This weekend, we’re in Dresden, Germany for the Bespoked artisan frame builder and maker showcase! Below, our 2024 Bespoked Dresden Part 01 reportage features some amazing bicycles and products from Atherton, Ballern, Black Sheep, Curve, Good Grief, Ingrid, Parsec Objects, Quokka, Rossman, and Sturdy. Scroll on down to take it all in!

We’d like to thank ERGON for sponsoring our Bespoked Dresden coverage. Lots of us over here at The Radavist ride Ergon’s grips and saddles. We’re honored to have our hard work supported by such a great company.

Rossman Cycles AARN Sodium Flare Welding Glasses

Currently based in Girona, Spain, fabricator and randonneuring aficionado Hahn Rossman has been using Phillips protective eyeglasses for years while brazing. The lenses protect from the intense light frequency produced by gas torches but still enable viewing of the frame material to observe color changes. Yet, the frames seem cheap and are prone to breaking. Hahn enlisted friend Aaron Panone of AARN to help design a burly frame around the Sodium Flare lenses.

Made of printed nylon with German parts in Aaron’s home country of the Netherlands, the glasses are currently for sale on Hahn’s website. Tell Mr. Drust the model how good he looks in the comments!

See more at Rossman Cycles

Atherton Bikes S170 Lugged Aluminum Full Suspension

The S series is Atherton’s more approachable lineup of bikes. Rather than using 3D-printed lugs with carbon tubes like the A series, the S bikes use CNC lugs and aluminum tubes. The Grade-7 7075 alloy they use cannot be welded, so it hasn’t been used in bike production previously. Yet, the lug and tube method makes it possible in this scenario and yields a higher tensile strength than Grade-6 aluminum commonly used for bikes.

This S170 is more of a park or enduro build with 170 mm rear travel, 180 mm in the front, and mixed wheel sizes. Utilizing DW Link four-bar suspension linkage, all Athertons are made to order in the UK in a wide range of sizing options.

See more at Atherton.

Ballern Cycle Works Stainless Flat Bar Urban Raver

Ballern is all about non-stop partying, and this urban flat bar commuter is pure party style. Built for builder Bennet Janz’s teacher, who is quite tall, it’s a pragmatic approach to a bike that will see a lot of use. Since Bennet’s customer couldn’t decide on a final paint color for the frame, they decided it should be made of stainless steel and left raw.

It features various custom touches, including the stem, which was welded and then brazed for extra strength, and the seatstay bridge with suuuuper tight tire clearance.

See more at Ballern

Black Sheep Bikes 36er Gravel

This Black Sheep 36er (or 91er for our European friends) is James Bleakely’s personal bike. While it looks huge, the big wheels create a sort of optical illusion around a bike that fits him perfectly. Featuring Paragon’s UDH and flat-mount brake dropouts, James added his signature HACS tensioners if he ever wants to run this bike as a singlespeed.

The looooong fork and one-piece handlebar are all made in-house. The bike rolls on Nextie rims and shifts thanks to the new Vivo derailleur.

See more at Black Sheep

Curve Carbo-Kev Titanium/Carbon Gravel Bike

The Carbo Kev is a continuation of Curve’s Air Kev model that utilizes bonded construction. With the Air Kev, the brand noticed some standout ride qualities regarding rigidity and power translation. So, they took it a step further with the Carbo Kev, making the bottom portion as stiff as possible with carbon tubing in titanium lugs with thin seatstay tubes.

Built in-house at Curve’s Australian HQ, this prototype frame was bonded and painted by various members of the team. Stay tuned to Curve’s social media channels to see how the testing of this bike fares over the next few months. They might decide to bring it to market…

See more at Curve

Good Grief Hardtail MTB

One of this year’s SRAM Inscluvity Scholars, Christopher Schmidt of Good Grief, built up a ripping hardtail to display in his unique style at the show. With a 510mm reach, 475 mm chainstays, and 690 mm stack, it’s so long that it barely fits into his XL Evoc travel bag. After doing FEA analysis on the main frame, Chris identified weaker spots in the design and added extra thin tubes for reinforcement. With thinner gauge primary tubing, than he’d typically use for an MTB, this bike was lighter than his other bikes, even with the extra thin tubes.

Chris is part of two Indigenous tribes, Zuni and Paiute-Shoshone. The downtube and fork graphics, which were designed by his wife, each reflect different elements of those cultures.

See more at Good Grief.

Quokka Cycles Track Bike

Brivaël (AKA Kang) makes steel bikes in La Possonnière, France. His brand name, “Quokka,” refers to his parents’ kangaroo farm, as a quokka is a small variety of the marsupial. But that doesn’t really have anything to do with this stunning track bike Kang built for his friend. As you can see from the build, this is a very aggressive-fitting and riding bike with a solid seat mast, high bottom bracket, low fork rake, steep angles, and tight tire clearance.

Kang shaped the fork crown from a 3D-printed part in addition to the dropouts, which will be his signature dropouts moving forward. The chainring was a fun collaboration with AARN just for the show.

See more at Quokka

Sturdy Cycles Cilla All-Road/Gravel

It’s always a pleasure to see a Sturdy in person. This Cilla All-Road/Gravel bike was recently built for a customer at local Dresden bike shop Light Wolf Studio. It features nearly everything possible in titanium, all made by Sturdy, including the cranks, fork, single-piece handlebar, and even brake lever blades.

Rolling on MUSA Forge + Bond deep gravel rims, the build has new SRAM RED 13-speed drivetrain with custom derailleur pulley wheels.

See more at Sturdy.

Parsec Objects Cargo Cages and Dry Bags

A brand new side project from Erik Fenner, who you might recognize from his role at Old Man Mountain, Parsec Objects is his “playground” to test and create new ideas. His first products are cargo cages and drybags. In addition to the functional designs, which Erik has been refining for years, the products are available to order at quantity in custom designs.

Like the artist collaboration bags on display here at Bespoked, or the collab cages with Bikes or Death logo, brands, bike shops, and teams can work with Erik to brand their own Parsec items. Additionally, all of the collaborative designes will be available to purchase on the Parsec website.

See more at Parsec Objects

Ingrid Components Drop Bar Shift Lever

Italian component maker Ingrid teased a dropbar lever at last year’s Dresden show,  but it was essentially a dummy lever for ergonomic testing. Now, however, they are premiering a fully functional lever designed to control hydraulic brakes and work with their cable-actuated derailleur.

Shifting occurs by a side-to-side movement of the machined alloy lever blade. For braking, fellow Italian brand Formula designed the lever internals, which work with any of their flat or post-mount calipers. Ingrid expects these levers to be available for sale in a few months. Let them know in the comments if you, like me, would like to see them make a lever for cable-actuated brakes, too!

See more at Ingrid.

And that’s it for this first report from Bespoked Dresden! Stay tuned over the next few days for more galleries…

Browse saddles, grips, and more at ERGON.