Custom Bikes & Tech! | Bespoked Handmade Bike Show 2024

The 2024 Bespoked Manchester Handmade Bicycle Show is being held in Victoria Baths. Bespoked is Europe’s largest annual exhibition for custom bikes and features artisan frame builders of all styles, with the aim of promoting the art of frame building. Anna Cipullo went along to take a look at this year’s tech that was on at the show!

💻 Submit Top Mods, Bike Caves, Rewinds and more to us 👉 https://upload.gmbn.com/tech

⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️
00:00 – Intro
00:41 – TJD / Ted James Design
02:20 – 18 Bikes
03:47 – CDURO Bikes [Feat. Prototype Carbon Intend fork]
05:32 – Portable road bike?
05:48 – CRAFT BIKES
07:35 – BTR Downhill bike
09:55 – Howler
11:26 – Some cool lights
11:40 – Wizard Works
11:51 – Dawley Cycles
12:42 – SAVONY
13:45 – SEIDO
14:45 – Clandestine
16:00 – Shand
17:49 – Auckland Cycle Works

Useful Links:
🛍 NEW MTB Bike Maintenance Book 👉 https://gmbn.eu/MTBMaintenanceBook
Sign-up to our newsletter 👉 https://gmbn.eu/newsletter

What did you think of Bespoked 2024?

Watch more on GMBN Tech…
📹 Joe Barnes Hope HB.916 👉 youtu.be/48jRvR-yGUs
📹 Watch our Editor’s Choice Playlist 👉 https://gmbn.tech/editorschoice
📹 Watch our weekly show 👉 https://gmbn.tech/GMBNTechShow

🎵 Music – licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵
Boogie Love – Andreas Dahlback
Feng Shui of Party – Andreas Dahlback
Funky Power Age – Andreas Dahlback
Make It Yellow – Andreas Dahlback
Sokoto – El Flaco Collective

#gmbntech #gmbn #mtb #mountainbiking #bespoked

The Global Mountain Bike Network (GMBN) is the world’s largest and fastest-growing online mountain bike channel and community – and your destination for the best mountain bike content in the world.

GMBN is dedicated to inspiring and unlocking your riding potential. Our videos cater to fans of every mountain bike discipline: from mile-munching cross-country (XC) riders, through adrenaline-fuelled dirt jumpers, gravity-hungry downhillers or aspiring enduro racers, and beyond.

Every day of every month, our ex-pro presenting team are on hand to entertain and inspire you while also providing a uniquely qualified insight into the world of mountain biking. Every week we deliver original daily videos that include:

Adventurous and entertaining features
Mountain bike skills coaching
Technical advice and guidance
Mechanical know-how to keep you rolling
A place for the riding community with our weekly Dirt Shed Show

Thanks to our sponsors:
Canyon Bikes: http://gmbn.eu/Canyon
Propain Bikes: https://gmbn.eu/Propain
Orbea Bikes: https://gmbn.eu/Orbea
Park Tool: http://gmbn.eu/ParkTool
Smith Helmets & Eyewear: https://gmbn.eu/Smith
Crankbrothers Pedals: http://gmbn.eu/crankbros
Shimano Footwear: https://gmbn.eu/ShimanoShoes
Ergon: http://gmbn.eu/ergon
Vittoria Tires: https://gmbn.eu/Vittoria
Reynolds wheels: https://gmbn.eu/Reynolds
FSA: http://gmbn.eu/fsa
Topeak: http://gmbn.eu/topeak
Garmin: https://gmbn.eu/Garmin
Peaty’s Products: https://gmbn.eu/Peatys
Worx Power Tools: https://gmbn.eu/Worx
CamelBak: https://gmbn.eu/CamelBak

