Framebuilders take note. This is some Weigle shit right here:

“I was going to do a fillet stem originally then Brett sent me a pic of a Rene Herse stem and asked if I could do one like it. I have had a block of 6061 around that I was planning on using for a stem some day. Well It is a LOT more work than I ever thought. Especially on my little Linely Jig mill. Making this stem reminded me of a three pitch rock climbing trip I took with a friend to Seneca rocks. The farther you went up the higher the stakes were and the more careful you had to be.

By day four of the machining I knew one wrong move would set me back that much further. I had another stem ahead of it that I would use to test each set up with, but early on I messed up the drop angle, so it was like a track stem. After the machining I hand filed all the edges to give it a more organic handmade feel, which definitely transformed it from the downhill stem it was looking like during the machining process.”

Bishop Bikes is going to be huge in 2011. Chris’ work just keeps getting better and better! I can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for NAHBS dude! Check out the entire process, from billet to beauty here at the Bishop Flickr!