the sport, but also their versatility as all-rounder adventure machines.

Now the UCI has relaxed their disapproval of disc brakes on ‘crossers, we, the everyday cyclist, have increased access to the technology. The Asylum Meuse is a new carbon cross bike that fully integrates the power and reliability of disc brakes and is currently being funded on CrowdSupply, as a full-carbon, disc-only ‘cross bike. Portland’s Patrick Croasdile is the Product Manager for Asylum, which has happily reached the funding goal.

Over the course of the project, which finishes on the 18th of May, the Meuse has been offered in various configurations at a special price of $895 for a frame only and $1,595 for the complete single speed, as seen here. The Meuse, named after the Belgian river, features a PF30 bottom bracket, allowing the use of a Problem Solvers Eccentric unit for single speed conversion. The cockpit is built around a tapered head tube with a carbon Columbus fork.

Check out the full details on the Asylum CrowdSupply page where you can still secure a Meuse for the discounted price.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Dan Bailey is a Minneapolis frame builder whose shop is called Pallas Athena Custom Bicycles and he’s been walking us through the construction of custom a cyclocross frame. Here’s Step 2.

Tacked and tinned: Once everything is prepped and ready, the seat tube and bottom bracket shell go into the fixture and are tacked and “tinned”… an internal fillet is formed by using heat and capillary action to pull molten bronze to the inside of the joint. Once that’s done, and the flux has been soaked off, the next step is to mock everything up in the fixture. At this time, I figure out where the down tube intersects the BB shell, and mark it off.

Vent hole: The seat tube/BB combo comes out of the fixture long enough to drill a vent hole. In this case, a 1/2″ will do nicely. I could have gone slightly larger, but chose to be a little conservative. Once that was done, everything went back into the fixture for a final fit-up.

Flux: If everything looks good at this point, it all gets coated with flux (inside and out), and then the rest of the front triangle is tacked and tinned. Of course, I didn’t manage to get pictures after this was done because I was pretty exhausted and needed a beer and some Battlefield 3 time before I called it an evening.

Raw Fillet: At all the joints, you then build your fillets—ideally neat little piles of brass encircling the joint. The cleaner these are, the easier they are to finish. The one shown above isn’t too bad. The bike then goes into the soak tank to remove all the flux (which turns into a water-soluble glass during the brazing process).

Then the real fun begins—cleaning these fillets. It’s a tedious process, and is interrupted by the need to go in from time to time and fill in pinholes or low spots with a bit of silver. The worse you are at laying down the bronze, the more money you’re going to have to spend on silver, filling in your mistakes. The tools here are generally a round file, strips of sandpaper, and if you’re brave — a dynafile, which can do horrible things to your frame if you don’t do a good job of controlling it. In the end, your fillet should look something like this:

Alignment: Once you’ve done this to all the fillets on the front triangle, the next step is to check the alignment of the front triangle and cold-set as necessary. In this case, we were dead-on straight—second frame in a row that’s happened—and didn’t need to make any major adjustments.

Back in the fixture: With that, we go back into the fixture for the next step: the rear triangle.

Dan Bailey is the owner of Pallas Athena Custom Bicycles and is still very much a rookie builder. When not obsessing over bikes, he makes his living in marketing, and spends whatever free time he can with his wife and son.

Previously:
Athena Bikes: Build Process Step 1

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Here’s an exclusive preview of Ryokou, a short film series by Projucer: Shane Perkins takes us behind the scenes of the historic competitive cycling mystique that is the Japanese Keirin in RYOKOU, a web documentary series that will have its worldwide digital release in 5 short parts, for 5 consecutive days, at 12 noon from Monday 27th May – Friday 31st May.

RYOKOU – the Japanese expression for the word ‘journey’ – is a story about the determination of an Australian athlete, set amongst the backdrop of the Land of the Rising Sun. The series explores Shane Perkins’ journey to re-define his career, whilst taking up the challenge to become a champion rider in the National Keirin Series competition in Japan, 2012/2013.

