I did not grow up riding bikes, and I never learned to ride until my late teens. When offered the opportunity to learn about bicycles through building one from the ground up, I was incredibly excited to enter the world of cycling from a unique angle. I spent a month at the Tokyo College of Cycle Design in the summer of 2018 fabricating a custom bicycle frame under the guidance of master craftsmen with decades of experience.
My process began with my anthropometric measurements and a drawing that illustrated my desired top tube and seatstay shape.
For 3 weeks, I was guided through the process of tube bending, fillet brazing, assembling, and hand-finishing a custom chromoly steel frame. When I returned to the US, I prepared my frame for powder coating and learned how to assemble a road bike groupset.
My brazed & filleted bike frame on the last day of the workshop, about to be shipped back to the United States.
A Shimano 105 crankset installed after receiving a powder coat finish on the frame.
Testing the assembled front brake.
