Over the past few years, Mitchell Connell has fallen in love with road riding with his friends – but he never felt at home on his Scott Addict road bike. He turned to Charles Thompson of Fine Bikes to design a dedicated road bike from the perspective of a fellow commuter, bike mechanic, and racer. Read more about their design process, visiting Charles’ shop, and how his bike turned out.
Road Bikes Are Not The Antichrist
Ten years ago, I would have balked at the idea of going on a “road ride”. I took pride in ringing my Crane bell and gently letting the upper-middle-class roadies know that I would be passing them on their left as I rode through downtown Nashville working as a messenger.
I still use bicycles as a means of transportation, but now that I’m well into my adult life, I have also begun to enjoy using bicycles as a way to spend intentional time with my friends. Why did I used to have so much resentment towards adults who wanted to get away from life and spend a few hours outdoors with their friends? It turns out Saturday morning road rides are really nice.
Expanding What I Consider a Ride
And so, over the years, my paradigm around bicycles has changed. I still enjoy commuting to work on my Rivendell Hunqapillar, but I also started going on spirited road rides on a Scott Addict that I bought from my friend, Scott, who works at Tennessee Valley Bikes, a fantastic local bike shop in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Addict rode great, but it never felt like home. I’ve worked in bike shops my entire life, and I’ve spent a significant amount of time wrenching and thinking about design, material, and aesthetics. I knew that the Scott wouldn’t be my forever bike.
I wanted a dedicated road bike that had rim brakes, was fully mechanical, had slender steel tubes, and could fit 32mm road tires. The kind of bike that would feel at home on an “A-ride” with my friends who all wear Maap and Pas Normal, but also felt like something that I would have designed. I wanted a bike that said, “I’ll take the next pull, but also, would you like to know my favorite Bill Callahan album, Apocalypse?” Or maybe, “I’m working on optimizing my high-carb drink mix and would you like to know my favorite Mike Mills film, C’mon C’mon?”
But in today’s world of unlimited options when choosing a frame builder, how do you decide who to turn your idea into your dream bike?
An Intro to Charles Thompson
There are a few things you need to know about Charles Thompson: he’s the owner and operator of Fine Bikes out of Raleigh, North Carolina, and he’s excited to talk to you, especially if you can get him going about something he really loves. Here are just a few things Charles would be happy to talk about: how the dropouts are attached to the last frame he built, Mario Kart on Nintendo 64, or the talent show he’s organizing through the shop where he works, Oak City Cycling.
I chose Charles as the designer of my dream road bike because of his multidisciplinary understanding of bicycles, bicycle aesthetics, and riding. Charles commutes by bike, but also has a background in racing BMX, jumping hardtails, and racing cyclocross bikes very, very fast. I chose him because he’s a commuter who rides in Vans but also is comfortable in a paceline.
The Design Process
After test-riding his version of a road bike, we got to work designing mine. Charles and I designed the bike over three or four Zoom meetings. We started with my current road bike, the Scott Addict, and pulled up the frame details using the website Bike Insights. I told Charles that I loved riding the bike, but it began to feel uncomfortable after about two hours. I liked the spirited road geometry, but I wanted to raise the front end just a smidge, so I could ride it for an entire afternoon on my days off.
Once we nailed down the geometry, I let Charles take the wheel for selecting the tubeset. I basically told him my weight and how I wanted the bike to feel, and he took it from there. For some visual clues on the bike, I sent Charles a few pieces of inspiration. First, I told him that I wanted the bike to look practical and follow a form-follows-function ethos. In essence, I told him a little fist acting as my rear brake cable would be my worst nightmare.
Around this time, I stumbled across the Beach Club Discless Road Bike and quickly texted it to Charles as a visual example. Damn, that bike looks good! Finally, I sent him a picture of my old camp mug for paint inspiration. After a few months of design meetings, I think we finally both felt like we knew what to do next. I wrote Charles a check and he turned on his torch. After a few months, I finally got the text I had been waiting for: “Your bike’s ready. You still want to come to Raleigh to pick it up?”