Ryokou will be released as 5 episodes online, viewed daily at 12noon on Monday May 27 through Friday May 31 on YouTube and on all good cycling sites. Social updates on twitter via #ryokou as well as @chasingtheglory & @perkoperkins. Regular updates, announcements & teasers will be posted daily on Facebook.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Knog products have always held me in good stead. Their ergonomic, functional design and robust construction seem to complement whatever bike I’m on, rather than detract from it, regardless of whether it’s classic or modern. Their range of USB-rechargeable Blinder Lights are the latest addition to a long tradition of funky luminescence and I’m proud to team up with Knog to offer a Japanese Special Edition Blinder 1 to Cycle EXIF readers.

The Blinder 1 is a waterproof 20 lumen light housed in a silicon body. However, only 500 of these Japanese Special Editions were made. To win one of them, all you have to do is tell me, in 25 words or less, what you like about riding at night. The most creative answer wins! Leave your entry in the comments below. Winners will be announced on Friday and in the meantime, check out the rest of the Knog range on their website and Like their Facebook page.

PS: Thank you to everyone for taking the time to enter the Cycle EXIF Knog Blinder 1 Competition. Christoph composed an elegant haiku-esque entry that was deemed the winner. Here it is:

“The darkness is falling fast
In the dark, we may not be
Where is the summer gone
With all the light that we love
A light promises us life
in the darkness”

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

For those of us not fluent in Italian, information on Roberto Bressan’s Biciclette Speciali is scant, even with the help of Google Translate. One has to wade through pages of football blogs and videos of Mauro Bressan’s famous bicycle-kick goal (spectacular, but no relation). One thing can be deduced: Bressan Biciclette certainly are very speciali. Take his Riviera, as a case in point.

Roberto produces an extensive catalog of bicycles, ranging from BMX to MTB to classy Milanese commuters. The Riviera is a sinewy beast, with extra tubes of steel protruding here and there and an innovative seat stay arrangement. Twin top tubes aren’t new, but they’re always a surprise, the Riviera even sports a twin-tubed drive side chain stay, with a TT-style rear brake position.

The Bressan Biciclette range includes a very suave-sounding relation to the Riviera, the Bruno 1930, which is certain to refer to a significant date, but ours not to reason why. The Riviera fills a niche between Bruno’s classicism and other road models built with healthy lashings of carbon fiber, so it’s certain to raise eyebrows amongst the cafe racers. See the whole range on the Bressan website.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Canadians are very proud of their outdoor lifestyle and their sense of adventure, it’s always good to hear from the riders and their rides. Paul Keodprom is a wrench at a Toronto bike shop, Blacksmith Cycle, who recently built up his dream steel road frame, handmade by Colorado’s Alchemy Bikes.

Paul gives us the background: “As far as the story goes, I’m 36 years old, and like a lot of guys my age I grew up skateboarding and snowboarding, worked in those industries for a long time and basically destroyed my body doing so. About 10 years ago I started riding track bikes, starting with an IRO and getting more and more into the culture.

“It was a pretty natural progression to move in to the bike industry and I started working at a local shop that was mostly commuter but with a lot of fixed gear and a solid local history. Eventually track led to road, and the road led me to work at Blacksmith Cycle in Toronto. Two years on and I have had the pleasure of building and riding some of the finest custom road bikes in the world: Baum, Passoni, Cyfac, IF, and of course Alchemy.

“My previous bike was a Pegoretti Marcelo, and through all the carbon bikes I’ve ridden nothing has struck me like the feel of that steel. Having such a good relationship with Alchemy it made sense to move on to something that was made for me, with the personality of steel but a little racier.

What we came up with was a real Frankenstein blend of steel. Spirit top tube, Deda Penta down tube, KVA stainless seat tube, Life/Max rear stays. The bike has a 44mm head tube paired with an Enve 2.0 Fork, is BB30 with Super Record drive train. The brakes are by EE cycle works.

“I started out with a full ENVE cockpit but a customer needed the bar off my bike so I went with the new 3T Tornova, which is all I ever really wanted out of a bar. The bike was painted by Noah Rosen at Velocolour in our shop livery, with graphics by Tobin Reid at Breadwinner Design.”

