The Winter Bicycles Mor Breizh is designed with a nod to classic transportation bikes of the 1940′s, but with modern material and performance. This lugged and bilaminate bike is made with a selection of modern USA made components and top end dynamo lighting for year round function. The frame set features Keith Anderson Tito drop outs with raised stainless faces, internally routed light wiring and easy to maintain external brake and shift routing. The Winter made stem and rear rack are chrome plated for beauty and durability, and the luxurious Keith Anderson paint sets off the metal work. Beautiful to see and exhilarating to ride- the Winter Bicycles “Mor Breizh”.

Awarded “Best Finish” at the 2013 NAHBS.

Photos by Anthony Bareno.

It all started with a few flights-

Once in Bristol I set up my bikes and rolled them down the Brunell’s Old Station. Quite the room!

Inside I was the first set up with my modest booth displaying both my Tenga track bike and Mor Breizh city bike

The show was great- lots of very interested and excited visitors from all over the UK and Europe. I met many Flickr and assorted forum contacts (always fun) and generally had a great time. Both bikes were well received. To my pleasant surprise I picked up “Best Track Bike”, and was presented the award by none other then Bristol’s Mayor George Ferguson! Big thanks to Paul Components for sponsoring the category!

On the way back I stopped in Paris for a sort of rambling misadventure, but did make it over to a very beautiful Notre Dame by night:

Unfortunately I picked up a little bit of a cold on the return flight, but after a brief recoup I’m looking forward to going back at it this weekend. To much time away from the shop, even while “working”, always makes my fingers itch a bit. More updates and metal work soon!

The Tenga track bike is built as my interpretation of traditional lugged Japanese track frames. With nods to Italian influences, the lugs are clean with very specific gestural sweeps. The over all look of the bike is tight and refined, with just the right amount of detail. The classic pipes are arranged in a modern sprint pattern ready to real world competitive use.

This bike is built with a True Temper tube mix, modern cast lugs and drop outs, and a traditional Italian internally lugged fork crown. The Evening Orchid paint by Keith Anderson was inspired by mid 60′s muscle cars and features a layered drop shadow logo. The parts are a mix of 70′s Campagnolo with a custom Winter stem, Curtis Odom hubs laced to Velocity rims made for this project and a vintage Fujita saddle recovered by Recovered Saddles.

Awarded “Best Track Bike” at the 2013 Bespoked: Bristol.

Photos by Anthony Bareno.

These road frames start with a custom sized Winter fillet brazed road frame, a Pegoretti Falz fork and a Cane Creek 110 headset. I will be offering a few parts packages as well as custom kits.

The bikes will initially be offered in two finishes:

Hammervein

and Pewter.

Pricing for the handmade and built to measure frame kits are $2500, with complete builds starting around $4000.

It was a fun show, and a great chance to meet up with friends and colleagues.

To my pleasant surprise I was awarded “Best Finish” for my city bike. Big thanks to the folks at NAHBS, Keith Anderson, my chrome guys and all my vendors. HUGE thanks to all of my clients for their support and willingness to let me go for it.

(Photo credit to NAHBS)

I brought 4 bikes this year- a city and track bike from my Custom Series, and two examples from my new Tool Series. As the name implies, the Custom Series are ground up bikes with all of the details and options I’ve been working on. Each is made to the needs and tastes of the individuals requirements.

One of those was the bike above. My construction gallery and some great shots taken by David Rangel:

I also introduced my new Tool Series. These are set model bikes in custom sizes. Designed to offer a more succinct package with the benefits of a made to measure frame- the first is a road bike designed around 25-28′s.

The Tool bike was delivered at the show, and I had a very enthusiastic phone call from the excited owner post-ride. I’m really looking forward to getting these out there. I’ll work on some studio shots of the other stuff and post them to my site.

Big thanks to all of the folks that stopped by the booth, including all the internet folks.

After a fair bit of discussion, planning, parts sourcing and working through my normal queue to their spot, I was ready to start. The plan was to build a trial run of 6 frames (3x of two sizes) in one go to get a feel for the project and to map the work flow for future refinement.

On the 5th I started in on forks:

By the end of the first week I had a pretty good start on the project:

The second week saw the beginning of the frame production:

Brazing- these will be unfiled “raw” fillets; good motivation to keep it tidy:

Today I picked them up from powder, finished the prep (chasing 114 M5′s!) and packed them up.

Tomorrow morning I’m hitting the road down to San Francisco for delivery. While I’m down there the god folks at Box Dog are having a little meet and greet starting at their shop at 7:30. If you are in the area, stop in and say hello!

See you there!

Winter Bicycles friend and purveyor of “best in category” and US made goods Archival Clothing has taken a look at the 1918, the WWI Armistice Day commemorative bike. Enjoy the photos, and take a moment to remember the day.

Every now and again one of my bikes hits the blog circuit and gets passed around. Recently, the 1918 has been on a bit of a loop.

Soma Fab

GBlog

Artigianeide (in Italian I believe)

Prolly is not probably

Cycle Exif

Bike Rumor

Let me know if you find more- it’s always interesting to me which bikes people at large relate to. I just wrapped up another photo shoot with this one for a local sporting wear and US goods company, and people were stopping on the street to look at the bike. Not bad fr a “simple” machine.

Speaking of photos- big thanks to Anthony Bareno of Velo Cult who shot these for me. He also has photos and video from the Oregon show he has recently posted.

2012 Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show. Portland, Oregon. from Velo Cult on Vimeo.

22.0/ 26.0 for a Herse-

A theadless open face stem with bell mount, custom lugs and a one off tall riser. All conceived as part of a travel set up for a Columbine-

Build it once:

Build it twice:

The pair:

A client recently returned from a guided tour in Italy. Of his guides discussing his Winter:

“They often spoke in Italian, so I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying, but the word ‘elegante’ was unmistakable.”

As luck would have it, I got a little note from the guide in question mentioned above.