An Independent Fabrication XS on an autumn afternoon in Central Park, NYC. Note the upside down crown decal on the fork blade.

In traditional Japanese sword-making, a special steel known as tamahagane is used to form the blade. About nine tons of satetsu, or iron sand, is smelted constantly by four or five workers over the course of three days to yield less than one ton of tamahagane. The process allows the swordsmith to produce a single mass of metal with varied densities of carbon – specifically, a softer, low-carbon shingane “core” steel, and a harder, high-carbon kawagane “skin” steel. The former is utilized for shock absorption, the latter for durability and blade sharpness. They find a home together, layered to make a single sword, each complimenting the other to the benefit of the samurai who wields it.

Refining the process of rendering two metals with two different properties, into one piece for one purpose, undoubtedly took countless generations of sword-making, but tradition usually becomes tradition for good reason.

The history of bicycles has itself seen a variety of failed material marriages over the years, as manufacturers have pulled and bent and twisted and woven the earth’s bounty to meet the various demands of bicycle physics – magnesium, kevlar, aluminum, and bamboo, to name only a few – while the marketing departments sing us their songs.

The custom-machined titanium lugs on the XS align with the company’s crown motif, and represent IndyFab’s excellent attention to detail.

By now, however, some companies are getting the hang of it, and a dominant combination emerging is titanium and carbon fiber. Each brings unique structural properties to the table that the other simply can’t duplicate. Neither is new to the bike game, but only the past 10-ish years have seen relatively major players in bicycle fabrication uniting these materials with success.

Case in point: the Independent Fabrication XS I’ve had the privilege of riding for the past several weeks. The company brings carbon fiber tubes – for low weight and responsiveness – together with titanium lugs and structural elements – for vibration dampening and strength – to create their most expensive model. Without giving too much away, I will say it’s well worth it.

Being a custom-only model, this particular XS was designed with stability and smoothness as priorities over agility and road feel, but more on that in a minute. Straight from the company’s small factory in New Market, New Hampshire, the frame’s titanium structures and fork were finished in a pearlescent white, while the woven carbon tubes received a clearcoat. IndyFab’s crown logo provides a graphic motif that decorates the bike and inspires the incredible lugwork featured on every handmade XS. The final result is striking. The bike bent necks and drew stares anywhere it went, from group rides up 9W to idling in front of a Brooklyn bodega. Indeed, the XS even got the attention of many non-cyclists. It’s a truly stunning piece to behold.

All of the titanium and carbon fiber components of the XS frame are sourced from distributors in the US of A.

That will matter to some, but to others, the ride is why the money is spent, and here, IndyFab delivered a superlative machine. Stabilty and smoothness? This XS has them in spades. Rough, choppy tarmac nary nudged the IndyFab beyond its chosen path, and the bike always dutifully absorbed the pavement’s bumps and bruises before they got to my spine or wrists. My 10-mile ride home through Manhattan to Brooklyn is sometimes an experience I dread aboard more aggressive race bikes after a long day at work, but on the XS, I looked forward to it every day. While the titanium elements bring a slight weight penalty relative to a full-carbon frame, I would gladly accept it in the name of the beautifully controlled, relaxed ride that the XS provides.

The bike’s handling, while not quite as razor-sharp as those aforementioned race machines, was pretty close. This is a frame on which I felt instantly comfortable and in control, as a result of that planted ride as much as for the relatively stiff bottom bracket and head tube, which on lesser machines can be felt flexing mid-lean and thus bleed the rider of confidence when the road gets twisty. It’s true that this particular XS was not built as a flat-out race bike, nor did it encourage me to ride aggressively, but in the times I wanted or needed to get up and boogie, the XS responded eagerly (and to be clear, IndyFab could still build the XS to be much more agile and responsive than this example).

Yes, that is a sterling silver head badge on the IndyFab XS.

My most immediate point of comparison for the IndyFab XS was a 2012 Guru Photon (ridden and reviewed previously), built to the same performance criteria, and with the exact same parts (SRAM Red drivetrain, Zipp 303 Firecrest CC wheels, and Zipp cockpit). The Guru’s handling profile took a bit longer to become familiar than that of the IndyFab, but it, too, was a bike whose ride was fantastically smooth. The full-carbon Photon was simply faster, and would win a race to the top of a climb, given its lower weight and stiffer bottom bracket, but this speaks more to the lithe nature of Guru’s model rather than to the detriment of the IndyFab – which would likely pass it on the way back down, anyway, given its slightly greater stability (besides, the two models aren’t entirely analogous – IndyFab offers a full-carbon bike called the Corvid). And while both bikes would bestow a sense of supreme capability and luxury on anyone lucky enough to ride them, the Photon didn’t draw nearly as many compliments and questions from onlookers that the XS did. The IndyFab rides the part, and looks the part.

Of course, tastes vary. What is less subjective is the outstanding performance of Independent Fabrication’s XS. This bike exists as a rolling demonstration of what those Japanese swordsmiths figured out, slowly but surely, all those years ago – that the right materials, wedded in the proper way, can produce a greater result than either alone. The fact that it looks so darn good is just icing on the titanium-and-carbon cake.

To learn more about Independent Fabrication, Signature Cycles, or building your own custom bicycle, please visit us at www.signaturecycles.com.

Our Independent Fabrication XS basks in the autumn sun of Central Park as tourists stroll by.