The Oregon Manifest is a design competition that happens every two years in Portland, OR. The premise is to design the “ultimate utility bike”. A set of criteria is specified and all entries are expected to fulfill them. I had entered this competition back in 2009 as Circle A Cycles. This time, I wanted to […]
The second Chapman Cycles bike was for Lori-Ann who is one of the few people who actually need a custom bicycle. She had her bike stolen a while back and she needed something new ASAP. She had tried some off the shelf bikes that were 47cm but the handlebar reach was still too far. Since […]
As with any first, this bike needed to be special, distinct, and it needed to set the bar of the future Chapman Cycles. It was designed to be a commuter bike for my wife, Hilary, to get around town. Some of the details that I chose to do on this bike included the “whale tail” […]
I started building bicycles at Circle A Cycles back in 2005. It was there I learned about frame geometry, bicycle fitting, brazing, and painting. I still continue to build there but for the past year I’ve been building bikes under my own name as well and have managed to find a good balance between the […]
A big bike with big tubes
March 10, 2012
I believe this is the longest it has ever taken me to build a bicycle. It’s the polishing of stainless steel that will seem to eat away every minute spent at the workbench. It’s worth it though in the end. I worked with Ryan on every aspect of this one. He is an industrial designer […]