Barbara’s road bike

There is really only one type of person who needs a custom bicycle and that person is outside of the bicycle sizes commercially available in retail shops. Everyone else, myself included, just love bikes so much that they want one that was specially made for them. I’m guessing that Barbara is a little of column A and a little of column B. Finding a bicycle that fits a woman’s proportions that is a sporty road bike without retrofitting various components to a men’s road bike would have been difficult. Finding a lugged one would have been near impossible.

This 63.5cm frame is built from double oversize Columbus Life tubing and Richard Sachs’ Sax Max lug set. The components are Campagnolo Record 11-speed with 177.5mm cranks. The seat post was custom machined to 30.6mm so as to not have to use a sleeve and a 27.2mm post. The wheels are Stan’s No Tubes with Hutchinson tubeless 28mm tires. They are pretty light contributing to the final bike weight of 19 pounds complete. The medium reach Tektro brakes are placed so Barbara has the option of going with a larger tire (up to a 32mm) in the future.

The 1964 Chrysler light metallic blue paint with silver details hides nothing! When you looks at the detail shots of the dropouts and lugs, you can see some file strokes and what I’ve heard referred to as “evidence of process”. This is definitely a handmade bicycle and I’m happy that it is visible to those who look closely. You can see all the photos of the build in the slideshow link below.

See all photos of the build.