One man workshop
Bicyclious is a one-man, two-dog bicycle workshop. We build old school cable actuated bikes, usually having rim brakes. Simple bikes. Modern or vintage. On road or off.
Email is the quickest way to get in contact. I will reply within hours at most.
Restomodded bikes
Bicyclious rebuilds simple bikes meant for casual fun riding. Simple bikes, like 1980s MTBs, can be dilicious rides yet still be solid platforms for utitity and fun. Bonus: easy and cheaper mantenance.
The goals of racing drive innovation in the bicycle industry. But we are not racing here. Freed of those constraints, there are mature, out of patent bicycle technologies that are cheap and can be quite good, especially if retro is of interest.
Only simple bikes
By “simple bikes” I mean cable actuated, rim brakes, rigid framed bikes. Nothing wrong with more complex bicycles but that is not what Bicyclious is about. Basic attitude around here: two wheels good, four wheels bad. I love all the bikes, but Bicyclious is all about the simple bikes.
The simple bicycles of the 1980s and 1990s were still on the cutting edge of innovation. Quality manufactures built beautiful cable actuated components out of quality metal beautifully shined. Now that area of bike tech is mature and less profitable so design energy is put more profitably on electronic groupsets. They will never put that much labor in bikes of that quality in that price range again. So, putting $600++ into the right old frame is actually a solid engineering solution, and nowadays getting into vintage age.
Two build aestetics
We either restore the bikes to original with minimal updates, or restomod them with modern components that prioritize comfort, reliability, and a “delicious” ride quality.
Machine beauty is the happy marriage of power and simplicity. All our bikes strive for machine beauty. That is a big part of what makes a bike build delicious. I only build real bikes for riding.
Then there is the question of visual beauty:
- Sometimes I dial builds into pretty works of mechanical art
- Sometime I go for the derelict look and keep all the original patina
Derelict look restomods (a term from the automotive restoration crowd) can simply look cool with natural patina, or maybe the goal is a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing build that the bike thieves will not see fit to steal.
- /builds/bad_banana
Bizarrely, the derelict restoration style also aligns with the collector mentality. Bicyclious doesn’t care about original parts, usually but willing to accommodate such on a custom build. Whatever, you buy it you do whatever you want with it, but I build bikes that are meant to be ridden, in style and comfort.
This beautiful 1983 Univega is an extreme derelict look, and a great ride
- /builds/univega
Services
Prices are different for each pre-build. Custom work is a flat hourly rate for my time. Pre-builts are the way to ensure final price up front. Custom work prices can add up quickly on art bikes but if you have a vision and a credit card, I’m down to listen to you, on the clock.
I like to start with email or text. Talking to rando calls off the internet is not profitable. This is not a retail operation. Texting gets to the point fast and I can field messages while wrenching. If it seems like things are serious we can move on to voice chatting.
Shipping
I am happy to drive the bikes to you if you are somewhere in the neighborhood of Seattle (I do mobile bike repair as well). Shipping beyond my driving distance is $100 packing labor plus whatever BikeFlites is going to charge you.