Manchester Bike Maker

Nearly everyday I work on this blog I find something new and cool about our neighborhoods. Thanks to this article that ran in RichmondBiz Sense.com on Monday I know now about a local bike frame manufacturer in Manchester.

You won’t be strapping a big metal basket on the front of the these bikes and cruising the beach in your flip-flops. These are top end models that are start in the $1,700 range. If you don’t know what a fillet brazed steel tube or horizontal dropout is you probably can purchase your bike elsewhere.

The folks building these bikes are Stijl Cycles an offshoot of Tektonics Design Group, a specialty design and fabrication firm located right around the corner. Check out the interview and you can also check out the racing blog Design Physics Racing.

RBS: What makes Stijl bikes different?

HH: With all the knowledge I accumulated, I knew that there was a more viable market for mountain and road bikes with handmade frames.

I was working really hard [to learn] about the geometry of a person’s body, the bike and the biomechanics of how they fit together.

Where that didn’t apply to trial bikes, or people didn’t care enough to pay for it, all of that info was relevant to the more traditional cycling sports.