Paul’s good mate Viktor Cahoj is the local Toronto photographer, videographer and “amazing disco DJ” who we can thank for the shots of Paul’s Alchemy. Drop by Blacksmith Cycle if you’re in Toronto, I’m looking forward to seeing more beautiful bikes from Canada.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

2013, so far, has been a year of great contrasts, and it’s no different here on Cycle EXIF. One day you’re seeing an obscure Spanish brand of road racer favored by Miguel Indurain and the next you’ll see the latest carbon fiber 29er MTB from Bianchi. Sure, the frame was built in the Far East but when it comes to a custom build, there’s none more exacting than a champion marathon mountainbiker.

Mike Blewitt has raced mountain bikes for much of his 31 year-old life and is the team manager of the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team. This is one of their bikes, a Bianchi Methanol 29FS, assembled with personally selected parts that meet Mike’s high standards. While Bianchi may no longer manufacture their bikes in Milan, but the design and technology lying within this frame is still reparto corse.

A specialist in MTB stage races, Mike is aware of the latest and lightest technology available to the professional off-road endurance cyclist. For gear and Q factor options, he built his 29FS frame with a Cannondale crank set and outfitted the cockpit with carbon bars and accessories by Ant White’s Mount Zoom. Powered by a suite of Shimano XTR, a pair of ENVE rims were laced to Kappius hubs—featuring an astounding 240 points of engagement.

Find out more about the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team here.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

When Miguel ‘Big Mig’ Indurain won the first of his five consecutive Tour de France victories, in 1991, he was riding a bike considered by many to be one of the finest Spain had to offer. It was a Razesa, a small but prolific workshop in the Basque country that built frames for the Zeus concern.

Razesa are still in operation, although each offering in their catalog is vastly different to the one seen here. Helder Olino spent over a year restoring this specimen, stripping and repainting the frame before sourcing, polishing and installing a complete Zeus groupset himself.

Founded by Luis Arregui 10 years before Campagnolo, Zeus has sustained a reputation as a great imitator of Tullio’s components, but in fact there are over 105 patents in Arregui’s name. Upon closer inspection, the similarities between Zeus and Razesa frames are easily spotted.

Helder has been riding his Razesa nearly every day since completing the restoration, no doubt enjoying the responsiveness and sure-footedness common to the Hispanic marque. It may not be as modern as the current models but it’s definitely far more hermoso.

Special thanks to Helder for the photography. Head over to his flickr set for more.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Many artists achieve greatness after they die, but Barry Sheene was revered for his legend status well before he was taken, sadly, by cancer, in 2003. His antics on, and off, the track are still fondly thought of by those of us who remember them and if he were still alive, he’d definitely have a chuckle at a certain bike in the New Builder’s Room at the 2013 Bespoked Bristol show.

The UK Handmade Bicycle Show, Bespoked Bristol, profiled several new builders this year, one of them being Ped Baker, a writer for the UK publication and website, Motorcycle News. Ped is bike mad. We’ve seen another of his frames on Cycle EXIF, built under the tutelage of Dave Bohm’s frame building school in Arizona. His latest project pays homage to Barry Sheene and his Suzuki RG500.

Ped fillet brazed the main triangle from Reynolds 853, then used Columbus Zona for the seat and chain stays. The custom fork, built from Reynolds chain stay tubes, is designed to mimic a motorcycle’s triple clamp fork and achieves similar geometry to a standard gravel grinder, despite the looks. Two brass rings on the top tube represent Barry’s world championship wins in ’76 and ’77.

The number 7, carved out of the bottom bracket shell, is synonymous with Barry, who raced with it over his whole career—even when he won the world champs (riders were expected to replace it with the number 1). His team, Heron Suzuki, along with the partners of Brut 33 (the smell of the seventies), Texaco, and Champion, inspired the paint, expertly applied by Hydrographics in York.

If you’re wondering about the duck on the stem, Barry wore it on his helmet for most of his career as a summary of his Cockney ambivalence, often quoted as saying, “I don’t give a Donald Duck…” Ped intends to build more ‘Pushbikes for Petrolheads’, so bookmark his website. I’m sure we’ll see more from him soon. Special thanks to Ian Jubb for the photos.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

This week will see the release of Rapha’s 2013 Spring / Summer range, including a capsule collection that makes a grand départ from their usual understated style. The Rapha & Ræburn series features limited edition jeans, a similarly exclusive Henley merino shirt and a highly individual and visible jacket created in collaboration with UK designer, Christopher Ræburn.

