Our 2024 MADE Bike Show coverage from Portland, Oregon, continues with Part 05. Click on through below for selects from Artefact, Bantam, Destroy, Flatiron, Holland, No. 22, Prova, SaltAir, Seeker, and Significant Other.
Artefact Eterna Titanium Road Bike
“It looks like a titanium road bike because it is,” Daniel Yang said as his bike got rolled out of the venue for photographs. The Eterna is a titanium road bike meant to showcase the material’s beauty honestly. It utilizes a 3D printed y-yoke at the seat cluster but no chainstay yoke. The T47 bottom bracket has lots of room for the chainstays, offering a 32 mm tire clearance.
If you’re wondering why this bike looks so balanced, a lot has to do with the EC37 head tube and small titanium dropouts with no UDH. Daniel really wanted the ride quality, stance, and overall construction of this bike to be a future classic.
Check out more at Artefact.
Bantam Single Speed Belt Drive Commuter
Bob from Bantam brings out some of our favorite bikes each year and this massive fillet brazed commuter won our hearts over with its details. For starters, Bob made the fillet brazed bullmoose bars, which Oscar from Simple Bicycle Co helped him bend in exchange for a bahn mi sandwich. To tie the room together, Bob sourced NOS 1980s Stumpjumper chainstays off eBay.
The custom front porteur rack has a Wald basket and carries a Lords Luggage waxed canvas tote, who was also the client for the bike. While the diagatube increases frame lateral stiffness, the detail that caught our eye was the custom machined track ends, offering tension for the belt drive drivetrain.
Check out more of Bob’s unique bikes at Bantam.
Flatiron Steel Full Suspension 27.5 x 29er Mullet
Ian from Flatiron has worked in the bike industry for fifteen years and as an engineer for ten. He spent time at Stages, Guerilla Gravity, and Specialized before venturing out on his own with the intent of making metal off-road bikes. For his first MADE show, he brought this 27.5 by 29er mullet full suspension. The bike is 145 mm rear travel and 150 mm front, perfect for the front range of Colorado where Ian lives. The sliding dropouts allow the bike to be run with 435 mm through 460 mm chainstays.
The 3D sintered parts were made in China before getting the Ashley Anodized It special treatment. As for paint, Ian used a mix of automotive and Spray.Bike paint.
Check out more at Flatiron.
Destroy Bike Co. Vardo BMX Mini Velo Cargo
Destroy might be hogging most of the fun in the bike industry right now. They had a lot of fun stuff to show off, but this BMX cargo mini velo might just be the funnest.
Meant to ride like a BMX, but also haul cargo its custom rear rack also serves as a surfing platform. Handlebars hold a can of sparking water (or BEER) so your hydration of choice is always right in front of you. Geo is very fun and makes the front rack sort of disappear when in a wheelie or bunny hop because of where the wheels are positioned.
The color scheme and name are inspired by Romani Wagons (Vardos), traveling caravans familiar to Sean’s grandmother and always stood out to him for their gaudy yet incredible craftsmanship.
See more at Destroy.
Holland Cycles 1986 Road Bike
Holland Cycles is a legacy brand based in San Diego, CA, and in the 70s and 80s, heydays of lugged road bikes were on par with other San Diegan peers like Tesch, Baylis, and Roberson, of which many of their bikes were finished by Joe Bell. Now owned by Cody Stevenson, Holland Cycles continues to make high-end road bikes from carbon and titanium, which Joe Bell still paints. While Cody had modern Hollands on display, it is not difficult to see the appeal of this vintage bike from 1986, and we just had to document it.
The lugged Colombus steel frame was seemingly ahead of its time with internal routing of all cables and housing, including the computer routing through the fork. For the down tube and top tube, Holland used a full-length stainless steel jet vent for cables to run through. This bike was originally made for a customer, ridden for about fifteen years, and then gifted back to Bill when the client could no longer ride it. Bill last rode it in the 2018 Eroica.
With the continued resurgence in popularity of steel road bikes, wouldn’t it be exciting if builders like Holland dabbled in building with the material and bold paint design again? If you think so, let Cody know in the comments!