Watch our sister channels:
Global Mountain Bike Network – https://youtube.com/gmbn
Electric Mountain Bike Network – https://www.youtube.com/embn
Global Cycling Network – https://www.youtube.com/gcn
GCN Tech – https://www.youtube.com/gcntech
GCN Racing – https://www.youtube.com/gcnracing
Global Triathlon Network – https://www.youtube.com/gtn
GMBN Racing – https://gmbn.eu/GMBNracing
GCN Italia – https://www.youtube.com/gcnitalia
GCN en Espanol – https://www.youtube.com/gcnenespanol
GCN auf Deutsch – https://www.youtube.com/gcnaufdeutsch
GCN en Francais – https://www.youtube.com/gcnenfrancais
GCN Training – https://www.youtube.com/gcntraining

we’re at bespoked 2024 Europe’s largest handmade bike show and this weekend we’re in a Victorian bath in Manchester let’s go dive in right this is an opportunity for all of the independent frame Builders to Showcase their work so we’re going to see gorgeous custom paint jobs some unique Styles and uh well let’s grab our swim caps and dive in [Music] so I’m here at tjd or Ted James design bikes and this is a customer bike and you can see it’s super aggressive really long really slack and a super steep seat angle because he’s been winching up those really steep fire roads in the south of Wales and taking this to the Alps and this is a pretty PR rugged build we’ve got a cerakote finish here but the uh standout piece is obviously that is a pinion gearbox and Ted’s actually fashioned this plate uh together with the pinion gearbox so that you can adjust the chain tension but he’s got a full suspension bike over there that he’s thinking of combining with the pinion gearbox and this might actually give him the ability to change the bottom bracket height or the geometry on his high pivot full sus which would be really interesting to see can’t wait to see that but in the meantime this looks super sick actually um and if you look here the chain doesn’t actually wrap around the chain stay so in theory you could run this with a belt drive if you wanted to that would be really interesting and one of The Accidental benefits of this design is the down tube is actually elevated so you can get this massive water bottle in the bottom here um because the customer actually uses this for off-road bike packing and also really elevated chain stays here kind of almost Alpine Stars Vibes here but that just gives you really uh massive amounts of clearance in the rear wheel as [Music] well so I’m here at 18 bikes who are more known for their hard Tails but they are prototyping FAL sases and falsas ebike as well and what they’ve gone for is this solid rear swing arm here which simplifies production a bit because you know with an ebike you’re going to need the suspension to be a bit further up and out the way so naturally going for a high pivot and testing that on both bikes uh was a natural move for them but also the the solid swing arm just means that they can carry a bunch of swing arms for different sizes and different bikes and that simplifies production but also simplifies it for the customer if they ever need a replace basan um now it’s probably going to look something like this uh when it comes to production in hopefully 2025 maybe 2026 um but it might have an aluminium rear to sort of lighten things up but at the moment they’re working with steel because it’s a little easier and they’ve got this floating brake rotor at the back there because well they said that having a solid swing arm often is said to have some difficulties with braking load but uh isolating that with the brake arm up there they want to see if it actually does make any difference it might not but if it does they’re going to keep it on the production model but it’ll be interesting to see what this looks like in a year’s [Music] time so I’m here at curro at the stand this wild looking carbon bike now this is manufactured in the Czech Republic but the engineers that have created this one is based in the UK if you want to chat to him because this is pretty exciting stuff now they’re Engineers from a carbon manufacturing company that works with this sort of in integrated Loop technology which you can see here this is what you’re seeing uh and it’s effectively winding car carbon fibers in this continuous loop all the way around so you don’t actually need a carbon mold like the conventional carbon bikes do where you have uh almost like fabric laid up in the mold uh which means well you can basically get away with that expense of the mold simplifies things now these are actually ready to be bought if you want to talk to um curro about getting your own made up uh it’s a pretty nice looking bike this is aggressive Trail or ajuro style they’ve gone for a single pivot on the back um and it’s quite far forward that pivot so it’s going to be quite sensitive in the rear and theyve built some kind of sort of torsional flex in the front there so it’s going to be nice and sensitive also it’s going to be ramping up real supportive in the rear and another exciting thing is they’re actually working with intend if you can see here this leg is actually made out of carbon fiber which is not normal for intend but they’re working on a prototype to try and bring out a carbon version um but let me know down in the comments what do you think is this too wild uh or do you like it [Music] oh my God you see that think oh my God you can