It’s going to be near impossible to resist making quips about designer genes in this story, as it involves two brothers with highly visible roles in the British fashion industry landscape. One is Graeme Raeburn, Rapha’s lead product designer and the other is Christopher Raeburn, a fashion designer well known for utilizing re-appropriated military fabrics.

Surely it wouldn’t have been long before the two hooked up on some project, but it might not have been successful had not their styles been so compatible. Christopher is all about recycling martial materials and the epic riding portrayed by Rapha’s Continental riders, for example, requires the material’s resilience.

The Rapha & Ræburn Hooded Wind Jacket is made in England from decommissioned and deconstructed nylon parachutes. Both strong and lightweight, it’s covered with reflective polka dots and when not in use, can be packed into one of its own rear pockets. The jacket is limited to 600 pieces: 300 white, 200 green and 100 orange.

The Rapha & Ræburn collection may not be to the taste of riders used to the brand’s conventional lines, it’s certainly an exciting variation on a theme which is not entirely out of place. Kudos to both Rapha and the Ræburn brothers for being brave enough to think outside the black and pink square. Keep an eye on the Rapha website, facebook page and twitter this week for the drop.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

Human beings, and especially cyclists, are an adaptive bunch. It’s interesting to see Shimano’s electronic shifting systems, such as the Di2 group, being reworked by enthusiasts to suit bikes that won’t conform to the standard market genres. Here’s a good example, the sculptural time trial frame by English Cycles that won the 2013 NAHBS Best in Show award, no less.

Rob English, aptly, lists the United Kingdom as his country of origin, but has been happily ensconced in Eugene, Oregon, for the past few years building very individual racing frames. A highly experienced time trialist, he counts three individual and three team state championships on board the predecessor to his Mk2 frame, built in 2008.

The geometry is basically the same as Mk1, just with a slightly lower bottom bracket and a single chainring. Therefore, only one end of Shimano’s Di2 shifting system was required, which Rob “hacked”, actuated by two push buttons on the aero bar ends—one for up, the other for down. There’s a micro-USB port just under the saddle, invisibly wired to the rear mech through the seat stay.

You won’t recognize the front brake: Rob machined his own to nestle behind the ingenious ‘headset’ construction. There’s no actual headset as such, rather a set of bearings, bolts and races that allow the shifter and brake cables to pass through the front of the head tube. The highly aerodynamic profile is also achieved by incorporating USE TULA Aero Pods.

Rob fabricated the cranks himself: There’s two bearings on the drive side, one on the non and a 22mm axle, resulting in a reduced Q factor of 20mm from the usual. Mk2 is one tidy machine, which should win Rob even more titles—the first being a deserved Best in Show at the 2013 NAHBS. See more details on the English Cycles website. Big thanks to Tina Buescher for the exemplary photography.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

The 96th edition of the Giro d’Italia begins today in Naples, one of the racing calendar’s most scenic and grueling events. A suitable day to remember Eddy Merckx, who won this Grand Tour an astonishing five times. Merckx’ unparallelled racing career has elevated the man, and the bikes branded with his name, to a level of cult status—especially his premium racing model: the MX Leader.

This MX Leader calls Johannesburg home, the pride and joy of Greg, a member of Jozi’s Hunter Cycling crew. It’s a 1991 issue, assembled with a Campagnolo C-Record group set and the overly flamboyant Cobalto brake calipers. Greg traded a Somec frame for the Merckx with a friend in Cape Town who is also a collector of superb steel.