See more at Holland Cycles.
No. 22 Bicycle Co Drifter All-Road
Coming off our Ti Talk with No. 22 Bicycle Co, we were eager to see what the brand would be displaying at MADE. Immediately, this purple and lavender Drifter all-road brought us in like moths to a flame. The Drifter is an all-road platform with clearance for up to 45mm tires front and rear (or 50mm on 650B wheels), disc brakes, and standard thru-axles.
This particular bike is going to Portland YouTube star Dustin Klein, so expect to see more of it on Dustin’s channel, “Everything’s Been Done.”
Follow along at No. 22 Bicycle Co.
Prova Cycles Titanium Rapido Party Hardtail
Kelly and Mark Hester, work as a sister and brother team in a neat and orderly workshop in Melbourne, Australia. While we already looked at Mark’s new full suspension prototype, we had to showcase Kelly’s new Rapido Party hardtail frame. Kelly does the finishing work and carbon seat tube manufacturing at Prova and this is her first hardtail mountain bike. The bass boat purple sparkle paint was laid down by Velocraft in Melbourne.
Kelly is really excited for her new bike and after the show, her and Mark drove down the coast of California, riding various trail networks. Not a bad way to break it in!
Follow along with Prova on Instagram.
SaltAir Cycles Road Bike
Based in Salt Lake City, UT, Matt Nelson builds bicycles as SaltAir Cycles. His brand takes its name from the SaltAir Pavillion, located on the shore of the Great Salt Lake. The head badge adorning his bikes is an interpretation of the building’s Moorish Revival-style towers.
We’ve documented several Matt’s builds over the years, from his belt drive singlespeed MTB at last year’s MADE to the “twentysixie fixie” raced at the 2023 Enve Grodeo, all of which delicately balance form, function, and craft.
Matt had a few beautiful bikes in his booth this year, but we were most drawn to his personal road bike. The partially lugged steel frame and complimentary lugged steel disc brake fork are precisely the kind of road framesets we’d like to see more of in the world—built to last with plenty of tire clearance and desirable ride quality. We also enjoy seeing clever solutions for pairing mechanical disc brakes with electronic drivetrains. For this build, Matt is using Growtac Equal calipers with a 1x SRAM Force drivetrain controlled by a set of wireless blips inboard of each lever.
See more at SaltAir Cycles.
Seeker XC 29er Hardtail
Chris McGovern makes Seeker bikes and since relocating from Nevada City to Olympia, Washington, Chris has gotten back into riding fast-forward XC hardtails, just like the model he brought to MADE. He takes to his local blue and green trails at break-neck speeds, pushing not only the bike’s abilities but his own. This fast-paced riding is perfect for a lightweight and nimble XC bike.
Chris, you know how to make a good-lookin’ bike! The 50th FOX fork and new ENVE mountain wheels don’t hurt either!
Follow his jazz hands and metal bikes at Seeker.
Significant Other BMX
Ashley King of Significant Other made quite the splash at last year’s MADE show with her Supersmash fixed gear bike and accompanying Subtle Flex integrated handlebar-stem combo, both of which are now available to order. This year, she showed multiple builds, including a few mountain and adventure bikes that we’ll be documenting in a future gallery, but this BMX made for her significant other, Myles, grabbed our attention.
Inspired by Myles’ riding style, Ashley crafted this steel rig according to his wish list of features and geo. Notable considerations include internal cable routing, disc brake compatibility, integrated seatpost, long chainstays, and clearance for a large chainring and big tires. She went with a double-butted front triangle, so she had to be mindful of the butt lengths when mitering because it was essential to have the thicker material in the weld areas.
Reflecting back after building this, Ashley’s first BMX frame, she wonders how others are so relatively inexpensive because of all the hours she spent designing and building it.
See more at Significant Other.
A HUGE THANKS TO PAUL COMPONENT ENGINEERING FOR SPONSORING THIS POST!
That’s it for Part 05 of our MADE Bike Show coverage. We’ll be rolling out more over the next several days. What’s your favorite from this selection?