The first thing my mom did with her first full-time, real-job paycheck was put a downpayment on a brown 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with orange racing stripes. It was a stupid idea. She had no money, no savings and she already had a car. But she bought it anyway with that initial dose of real cash. The first thing I did with my first full-time, real-job paycheck was commission a painting of a deer from an aspiring artist friend. It was a stupid idea. The painting was amateur. It cost me $500. It’s sitting in my closet at home under a decade of dust.
Over the years, I’ve learned. I see now that splurges should be on the things you’ll get the most experiences from. My mom knew it then. I know it now. So my most recent full-time, real-job paycheck splurge was on a custom, American-made bicycle. It’s taken me ten years, but I got my Firebird.
The perks of a custom, American-made bike will be articulated below in a semi-cerebral way. But that’s not the full story. The full story is that you’re getting a bike with a builder. You’re getting a person. You’re making a friend. You’re supporting small-scale business over globalized kingpins of sport. And so there’s an emotional part of this that comes only with human connection. I started this journey with a bit of gumption and conviction, and I ended it with a series of memories (brainstorming, seeing the frame for the first time, the reveal of the finished paint, the first ride) and a couple new friends. You get a really nice bicycle, but you also participate in the labor of love with highly skilled artist craftsmen.
“Dreams aren’t prefabricated,” one cycling publication noted, in their manifesto on the custom bike. If you’re one for a dream and fancy your favorite pastime to be spinning your legs in circles ad nauseum, then pop out of the world of prefab bicycles and enter into the playpen of the custom bike. Splurge a little, and leave all the generic frames in a cloud of zero-exhaust dust.
Frame
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Perks of getting a custom frame include: sizing to your exact body shape and measurements, a layup/build to your riding style, lusty welds (if steel, aluminum or titanium) or a flawless layup (if carbon), and the satisfaction of watching a bicycle come to life in front of your very eyes. Thomas Callahan of Horse Cycles starts with an assessment — me sitting in a dusty chair in his shop, him with a clipboard and Charles, the cat, pouncing from lap to lap — to consider my preferred style of riding, account for any body irregularities or pain points, and study the geometry of my favorite preexisting bike (my 2014 Cannondale Evo 60mm). Then he measures, just like a tailor would, develops a CAD drawing of the bike, orders the parts and builds a bicycle — rather, my bicycle.