It has been resprayed, it’s true, under the new clear coat are reproduction decals by Australia’s Cyclomondo. Greg decided on a rich black after admiring the bikes of Rapha’s Continental riders. It may be wearing a new suit but under the black is still Columbus’ MXL tubes. Special thanks to Greg and Guy Bower from O+P Cycling Apparel for the photos.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

After distributing his bikes through Embrocation Cycling, Craig Gaulzetti has a website all of his own. The ‘Philosophy‘ page portrays a man who, over the corsa of his two-wheeled life, has thought long and hard about why he loves to ride and build the frames that bear his name. The Cazzo is the only steel frame offered by the brand and best summarizes his relationship with the industry and the sport.

Reading through various pages on his site, especially ‘Detritus‘, which explains his choice of tubing used on the Cazzo, I wonder whether Craig is a regular user of performance enhancing writing drugs. Any rider who, previously used to the highest quality Taiwanese carbon fiber but is considering a high quality steel frame, should be wholly convinced by the experience of of his diatribe.

Richard Gearing, however, is no stranger to pedigree racing products. He’s been reviewing the best bikes and components on the market through his Bike Tart website, but has now given it all up to ride a Cazzo that he’s finally finished building up to his exacting standard. I managed to catch it for a photo shoot once he was happy with the result.

The Cazzo is built from Columbus’ Über OverSize PegoRichie tubing, the collaborative effort of Dario Pegoretti and Richard Sachs, two luminaries of the custom bicycle scene. The rear dropouts were made by Sachs, while the fork is a Pegoretti Falz. The Cazzo brings the two together in a cosmic unity, which Rich happily combined with Campagnolo, Shimano and Thomson components.

Rich made use of H Plus Son’s TB14 rims, laced by Sydney’s Nick Both to Royce hubs—the finest offered by the United Kingdom. The saddle area is of special note: a Campagnolo C-Record mast, anodized in black by Andy ‘FYXO‘ White, and the NOS Selle Italia Titanium Flite, adds the old-school accent that Andy is famous for, to a modern road bike built in Craig Gaulzetti’s classical spirit.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.

There’s few parts of the United States that better conjure up images of the Wild West than Arizona and, in particular, Tucson. The cactus of Saguaro National Park, the Santa Catalina Mountains and its lions, even the boneyard of the Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, are icons of both ancient and modern America. The bikes built in Tucson by Ron Stanage and his Hex American Cycle Works are equally essential parts of the landscape.

One of the most striking features about Ron’s bikes are the head badges. “So far every bike I’ve done has had its own completely unique head badge. This is all thanks to Ed Foster at La Suprema. He decided to hand make me a batch of head badges that were all different so that I could chose one for every bike I make. This particular one is copper with a cloisonne white enamel inlay. The ‘H’ is the same font as my logo (or close to it… it’s changed a few times), and simply stands for ‘HEX’.”

This is the second frame of Ron’s to be featured on Cycle EXIF and is equally individual. “Its a cross bike that I made for myself when I was in the middle of having an extreme case of city-itis,” Ron tells us. “Day after day I was dreaming of riding through dusty, desolate patches of the Arizona wilderness with little more than my rifle and a good sci-fi book. I really needed an escape from my day job so I decided to manufacture a means for adventure.”

“The frame is a blend of True Temper and Columbus tubing. I’m a real fan of True Temper and I really like Hank and Monika at Henry James. They’ve always got some story to tell you. If you’re not careful you end up on the phone with them for an hour. The main triangle is a blend of OXPLAT and S3 tubing, the rear triangle is Columbus ZONA. When you use a Richard Sachs BB shell you’re kind of limited to Columbus tubing since its the only thing that seems to fit in the sockets somewhat easily.”

When I asked Ron if he really went riding with a rifle, he thankfully replied in the negative, but he did say he’d bring one along if he went on a long tour through the mountains by himself, both for peace of mind and “to see what kind of small game he could scare up”. Quite an appropriate accessory for the region. It did make me look at his ‘crosser again, which seemed to want to rear up and fire off a round even while standing still.

Yes, it’s got dust and grime on it, but that’s because Ron loves riding it. As yet, he hasn’t got a website, but you can reach him via email. Special thanks to Ed Foster for the photography and Preston, Ed’s new apprentice. From the sounds of things, we’ll be seeing more custom frames from Tucson in the future.

Cycle EXIF supplies a daily dose of commuter bicycles, custom bicycles and classic bicycles.