Tag Archives: Custom bicycles

Where Does Your Bike Sleep?

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We all have to find the right spot to store our bikes when we’re not riding them and depending on where you live and the logistics of your space, bike storage can require a bit of creativity.

Whether you’re a city flat dweller, have a 3 car garage, or need to navigate stairs to get your bike on and off the street, you want a safe and easily accessible location so nothing discourages you from getting your bike out on the road.

Do you have a cool storage system or DIY solution? Does your bike sleep in your bedroom? Do you hang it from the ceiling? Do you squeeze it into a closet? We want to know – Where Does Your Bike Sleep?

Send us a photo and description of your bike and we’ll share it in our Signature Cycles #wheredoesyourbikesleep album. You can upload your photo directly to our Facebook wall or send us an email at info@signaturecycles.com . Please include your name, a description of your bike and anything else you’d like to share about your personal bike storage solutions.

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Winter: An argument for the “All-Road” bicycle

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Sunday Ride at Lake Welch
Let’s face it, this winter is never-ending!
I feel I can safely speak for everyone when I say, I’m ready for Spring.
Here at Signature, our road bikes are either collecting dust in the corner of our homes, or the look like they’ve been dragged through a war zone, covered in mud and salt.

Our beautiful Parlees, Passonis, and Gurus are sitting on the sidelines, like high-performance sports cars, garaged because of this weather. So what are we left with to ride? Well, that’s an interesting question, lets introduce our “other” bikes.

This past year, Justin and I decided to go “outside of the box” with our next builds, and began to explore all the interesting technologies the industry had to offer; including disc brakes, hydraulic options, electronic shifting, and more. The result; two bikes that didn’t quite fit the mold, however turned out to be everything we could ask for in this winter weather.
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2012 Bike of the Year Contest

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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 

Behind the Scenes with Guru’s Ted Matthews

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Guru CEO, Ted MatthewsOne 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

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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

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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

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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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