We know. It's been a hot minute or a few months, but we are back with a new blog post.
In all honesty, we just haven't had that much to say. We've been working away while getting increasingly disturbed by the world as a whole and have kept our pessimism and abject reality rants within the house, but we figured it might be time to say hello again. So...hi!
During our quiet phase, we've done a few admin things like giving the website a refresh etc. We also welcomed Brooks to the workshop for a tour and a journal article, only for that not to get published because the company is shifting focus and not that fussed about creators right now. Ho hum. The pictures Jim Holland took were gorgeous; we have used them to spruce the website, so thanks, Jim! It was a day nicely spent after all.
Obviously, we've been building wheels and beautiful bikes. We've tried to keep Instagram updated as we go but it's hard to find the motivation at times. Thanks to everyone who follows us there and likes what we post, we promise to try and keep it regular. It might be a little easier now our small person is at school full-time! Four and a half years have managed to simultaneously take forever and disappear in a blink.
August Bicycles' recent custom road bike
Now then. To business. With our website shake-up, we've decided to lose the massive gallery of most of the bikes we've built and just have a few for illustrative purposes. That means that when we have something newly completed to show off, we will do a blog about it. Today, we are looking at Charlie's road bike.
It's been designed to accommodate 32mm tyres, racks and mudguards, so it can be a year-round multifunctional machine. Why N+1 when you can just have the right one? Charlie was great to work with and had a clear image of what he needed and wanted, so it came as no surprise that he ran over (literally) to our workshop to collect it.
The build kit is solid and good value. It's not super flash, but offers good performance and aligns with Charlie's wants for the finished bike. We went for the new 12-speed 105 disc Di2 groupset, which we think is amazing. Yes, it's a little heavier than some higher-priced alternatives but functionality is impeccable. The finishing kit was Zipp and all the bearings, headset and BB were Hope. Reliability was key and we nailed it.
The paint was a surprise until the last minute, for us at least. We have a policy of leaving paint consultations between our customers and their painters. This way, everybody knows that no money passes through us and we haven't inflated their artist's prices to take some for ourselves. We do none of the work and an introductory email is hardly a chore, so we don't need to skim.
Charlie's bike is a heady mix of brown, pink, and off-white. Think Neopolitan ice cream with some added checkerboard flair. However, snacks were not Charlie's motivation here. He explained to us that his daughter had longed for a brown bike and having been unsuccessful in finding one, the main colour on his own needed to be brown. The pink and cream crept in to pay homage to NOFX's So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes album, creating a deeply personal and eye-catching scheme. Big thanks to Tom over at Kustomflow for knocking it out of the park for everyone.
Enough chat, you want to see a couple of pics. We still aren't professional photographers and to be honest, we can't justify increasing build costs to incorporate a pro shoot for every bike we build, so please excuse our rudimentary snaps.
What else is happening?
We're officially in September so that means we have already started designing this year's limited edition billet Christmas tree. We hate to be those people but it turns out that most makers are thinking about festive releases in March, so we have kept it quite low-key really. Again, the trees will be the same size as in previous years and will work aesthetically with former releases, but the shape will be different. More to come as we finalise...
We've just added replaceable derailleur hangers to our online store. These are only compatible with our in-house designed quick-release dropouts, only found on our frames. They are black anodised and ready to ship.
There's some experimenting going on in the workshop right now. We are hoping to be able to offer a low-cost reliable light set, complete with a sleek mounting system. We are still testing our preferred lights and whittling down bracket styles but we are almost there, so keep your eyes peeled.
Cargo bike dealers for Omnium AND Larry Vs Harry
You probably already know, but we are officially dealers for Larry Vs Harry again. This means that you can spec a framekit, full bike or custom Bullitt cargo bike through us. We can make bespoke parts, including stems and steerers, sidebars and more. But that's not it. We are also dealers for Omnium. We're stoked to be able to get out ahead of the inevitable cargo bike revolution and to supply East Anglia and beyond with the best haulers around.
Backslaps and call-outs
Rad peeps:
The kid's new headmaster. Shoutout to Mr. P!
The production team at The DoDo for sharing amazing animal rescue stories.
Those of you who still buy us coffee (yes, some of you do and it is SO kind).
Everyone brave enough to head back to or start school this month.
People who skill swap for goods.
Shit heels:
Russel Brand/his supporters/his cult.
People doing the school run in tank-sized SUVs and not being able to drive them.
The Tories. Always.
Vapers.
The Tories, again.
Catch you next time!