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Video: Brother Cycles introduces new old-fashioned 631 road frame

London-based fixie frame specialist branches out

London-based steel frame specialist Brother Cycles has just increased its range 50 percent with the introduction of a Reynolds 631 steel road frame to go with its existing chromoly steel and Reynolds 631 track frames.

Will and James Meyer – the eponymous brothers of the firm – started Brother Cycles just two years ago, after hatching the idea back in 2008. Their track frames have gone down well on the no-gears scene, and fixie fans will find plenty to salivate over in the gallery on their website. They now have dealers in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Antwerp, and Athens, and are planning to expand into North America by 2013.

The new frame is a classically-simple old-school road frame with horizontal top tube, lugged construction and even a one-inch threaded fork. It will be available from next month from Brother's website and the company's dealers including Tokyo Fixed and Fitzrovia Cycles in London.

The initial run of frames will be available in 55cm, 57cm and 59cm sizes, and will cost £499.

It's a real nostalgia trip for those of us who grew up riding (and selling!) bikes like this. Ben Pickett and Emma Tunstill have captured the essence very nicely in this video:

For more information, get over to Brother Cycles

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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4 comments

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PATMAC | 11 years ago
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neat machine, built in the far east, by decent artisans, fwiw i would like it in another colour than black and the current choice is powder coat and another wad of folding to do so, i agree with joemmo... who wants a quill stem and an inch headset today, they may be elegant, yes, but can seize, they aren't as stable when hauling on the bars, and make changing bars a hoo hah task.. give us 1.1/8 headstock and a neat silver stem and the ability to get decent carbon forks in the frame... ever searched today for inch carbon forks, they are as plentiful as hens fangs.. 631 is a nice material and a lovely ride..

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joemmo | 11 years ago
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I can't understand why anyone would want to go back to ao quill stem. Apart from that it's nice enough.

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Low Speed Wobble | 11 years ago
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I can't understand why anyone would choose the ride a bicycle that DOESN'T look like this.

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WolfieSmith | 11 years ago
0 likes

'Nostalgia trip'??

To my mind it's a long overdue return to good old British common sense and elegant straight lines after 15 years of twirly Chinese carbon.

If I want to ride something made from plastic in a despotic state by indentured labour I shall let you know.

Yours

Sir Hubert Sprocket
Bottom Bracket Cottage
Tunbridge Wells

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