My Bike Project - A Collaboration With My Husband

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I was inspired by @Silky_Bee’s bike project post to post this and I am finally getting around to doing it.

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My husband builds steel bike frames and wheels. He designed this gravel bike for me because I have very short legs and had a few crashes on road and mountain bikes that were too tall for me. So, the wheels are 650, a smaller diameter than most road and gravel bikes. He made those too. He uses a program called BikeCad to design frames which is a lot of fun to play with.

I had it painted desert sand tan with glitter (that part doesn’t show well in photos). I did the handlebar wrap. It’s two colors (harlequin wrap) over several layers of gel padding. I did this a year and a half ago before my last spine surgery, trying to make the bike comfortable to ride with a spine injury. It didn’t work then, but now post-surgery, it is super comfortable. I also made the bags out of rip stop nylon and parachute cord to match the bar wrap. I really love building up bikes and finding all the little matchy details to bring it all together.

The final detail, a copper headbadge of our bike shop logo that I made and attached with E6000 adhesive.

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It’s a little tarnished today and my bike is a little dirty.

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I love it!

The color combination is perfect.
I love that it uses smaller wheels. Makes it look so much more put together.

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Did you draft the bags yourself?
Making a frame bag for my SO’s bike has been on my to do list for quite some time. But he’s pretty convinced he doesn’t need bags on his bike

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I did! Finding a bag pattern or, especially, a pre-made bag, that works on this bike is impossible. So I drew out the inside of the frame and then made patterns for bags that would fit. I had to be sure to leave room to put a water bottle in too.

I have a pattern made for a bag for my husband’s bike but he has 3 bikes and he keeps changing his mind about what he wants for bags. :flushed:

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That is so cool and unique looking. How awesome to have a bike custom built to fit you.

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Drawing out the inside of the frame is a really clever idea. :bulb:

And I have to check out BikeCad. I had some thorough 3d cad training in college and that sounds like a lot of fun.

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