Bespoked 2023 - we visited these frame builders:
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The state of the art in the carbon age is defined above all by large companies. In the battle for watts, grams and euros, wind tunnels and expensive production facilities are indispensable. But obviously that's not all that interests cyclists: The Bespoked trade fair in Dresden celebrated the customised bicycle in mid-October. Around one hundred frame builders and manufacturers celebrated the sporty bike as a cultural asset and technical art object, with thousands of visitors revelling in original designs and frame details.
The frame building scene has changed significantly. The moulded steel frame made to measure is now the focus of attention only in exceptional cases - but then to excess. Today's frame builders are at the cutting edge of technology. 3D printing of metal opens up new technical and aesthetic possibilities, especially for small suppliers. Steel and titanium, aluminium and carbon mix in bikes with their own look and sophisticated technology. Ceramic surfaces or artistic hand-painted finishes allow designs for every taste. And at the latest since some mass-produced manufacturers have been charging more than 5,000 euros for their Far East carbon frames, the prices of high-quality customised frames have lost their horror. Not every bike shown at the trade fair was really well calculated. Designers, technicians and enthusiasts often live out their passion without really looking at the price. In many cases, it is craftsmanship and ideas rather than grams and euros that count.
The frame builders of the Bespoked 2023
The bikes of the Bespoked bike fair 2023
Avalanche
It's a shame that no sun shines on the two bikes at the AVALANCHE stand. Because then the tiny geometric details in the paintwork would stand out brilliantly. What immediately catches the eye, even without the sun, is the elegant seat post clamp - or rather, its apparent absence. 3D printing in titanium also allows detailed solutions on this titanium gravel bike that would have been realised years ago from countless sheets of metal or with angular milled parts. This little treasure was awarded the "Best Gravel Bike" prize at the trade fair.
Beurriand and his partner also enjoy taking part in other competitions such as the "Concours de Machines" bicycle building competition, in which bikes are challenged to complete an annually changing task such as "Paris-Roubaix". The bike in the picture won the prize for the most beautiful paintwork in 2023.
Festka
In recent years, the Czech manufacturer FESTKA has positioned itself as one of the larger manufacturers of customised bikes. Around 20 people in Prague work on customised racing bikes. In the meantime, the two company founders have moved away from metal frames and now only produce customised frames made of carbon fibre - often in unusual paint finishes.
The exhibit called "Scalatore" (climber) is minimalist in every respect: the tube-to-tube laminated frame (5.3 kilos) is completely unpainted and also dispenses with particularly decorative top layers. It is customised to the body measurements of Festka co-owner Ondřej Novotný and fitted with super-lightweight standard parts. If you want to buy a flyweight like this, you should have a budget of a good 18,000 euros.
Jaegher
Looks like titanium, but is actually steel: like all of the brand's frames, the JAEGHER exhibit is made of stainless steel. A special set of tubes from Columbus is the base material. The Flemish company has been in business since 1934. Emanuel Ramoudt, one of the owners: "It takes a lot of experience to be able to process stainless steel in this way. Otherwise it will never be a straight, durable frame."
The finish of the showpiece looks flawless. Like a handful of competitors, a ceramic-based surface coating called Cerakote is used on the gravel bike also on display. It was actually developed for weapons and, according to Ramoudt, is more durable than any paint.
The brand's racing and gravel bikes are always customised, and the surface comes in hundreds of possible variations. Jaegher has taken perfectionism to the extreme with the showpiece: The already black carbon handlebars were specially painted black again to perfectly match the black of the stem.
Sea glass
For bike builder Thomas Becker, "sea glass" refers to the sometimes poetically beautiful shards on the beach that have been polished by the sea. His single-speed gravel bike is another such rare find - and probably took just as long to create as the colourful shards. It is a bike with an almost insane love of handcrafted detail.
"If I see something on one of my bikes that isn't perfect, it feels like a scratch in the brain," says Becker. And then he grinds every knurled screw until it fits perfectly in his fingers, produces the frame lugs individually and turns the stem shaft so that it precisely seals the headset. His customers appreciate the care, style and timeless appearance so much that they are willing to wait for years - and pay five-figure sums for a genuine MEERGLAS.
Purple Dog
Nikola Banishki, a Bulgarian living in France, takes self-building to the extreme. The bike he built especially for his second participation in the Paris-Brest-Paris Brevet may not win any beauty prizes, but the original ideas of the full-time molecular biologist could fill a long article.
A list in a nutshell: The pannier rack and bags with Fidlock magnet system are home-made. The frame can be dismantled using self-milled screw couplings and the fork legs can be pulled downwards. The entire bike of the two-metre man thus shrinks to the size of a wheel. The lighting is also an in-house development. Banishki combines hub dynamo and battery operation in self-milled housings.
The long-distance cyclist doesn't mind the frown on his simple Shimano hub gears with belt drive. "When it gets wet, cold and dirty, it's superior to any derailleur system," he says.
Pride
Nils Stolz has done his homework. The result: an unusual track bike with shimmering paintwork. He got top marks for it at school. In Switzerland, where he comes from, that's an F. The 16-year-old track cyclist's year's work also shines if you correctly attribute his surname to the company Fahrradbau Stolz, which his father founded 40 years ago.
What is original about the steel construction is not only the stem in the optical extension of the top tube, which is more familiar from carbon time trial frames, but also the less obvious use of two eccentrics: the geometry and effective bottom bracket height can be changed to a small extent with the eccentric housing of the bottom bracket - the principle is familiar from bikes with hub gears for adjusting the chain tension. The eccentric in the rear dropout is really unusual. It secures the thru axle against slipping and at the same time allows the rear wheel to be precisely aligned. The gap to the seat tube and seat stays is minimal. The father was visibly proud.