just wheel your bike around in like a little package of its own that is the coolest thing here at craft bikes we’ve seen an additively manufactured and titanium welded bike now we’ve seen this before if you’ve watched our other bespoke shows but we often see this on gravel bikes and road bikes and really flyweight XE bikes so it’s nice to see a proper aggressive mountain bike we’ve got 140 Pikes up here 65° head angle so you’ve got these 3D printed head tubes the yolks at the back there and also the dropouts and this just allows an easier process to weld the titanium tubes together but it also means that you know you could get this nice carbon aesthetic it really cleans things up uh so you can have your uh holes your ports for your cables 3D printed in the lattice work in the center and also you don’t need a bridge on the yolk at the rear because obviously all the loads taken from the lattice work in the center and there’s loads of options here so you can have sort of dual Port uh cable holes which these are also 3D printed but you can effectively choose to have single ones and if you change your mind and go from electronic to Mechanical for some reason then you can swap these out and put different ones in and I just think it’s absolutely gorgeous and you can have it in hundreds of cak co colors which if heat treated is much stronger than paint but just look at this brush finished I mean this has actually been ridden hard it was really scratched up and the owner has just hand polished it and brushed it back up to look absolutely brand new I mean if I was getting a tie bike it would have to be raw what do you reckon let me know down in the comments below so if you’re familiar with BTR then this will look immediately familiar because it looks just like BTR hard tail but this is a downhill rig so the owner has a regular customer has a couple of bikes and he wanted a downhill rig and uh unfortunately for him it sent him on a 4year journey of working out how to create the rear suspension kinematics and also this linkage which he has CNC machined himself because his suppliers were less than reliable so he thought well I’ll just buy a CNC machine and do it myself how hard could that be uh pretty hard as it as it works out but um what we’ve got here is obviously it’s still in steel as that’s what he likes to work with the 4130 steel most of it um and he’s gone for a single pivot because obviously a single pivot keeps things nice and simple in terms of Maintenance but once your bearing start to go if there’s loads of bearings in different places it can give you a bit of slack in the back that this guy is clearly a serious downhill racer that wouldn’t want that so it’s nice and sturdy in the rear and then what we’ve got here is obviously linkage driven shock and he said it’s linear Progressive but it’s a little more linear than his other suspension bike um because he wanted it to feel quite bottom uh bottomless but with the EXT shock here you’ve obviously got a hydraulic bottom out that can kind of give you a little buffer at the bottom um and there’s a lot of nice little details in here obviously you’ve got the bump stop at the top which you need with uh dual Crown forks and you’ve got this nice little cable routing here and he’s managed to CNC machine a lot of the parts around here now that he’s got a CNC machine um which means that absolutely everything is in house which is really cool oh and he has like used scotchbrite to just sort of buff up this link which which I really like but if you were to buy one then you could get this anodized either to match the clear hope parts or get it colored uh and by the way if you do want one um there’s only going to be 10 made so you better make it [Music] quick so I’ve just stolen this bike off the schw stand because it’s really busy down there but this is from a frame building company called howler and Billy the owner or Creator well this is his own bike and he makes bikes or fullest bikes out of Reynold steel and he’s got this really intricate rear suspension kinematic here well I mean it’s not that intricate it is effectively a linkage driven single pivot in a high uh pivot configuration here but he is um I guess a an aggressive Enduro bike park rat so he’s got the small wheels on here 27.5 and Billy’s dad is actually a painter by trade and if you look at this it’s almost like Raptor paint which is what we see on cars a lot it’s quite rough and matte finish and if you look real close it’s got this beautiful dark brown to Black fade and the fade is just absolutely seamless and how he’s got this little shiny window of Steel on his logo I don’t really know I think it might be anodized steel or perhaps he’s coated it beforehand and then laid the paint over the top so he can get the window out but either way I just think it looks gorgeous and it’s definitely one of the best head two badges in the show for sure uh let me know down in the comments below what do you think small wheel High pivot bike for the [Music] win sorry they’ve uh sort of engineered Dynamo lights to actually be wired into the frame that’s so [Music] cool wizard Works making bags in the UK for bike packing some great color schemes in here uh even that paint flick one for a good old acid [Music] flashback dly Cycles based in Nottingham not long down the road from here and this is Tom the