The ‘bike’ of the day today is in fact just a stem – a one-off hand painted custom lugged stem! This is one of the prettiest piece of bike art to pass through the shop in a while. The lucky owner of this stem already has the bike to match. I don’t have any pictures of the bike at hand, but it features the same lug set, matching paint and is dressed up with polished stainless cable stops on the downtube.

Road ride? No problem. Cyclocross race? Sure. Racks, fenders and head out for a tour? Absolutely. Take it apart and fly with it as regular checked baggage? Well, it can handle that as well. This custom cyclocross bicycle with S&S couplings is pretty close to my concept of the perfect bike.

Polished S&S Machine Works coupling break down the frame so you can pack the whole bike in a regulation size suitcase and fly with it for free. The bike is set up with Paul’s cantilever brakes and clearances that will let you run road tires, touring tires with fenders or cyclocross tires.

Stainless steel angled dropouts let you run gears, singlespeed or fixed gear. A full complement of eyelets on the frame and on the carbon fork will support front and rear racks and fenders without any hassle. Old school 7700 series Dura-Ace components and a TTT Morpheus touring handlebar complete the package.

This bike is similar to the touring bicycle from a couple of days ago, but with disc brakes rather than v-brakes. Details include:

• Custom steel take apart frame with stainless steel S&S couplings
• hand built XT/Keba wheels with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires
• Avid BB-7 ‘road’ disc brakes
• Shimano R600 Ultegra level reach adjustable STI levers
• MTB gearing (Triple crank, 11-34T cassette) for loaded touring in serious mountains
• Selle Italia ‘Lady’ saddle and short travel Thud-Buster seatpost
• Women specific TTT ‘Eva’ touring bar

The custom frame features touring optimized disc specific dropout that provide clearance for rack, fender and disc caliper mounting.

Like most of our custom frames, the owner requested a frame that can run as a geared bike or a singlespeed. The OX Platinum frame has an eccentric bottom bracket (EBB) to tension the chain without effecting the disc brake setup (also allowing you to run a quick release rear wheel on your single speed). The frame has hanger for a derailleur and all the required cable stops for setting up gears if ever required.

The build for the bike includes:

• A 420mm (short) Pace RC-31 carbon rigid fork that keeps the front end nice and low for the smaller but aggressive pilot
• Hand built wheels with XT hubs laced to DT TK-7.1D rims with DT Competition double butted spokes and red nipples
• FSA carbon seatpost and flat bar
• 25th anniversary XT hydraulic disc brakes with tool free reach adjustment

I just finished putting together this awesome custom touring bike with S&S couplings:

This take apart bike is built around S&S machine works stainless steel couplings and an expedition touring geometry. The build includes:

• honey Brooks B-17 ‘S’ woman’s saddle
• Tubus cromoly Tara and Logo racks
• SKS cromoplastic fenders
• Shimano R600 adjustable reach 9 speed shifters
• TTT Eva woman’s specific handlebar
• hand built 36 spoke XT/Keba touring wheels
• Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires
• Thud-Buster short travel suspension seat post
• Touring specific gearing

This bike will be off to Vietnam for its first extended tour later this spring.

The stainless steel S&S couplings on this custom touring bike have a brushed finish.

Well, just another OX Platinum custom single speed frame with an eccentric bottom bracket, a hand-made fillet brazed OX Platinum fork and gorgeous metallic super blue flames over champagne paint…Not to mention the Chris King headset, the handmade XTR/DT Swiss TK 7.1D wheelset and the Brooks Swift saddle.

This is quite possibly the ultimate winter commuter bike: durable frame, room for studded tires and fenders, fully enclosed chain, disc brakes, and it is a fully custom True North!

Alek’ custom True North Cycles fixed gear bike. Custom steel frame, Phil’s SLR track hubs, DT RR 1.2 rims, True Temper Alpha Q carbon fork. Still missing – Brook’s Team Pro saddle, black of course.

Brad just picked up his brand new custom 650B bicycle. The bike is a fast all-rounder with fast, comfortable 38mm tires on 650B rims, dynamo powered headlight, braze-on Paul’s racer brakes and Brooks saddle and bar-tape. The bike rides like a dream.