{"id":163426,"date":"2018-02-08T13:13:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=163426"},"modified":"2018-02-15T13:35:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T13:35:31","slug":"interview-best-bike-builders-world-mass-market-vs-custom-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/02\/08\/interview-best-bike-builders-world-mass-market-vs-custom-made\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with the Best of the Bike Builders\u2019 World: Mass Market vs. Custom-Made"},"content":{"rendered":"

The decision to become a custom bike builder is definitely not an easy one. You have to be tough and unrelenting to make a name for yourself in the world dominated by corporate companies with armies of engineers and designers, and even larger teams of sales & marketing specialists. Yet there are those who succeed nonetheless and who are sought out by cycling enthusiasts from all around the world. We talked to three of them to explain why so many believe a custom-made bicycle will always beat one from the production line.<\/strong>
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Mass Market vs. Custom-Made (Part 1\/3)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When looking to spend top dollars for a high-quality road bike, adjectives such as \u201cstiffer\u201d, \u201clighter\u201d, \u201cfaster\u201d and \u201cway-more-aero\u201d come around the minute you check the promo materials from well-known bike manufacturers. After all, those are the arguments we expect to hear when paying well over 10,000 euros. Carbon is the name of this game, with each brand creating fancier designs on a regular basis. Then, using their Taiwan\/China-based manufacturing partners, they make bikes for the masses.<\/p>\n

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However, if you start to dig a bit deeper into what is available at such price point, you will hear rather familiar words such as steel, aluminium, and titanium. Three materials currently widely used by custom-made bike boutiques, the other side of the industry. A world filled with quality, craftsmanship and bicycles that usually last for decades. This is the kind of products Doriano De Rosa, Richard Sachs and Julie Ann Pedalino produce.<\/p>\n

Doriano De Rosa<\/strong> represents the true European bicycle-building tradition. At 14, he was already working in his father\u2019s workshop building bikes for cyclists like Eddy Merckx. Frequent debates with many notable pros over the years gave him an in-depth understanding of what a performance-based bike should be. After leaving the family business in 2015, he and his daughter Martina started their own brand: Bixxis. An acronym which means \u201cBiciclette Italiane per il XXI Secolo\u201d, in English: Italian Bicycles for the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Be5mNXQnhem\/?hl=cs&taken-by=bixxis<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved working with steel. It\u2019s a live material, it\u2019s got a soul: steel gives substance to any design idea and breathes life into the product. Bixxis makes bicycles built with the metals I love: steel and titanium.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

For anyone remotely in-tune with custom bike building, the name Richard Sachs<\/strong> needs no introduction as he is by far one of the most respected builders\/designers around. For those less aware, Mr. Sachs is an American producing a very limited number of units each year and specializing in designing road and cyclocross bikes. In this sense, his work resembles more that of an artist rather than a businessman.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bbchwldj8FO\/?taken-by=therichardsachs<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in\u2026 all the tech one expects. I\u2019m not making or selling appliances or a This Year\u2019s Model bicycle. That\u2019s the difference between what I do (and people like me) and (the rest of) the industry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Julie Ann Pedalino<\/strong> may not be the biggest custom bike builder (yet), but she represents the new breed of bike artists. With her special touch to each of the bikes, from the welding techniques to the paint work, her designs clearly include art as part of the build. Furthermore, Julie Ann Pedalino is not confined to road bikes. She is totally comfortable designing a fat bike, a cyclocross or any other model. As a custom bike builder, she specializes in taking the extra step to add art to her frames, which in turn gives her customers a totally unique bike design.
\n\u201cFit and function with a splash of Panache!\u201d<\/em> is the Pedalino\u2019s motto.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Ba1lGisHGbj\/?taken-by=pedalinobikes<\/p>\n

So what are the biggest challenges and hurdles these custom bike builders face today? Is it a question of access to market, marketing budgets spent by the large manufacturers? How could the custom bike market grow better?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Doriano De Rosa:<\/strong> Certainly having a big budget for marketing could help any small company to expand its philosophy. Personally, I think it is more of a cultural matter. Not many people know the potential of a custom-built bike.<\/em><\/p>\n