owner’s actual bike now they usually make hard Tails um Out Steel but he wanted a full USS but it still kind of has the aesthetic of a hard tail you see the top tube coming down to the seat tube here uh real simple design but managed to have the um linkage far forward enough to keep this seat tube nice and straight for like proper clearance on your dropper post here so um yeah I think they’re working towards getting a rear end sort of more produced and stocked in the back end so that when you decide you want to come and get a custom steel for sus from doy you can get the front triangle made up and then have a rear triangle ready to go so I’m here on the Saxony stand which is actually promoting the area because bespoked is going to be in Dresden again this coming October so if that interests you go and check it out and also from Dresden is sour Cycles so naturally there was one on here they always make beautiful clean looking hard Tails I mean check out that head tube super curvy also they’ve got the Ingrid drivetrain on there almost full drivetrain no cranks set but they do have the brand new uh additively manufactured shifter up there and all of the metal parts that you see are fully CNC machined um absolutely stunning look at it look at that that’s so cool jump back boom didn’t expect that did you that’s so cool I absolutely love that that’s going to be like bike Packers number one tour so I’m here on the pyo stand and they actually make components out of Germany so we’ve got Saddles chain Rings Wheel sets loads of stuff but what I really like is the forks on this handmade Dru bike here uh and the forks have paner racks or the ability to take racks uh with the bottle bosses on the front and that’s really hard to come by these days especially in a rigid Fork um so ignore the drop bars here this is definitely a mountain bike um and also just a little attention to detail shame you can’t buy these but the cranks are actually made out of a handmade bike chain stay like a steel chain stay it’s pretty cool I know these are road bikes but the anodizing on these are absolutely insane look at that it really complement those seamless Wells on the titanium bike which is clearly additively manufactured as well clandestine make steel tourers and road bikes and off-road cargo bikes kind of like this so this is the clandestine carrier it can be run as like a gravel bike or as a road bike if you want to use use paniers for your shopping or whatever but this is for off-road bike packing obviously and he’s handmade this rack himself it’s given the freedom and the ability to build it around a 2.6 in tire on a 650b wheel here obviously it’s pinion gearbox as well and he’s gone for the belt drive so he’s actually had to factor in the split Link in the seat stays here cuz obviously you need to put the belt on there and he’s also made this sliding plate uh little similar to the Ted James we saw earlier and he’s done that so that you can build the tension into that belt without having to have sliding dropouts and that means he’s been able to use this lovely curvy and clean chain stay here um and he’s also managed to build in the Dynamo lights into his handmade rack and I think it looks really smart actually [Music] Shand is a sort of amalgamation of Scottish and handbuilt because these are handbuilt in Scotland um and these are steel frames handbuilt obviously but I wanted to Showcase this because these are a more sort of accessible price range some of the bikes I’m showing you are between 9 and 12 grand for a full build whereas this is for a full build from £3,750 now I know it’s got drop bars but it can actually be a flat bar mountain bike as well you can have it with steel Forks you can have it with carbon forks with the racking here or you can have a rolloff built into the back or you can have a Dynamo Hub if you want to I mean this is a handbuilt adventure for all of your adventures out there and I think it can handle quite a lot of variety maybe it’s one bike to rule them all I don’t know just one thing before I go obviously this is a carbon belt drive here uh with the rolloff system now generally you need to attention this a little bit and often people use sliding dropouts but that would move the rear wheel which means if you had mud guards everything would Clash and it wouldn’t work so actually they’ve worked with another company to make an eccentric bottom bracket and get the tension dialed in the bottom bracket instead so they just moved the cranks that’s really cool this is some insane anodizing check this out I think green is like the hardest color to analiz look at [Music] it if you don’t know who Orland are then you haven’t watched our other bespoke shows they’ve turned up to this show for the last 3 years so after this video go and watch our old bespoke shows and find out more about this [Music] bike wow what a show I mean this is my favorite show of the year for sure and every year there’s just more and more mountain bikes which is so good to see absolutely loving seeing Ted James with his new pinion gearbox his aggressive uh Adventure mountain bike and also that craft bike never seen those before that bike was absolutely stunning but I want to know what you guys think out of all the bikes you’ve seen today which bike would you go home with if you could let me know down in the comments below [Music]