2012 Bike of the Year Contest

Posted on January 2, 2013 by signature

We had the pleasure of building 200 beautiful one-off custom bikes for our clients in 2012 and each week we chose one of our favorites to feature on our website. Click to see our Pinterest board where you’ll find all of last year’s picks. Now we need your help choosing the 2012 BIKE OF THE YEAR. Take a look and click LIKE to vote for your favorite bike. We’ll be featuring the winner on our website and the winner will receive a pair of Assos Zegho eye protection glasses. Contest ends 1/11/13.

CLICK HERE to vote in our BIKE OF THE YEAR CONTEST

A Great Night at Our Greenwich Studio Grand Opening

Posted on December 28, 2012 by signature

Our Greenwich Studio Grand Opening party this November was a blast and we wanted to share this short video of the night with you. It’s always great to get so many friends, clients and partners together and we want to extend our thanks to everyone for coming out and celebrating with us. Reps from Seven, IF, Guru, Serotta, Parlee, Assos, Rapha, Shimano, Zipp, SRAM and Lightweight were there along with many of our clients. We gave away over $10,000 in prizes in our raffle including a Lightweight wheelset, a Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 group, and a cycling trip to Majorca! It was a great night and we want to thank everyone for showing up. If you missed it, please come by for a tour of our new Greenwich showroom soon – Happy New Year!

Behind the Scenes with Guru’s Ted Matthews

Posted on December 22, 2012 by signature

One of the reasons we work with Guru at Signature Cycles is because they are a no-compromise performance company that sweats the details. Guru is the one company that offers a state of the art custom tri bike that will match up against any manufacturers’ testing in the wind tunnel, while offering the athlete the best fit possible. We recently spoke with CEO Ted Matthews about what makes Guru tick, and what motivated him to step into a second career in the cycling industry.

Guru is based just outside of Montreal Canada, but the company was founded in 1993 by a young Italian engineering student, Tony Giannascoli. The name Guru reflected Giannascoli’s goal to create a handcrafted bicycle company that would be a leader and a guiding creative force in the industry. Though Matthews took over as CEO in September of 2009, he says Giannascoli continues to play a major role in the company and is still “the genius behind much of what we do at Guru”. Continue reading →

Behind the Scenes with Seven’s Rob Vandermark

Posted on December 3, 2012 by signature

Seven’s CEO, Rob Vandermark

With a singular focus on custom built frames, Seven Cycles is a company founded on understanding the individual cyclist and delivering every rider the optimum fit, function and performance. Seven’s passion for custom, along with their mastery of materials, innovation and design, has helped them become the largest custom frame builders in the world. We recently talked with CEO Rob Vandermark about the company’s beginnings, his eclectic and passionate team, and new directions we might see from Seven in next few years.

Though switching careers every two years has become a norm these days, Vandermark says he’s basically had just two paths of focus in his life – sculpture and cycling – which it turns went very well together. While he was a sculpture major in college, Vandermark saw a job opening at Merlin Metalworks where he first learned to build titanium frames. Vandermark says, “Merlin was the innovator in titanium mountain bikes and it was an exciting time in the industry. I love working with my hands, problem solving in three dimensions, and exploring all kinds of engineering conundrums so it was very informative to learn in that environment. The work combined my love of sculpture and bikes.” Continue reading →

Behind the Scenes with Serotta’s Howard Berkowitz

Posted on October 1, 2012 by signature

Serotta’s Howard Berkowitz

Serotta has pioneered almost every custom bicycle frame innovation over the past forty years. They have always set the bar for accuracy, build quality and finish for all others to compare. In May this year Serotta made a big shift as interim CEO Howard Berkowitz stepped in for founder Ben Serotta. Ben continues with the company focusing on their creative vision and innovation, and now that Berkowitz has taken the helm, we wanted to learn more about him and the direction he’s looking to take Serotta.

