Loads of amazing bikes were on display at the Bespoked Handmade Bicycle Show over the weekend in Dresden, Germany – the first time the expo has taken place outside the UK – and here are the highlights…
The Drust Cargo Bike was awarded the Best in Show title.
Konstantin Drust makes custom steel bikes in Berlin. This one is built around a Pinion gearbox.
The Izoard RR from UK company Spoon Cycles is a custom steel road bike.
(Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)
The front triangle is made from Columbus HSS, the rear is Columbus Spirit, and the dropouts are stainless.
The Superchub from London’s Quirk Cycles is designed as a cross-country hardtail but here it has been decked out for bike packing duties with an Old Man Mountain front loader and a custom set bags from Timba Equipment.
A couple of features stand out on this Launch TSL 48 Columbus steel bike from France’s Auguste. First, it’s a fixie. Second, check out the asymmetric seatstays that are designed for “originality but also to distribute the load evenly on the seat tube”.
Italy’s DeAnima makes a range of bikes in both steel and carbon fibre. This DeFer gravel bike uses Dedaccciai Zero Uno tubes and is available in a custom geometry.
(Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)
Repete, from the Czech Republic, offer the Columbus Spirit HSS steel R3 with hidden cable routing and enough space to fit tyres up to 35mm wide.
(Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)
A bolt right at the top of the seatstays holds the seatpost in place without the need for a traditional-style clamp.
The Ichnu Era’s frame is made in Europe from custom carbon and 3D-printed titanium. The tubes use three different types of carbon fibre wound together with Dyneema fibres or laid up with Kevlar fabrics, depending on the area of the frame.
This steel bike from Germany’s Fern is designed to be a lightweight randonneur with a claimed weight of 9.4kg. That’s fully built up with a front rack, mudguards, lights and pedals.
If you fancy going riding fully tooled up, this Leaf Cycles Klunker is the bike for you. It comes with a cromo steel frame and fork and, of course, it’s available without all of the numerous mounting points for trail-building tools too.
The LaRage is a 3Al-2.5V titanium (double-butted) gravel bike from France’s Leon. You can have it either in a standard or custom geometry and can also change features like the head tube (straight or tapered), according to your preference.
bespoked.cc
Add new comment
12 comments
The added value of the Drust is not immediately obvious
That Drust rocks!
Ingenious - but I wonder about the toughness? I guess because of space requirements you're not going to be carrying tons though?
Probably a "how long's a piece of string" / horses for courses. Witness what happened when a courier company got their hands on the late great Mike Burrow's 8freight (another take on a 2-wheel cargo layout). Result - one increasingly peeved designer and couriers regularly reporting "er... it broke again".
Whats ingenious about it?
Am I missing something?
It looks like a bag o'shite.
I'm with you S_s. It doesn't even look particularly practical - any cargo has got to fit under that cross bar.
In the "why make a special (heavy!) cargo bike frame, when you can just weld two bike frames together" sense? I'm assuming of course that the bar above the load makes the whole thing stiffer, meaning a lighter frame at the bottom.
Could be another devastatingly impractical strike from the Good Idea fairy though.
Looking again it does seem it might be tricky keeping the load level. And if imbalanced or the load shifted that could be less stable than the bakfiets-style. And there may be a good reason why those bikes tend to have a small tyre up front, aside from making loading easier.
Possibly this one would behave like a rock star e.g. get totally unstable when loaded...
Nope. Expected to see ten stunning bikes and left disappointed ☹️
zero stunning bikes available to view
I tend to agree. Looking at the replete it tells me the designer has never ridden off road in their life. You never leave a honking great gap at the top rear of the seatpost where all the shite can get in and stick the seat post in the frame.
Your point probably stands either way, but it's not an off-road bike. It may be impractical, but I've always thought this style of clamp looks super classy on Saffron bikes.
They're not trail-building tools on the Klunker, that's a standard commuter self defense kit!
This got me nice safe passing behaviour.
Was it mounted it sideways and running at the time?
"I'm on my way to the job site and want it warmed up when I get there officer"