Philosopy
My greatest desire is to build bicycles that disappear underneath their riders, allowing them to focus on the sights, the experience, or their riding goals. Bicycles should be built to handle anything, wether you’re on paved or gravel roads, in fair or inclement weather, in daytime or night. Bicycles are a viable and enjoyable form of transportation, and require lighting, weather protection and the ability to carry luggage. Like the French cyclotouristes, everyone who rides a bicycle for the sheer love of it should own a suitably equipped machine. It is with that philosophy in mind that I build fully integrated bicycles ready to provide the most enjoyable ride no matter the season or occasion.
Process
Bicycles should be conceived as a unit. Doing so ensures that the frame, fork, components and other necessary requirements come together in the end to perform as a complete and complementary unit. As such, it is in everyone’s interest that only complete bicycles leave my shop. All components need to be taken into account when we begin the design process and parts should be decided upon by the time I begin building. Customers are most welcome to provide their vintage parts for the build if they have a specific, vintage-style build in mind.
I’d love to meet you in person before starting work on your project. More than just a chance to get to know my customers, the meeting allows me to better understand what you’re looking for in your bike and possibly see you ride. This does volumes more for me as the builder than communicating by email or phone. If meeting in person is not possible, however, I am happy to work long distance.
- To start, send me a note about what you are looking for, what you wish to gain from your custom bike and the riding you wish to do (please see pricing for a point of reference).
- After we’ve talked about what the final bicycle will look like, I will give you an estimate of total cost as well as an accurate time-frame for completion.
- From there, I require a $700 non-refundable deposit which puts you in my build queue*. Final price will vary based upon current prices of components, tubing, and color/chrome, etc…
- Six weeks before it is time to start the actual building process we will talk about your build and your component choices. At that time I’ll require an additional half of the remaining total to order your components.
- Finally it’s the time to consider color selections. Powder coating takes about 3-4 weeks. Wet paint a bit longer.
- Once we get your bike from our painter/powder-coater, I’ll assemble it and you can then either pick it up locally, which means we could go for a ride, or I will happily ship it to you upon receipt of final payment.
- Be sure to track the process of your bike from tubing to final project via the CyclesJBryant flickr.
*Currently bicycles entering the queue would be completed about ~9 months out.