Over the past year, I’ve had quite a few people roll through Santa Fe on road trips. Knowing Covid is still running rampant all up and down the Rockies, I usually opt for a meet-up outdoors. Whether that means for a cup of coffee or a bike ride, I like catching up with people but want to err on the side of safety these days. Last March, our good friend Gideon came through town with his new-to-him Madrean 27.5 hardtail. If you recall our Shop Visit with Madrean – and our older Shop Visit from 2013 with Cycles d’Autremont – then you’ll recognize Hubert d’Autremont’s handiwork…

Documenting framebuilders and creating a visual catalog of their work has been a lifelong passion of mine. We’ve been doing this since 2007 on this website and it’s a labor of love. Hubert’s work is so unique and as you can see, it spans across all uses. I’ve even got some older photos of his road bike and porteur bike in our Archives if you really want to nerd out!

Madrean, and Hubert, are still to this day some of my favorite branches within the US framebuilding tree. Hubert learned his framebuilding skills from Drew at Engin Cycles in PA and has spent a good amount of time tinkering in his new workshop on a variety of projects from the high-art Rangefinder project, to various tidbits for Ronnie Romance and more.

When I emailed him about the bike that Gideon bought from him late in 2020, his reply was very succinct:

“Oh Dang so cool! That guy has style for days.
That was one of the first bikes I built in my Tucson shop. I didn’t paint it ’til the beginning of last summer and then never even got to ride it before Gideon bought it! The color is from a ’77 Yamaha XT500 (Ginger Brown), same as what I’m rebuilding right now.”

There’s nothing ostentatious about this build. It’s a fillet brazed frame with Paragon rocker dropouts, a beautiful 44mm headtube that houses the Madrean logo, and a custom Rogue Panda framebag. The most important thing to remember is this steel bike has a long life ahead of it.

Thanks for being so stylish, Gid! See ya soon my friend.