Visiting Charles’ Top-Secret Shop
When I made it to Raleigh, my bike was already waiting for me at Oak City Cycling, but before I built it up, I twisted Charles’ arm and convinced him to let me photograph his top-secret shop. He’s in the process of building out his forever shop and is currently operating out of a very cool, but secret location. When I arrived, Charles was in the process of building the fork for his short track one-speed that he debuted to much fanfare at Philly Bike Expo.
The shop is practical, well-laid-out, and is currently churning out some of the most interesting bikes in the Southeast. I can’t wait to see where Charles will be in a few years. After the shop visit and many laughs, we headed over to Oak City Cycling where the kind mechanics allowed me to build the bike up, so I could take it on the shop road ride the following morning.
My Enamel Road Bike
If I had to describe the bike Charles and I settled on in one sentence, it would be, “a dedicated road bike with rim brakes and clearance for 32mm tires and a camp mug paint job.” And geez did Charles deliver.
The Drivetrain
Can I let you in on a little secret? None of us bike-industry folks can afford these bikes at MSRP. Instead, we patiently collect dream parts over time, over years, so we can assemble the bike of our dreams. A perfect example of this is the Dura-Ace R9100 groupset on this bike. I purchased the rear derailleur, integrated shifters, front derailleur, and brakes from a friend for an absolute steal. I had to purchase the crankset to complete the groupset, which I will never financially recover from.
I’m loyal to Shimano mechanical groupsets. They shift well, are easy to set up and maintain, and I’ve worked on them a lot. I have no qualms with electronic shifting; in fact, I think it works really well. Personally, I’ve spent a lot of time working on Shimano mechanical drivetrains, and I enjoy working on them, so I put one on my bike.
The Dura-Ace R9100 groupset has some modest improvements over the R9000 series. The lever throw to shift gears is shorter, which makes shifting feel a little nicer, and there’s some difference in the chainrings, but it’s beyond me. In short, the groupset shifts exceptionally well and is satisfying to use.
Why Rim Brake?
Rim brakes are a limiting factor when building a modern road bike. I wish I could squeeze 36mm tires on this bike already, but I really wanted rim brakes on this bike. I don’t mind bleeding brakes or facing disc brake mounts, but to be frank, I don’t enjoy it. I knew that I would be working on this bike for hopefully many years, so I elected to build the bike around rim brakes. Not because they stop better, not because they look better, but because I enjoy working on them more. They’re simple to adjust and downright pleasant to dial in.
The Wheel Set
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed the high spoke count on these wheels. They’re Nox Composite Falcor 55 rims (sick name) laced to Bitex hubs with 32 CX-Ray spokes. Why 32 spokes, you may ask? Because I got the rims for free from a friend-of-a-friend, that’s why.
I also cannot claim the Falcor-to-Bitex-with-CX-Ray’s wheel design. I think every mechanic at the aforementioned shop, Tennessee Valley Bikes, built this wheelset for their road bike. Particularly notably, Evan Lang, one of our regional pros and a dungeon master, had built this wheelset with silver hubs and spokes, and I still think about it sometimes.
The Ride Quality and Final Thoughts
Perhaps that’s enough talk about bike trinkets. How does the bike ride? In short, beautifully. Casey Robertson described it as, “a comfort missile,” and I think that about nails it. It’s so much more forgiving than my carbon Scott Addict, and it smooths out the road noise beautifully. It still feels incredibly fast, short, and nimble, but just without the bone-rattling.
The 32mm tires hug the road into and out of corners, and the extremely short chainstays have me saying, “I need NOS.” You may look at me and think, “Amateurs don’t use NOS, you’ll blow yourself to pieces,” but that’s just how this thing has got me feeling. I might not have enough torque to twist the chassis off the line, but at least I can still put on my kit, tuck in my laces, and live my life a quarter-mile at a time.