At 47 years old with 25 successful years in corporate sales and management, Berkowitz considers himself the black sheep of the family. He comes from a family of teachers, doctors and nurses, so moving up the ranks working with Fortune 500’s wasn’t exactly the track he was expected to follow. It turns out that ultimately the work he found most exciting had something to do with making a difference for others anyway. At his previous position with Zimmer, a medical device distributer, he found himself consulting with physicians, observing hi-tech surgeries and even meeting patients. Continue reading →

Passoni Behind the Scenes

Posted on September 27, 2012 by signature

Matteo Cassina

Earlier this year Signature became one the first US studios to offer the exclusive Italian bicycle line, Passoni. Passoni manages the details of finish and ride qualities that open a door to the possibilities of bicycle form and function that were never available before. Luxury, art, performance, the perfect dance partner…clearly it is Italian. We spoke with partner Matteo Cassina and Chief Operations Officer Danilo Colombo recently about what makes Passoni the experts in both elegance and high performance.

Cassina explained that well before he invested in Passoni, he had admired the beauty of their bicycles. As a 19 year old he remembered seeing his uncle’s Passoni and falling in love with it. He wanted one right then but his father said “When you have your own money, you can buy one for yourself.”

Passoni’s heritage of style and excellence

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D2R2 2012: The Rugged and Scenic Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonnée

Posted on August 20, 2012 by signature

This weekend Signature’s own Justin Bagnati rode the D2R2 (Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonnée ) with about 1,000 other cyclists on a summer day that couldn’t have been more perfect for this event. The D2R2 was conceived in the 1990’s as a favorite dirt road loop in the hilltowns of Franklin County, Massachusetts. Organized as an event in 2005, it’s hailed as one of the hardest, most scenic, most traffic-free rides around. According to ride designer Sandy Whittlesey, the idyllic quality of D2R2 is no accident: “We designed D2R2 by placing pins in the map where the covered bridges and coolest sights were, then connected the dots with dirt roads. When the ride was originally developed we expected it to be nothing more than a quirky event for the fringe cyclists known as “randonneurs”. However, the event got national press, with riders raving about how fun, challenging, and beautiful it was.”

Justin Bagnati (3rd from left) with friends at D2R2

D2R2 riders choose from five distances: 40 mile, 100K, 115K, 150K, and 180K. Lots of families and those looking for a relaxed ride choose the 40-mile Green River ride which is about 50% dirt roads, mostly flat and twists along the beautiful Green River. The 100K offers a real back road challenge with LOTS of hills, and the 180K (112 miles) is considered one of the hardest rides in the country with 11,070 feet of climbing. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Studio Hours

Posted on November 19, 2011 by signature

It’s a short week for us at Signature Cycles. Monday through Wednesday are normal days for us. We’ll be closed to ride and feast on Thanksgiving, and we’re going to opt to stay out of the retail fray on Black Friday.

Come see us on Saturday after Thanksgiving when we’ll reopen with our normal hours (listed below). Check back and you’ll hear about a special treat we’ll have on Saturday the 26th…

Signature Cycles Holiday Hours:

Manhattan
Thursday 11/24: Closed
Friday 11/25: Closed
Saturday 11/26: 10am – 3pm

Greenwich
Thursday 11/24: Closed
Friday 11/25: Closed
Saturday 11/26: 11am – 4pm (shop ride from 9am – 11am)

Why Custom?

Posted on July 18, 2011 by signature

There are eight factors that determine ride performance of a bicycle frame which need to be explored and understood when purchasing a new bicycle. By taking each of these factors into account, the cyclist can be sure to make an educated decision in his next bicycle purchase. The goal is to optimize these factors to create the best combination of efficiency, handling and comfort.

Continue reading →

A Unique Solution for Hector Picard

Posted on July 18, 2011 by signature

Hector Picard was introduced to us by Matt Long as an athlete that could benefit from our fitting services and our relationship with an array of custom builders. We had worked with Matt during his rehabilitation and journey to complete Ironman Lake Placid. Matt had unique physical challenges caused by being run over by a bus. We partnered with Serotta, creating a custom bike for Matt that helped him achieve his goal in 2009.

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