Royal H Cycles

snapshots from the world of Royal H Cycles

[royalh]

NAHBS isn’t over yet! The people’s choice remains. For your consideration- the Royal H Cycles Di2 road. Vote at www.nahbs.com/people’s-choice-award/ Thanks! Voting ends March 1st. Then and only then will NAHBS 2018 be complete. Photo by Brad Quartuccio.

[royalh]

Shadow and reflection in the magic hour, South Boston.

[royalh]

the road to technology

This year’s Philly Bike Expo is almost upon us, and with it the annual weight over what bike to bring to the show. This year I am bringing something a little different. Well, for Royal H anyway.

I got my start in the bike industry working for Seven Cycles. When I started there was a clear and immutable distinction- Seven would be where I made carbon frames and Royal H would be where I made my own steel bikes. What a difference a decade makes...

For most of the past ten years, I’ve worked for Seven in some capacity- from full time at the beginning to varying degrees of part time (and a brief sabbatical in there somewhere). Part of me feels that Royal H needs to be full time to be legitimate, but there’s another part that realizes there’s a lot to be gained working for someone else. Working with a team is something I like. Having lunch with a bunch of excellent humans is something I like. Being able to go to work and just make frames is something I like. It’s like the greatest hits of framebuilding- no marketing, customer service, bookkeeping, taxes, ordering. A place where you can just ride in, build some awesome frames, and leave is not something that’s easy to walk away from.

So anyway, long story about how after all the years working with titanium, carbon, titainum/carbon, and full carbon, I’ve come up with some ideas for building with those materials. It’s a departure for me in that I am not making the entire frame- my friend Mike came over to the Royal H shop and welded the Ti bits for me. In the Boston area, there are WAY too many talented Ti welders around for me to try and throw my hat into that ring... Most per capita of any major US city? I think so. 

I guess my initial inspiration for this design predates Seven. My first serious road bike was a hand me down Vitus aluminum frameset I got from my uncle. The internal lugs on that frame terminated rather severely a few cm from each end. I thought it might look cool if the carbon tubes continued all the way to the edge of their neighboring titanium tubes. I think I said this aloud at one of the aforementioned lunches and the idea for the Royal H Ti/C was born. It was a ton of fun and I hope to someday build another one. This bike took a while to work through and complete- a lot of design/order/re-design. But it is a prototype. Or, as the Italians would say, prova.

As for the eTap, disc brakes, and thru axles? Well, a prototype Ti/C bike headed to a big show... kind of screams for it. These parts were fun as hell to put together, and I cannot deny the framebuilder’s delight at building a road bike with two less cables on it. Very clean. 

Not that anyone was worried, but all this modern technology doesn’t mean that Royal H is moving away from steel. In fact, the other two Philly Bike Expo bikes I’m bringing this year are lugged- one super traditional and one more modern. It turns out I just like building bikes. If you’re in the Philly metro area, stop by the show and take a look! Thanks to Eric Baumann for his consistently excellent photography. 

[royalh]

All painted up! Thanks Rudi!

[royalh]

Outboard fastback? Catching on at RHC.

[royalh]

The build of the century! Very pleased with how this came together.

[royalh]

So many more parts left to go on this one. Multiple day build for sure.

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tires for days.

[royalh]

I've been needing one of these for a long time- a proper commuter! And this one is proper- full fenders, reflective rims, switchable generator lights, disc brakes, and slider dropouts so I can run it as a single speed when the Boston winter gets nice and slushy. But first a quick trip to the Philly Bike Expo!

[royalh]

New levels of ambition going on at Royal H Cycles. Never have I seen this much brass dust in one shop. Looking to have this done for the Philly Bike Expo- stay tuned! #filletbrazing #phillybikeexpo

[royalh]

New Royal H commuter added to the streets of Boston. This one's a year rounder- you could literally spot it any time. This bike devours precipitation!

[royalh]

box lining! this bike is pure class. rudi jung with another winning paint job. more to come with this bike- it is PACKED with features.

[royalh]

electrons- then and now

the bike industry took a small break from electronic shifting during the early 2000s, but way back in the late 90s, mavic released a pretty (conceptually) awesome wireless rear derailleur- the mektronic. the royal h booth at last year’s philly bike expo saw an example from each era, and inspired much debate amongst attendees. nothing stirs conversation in the cycling community like electronic shifting. truly.

i have a good friend from my days at seven who has a real mavic problem, and we were joking one day at lunch about building a bike around the rarest and least well understood mavic group, the seldom seen mektronic.

this was a few months before the 2014 philly bike expo, and i thought it would make for a great show bike- a really 90s looking machine would get people in the booth. spinergy wheels, check. 120mm stem, yes. all mavic group, absolutely. pearl white marble with ragged transition to candy red, it’s a show bike, right!? but there are some subtle niceties to this bike as well-

zeus fork crown.

massively machined bottom bracket shell.

columbus semi horizontal dropouts.

this bike was incredibly fun to build, and i came to love the unusual (grotesque?) looking shifters. but i was BLOWN AWAY to find the mektronic shifted flawlessly. maybe i got one of the few good ones. with little more than two new button cell batteries and setting the throw limits, the system shifted crisply. and it was light! there’s no motor in the mektronic- the shifting is powered by the rotation of the derailleur pulley. it hasn’t picked up any interference yet either. there are rumors of system shutdown if you pedal too near a radio tower, so i just told mike to avoid radio towers. so far he’s been doing alright.

the front derailleur is powered by your thumb. it’s basically a thumb shifter bolted onto the side of the hood. not technically impressive at all, but 100% radio interference resistant. so i guess at worst you’re down to a two speed if the system crashes. see more shots of this 90s tribute on the royal h flickr.

MEANWHILE, in the next stand over was a thoroughly contemporary bike. with hydraulic disc di2 electronic shifting. shimano has recently re-visited the electric concept with a wired system. it’s incredibly well engineered and shifts perfectly. they extended the electronic system to the front derailleur, so i guess they are more electronic. the derailleurs are powered by small motors, and a battery is stored inside the seatpost. still, hats off to mavic for the motor free wireless design.

the massive paragon 44mm head tube dwarfs the 1″ steerer bikes i am used to building, but is necessary to adequately distribute the forces from the beefed up carbon disc forks. the larger head tube also transitions nicely to the tapered steerer carbon whiskey fork, and is very pleasant to fillet braze.

i was able to use a double oversized bottom bracket lug for this bike, so it isn’t completely fillet brazed. it’s always nice to have a lug or two on a frame.

s-bend seatstays and seat tube reinforcing sleeve. there is a carbon fiber insert in the seat tube to bring the inner diameter to a traditional 27.2mm. i can’t eschew ALL conventions in once bike.

this little part was fun to make- combination headset spacer and di2 junction box mount. more involved than the rubber strap the system comes with, but nicer to look at. there are more detail shots on the royal h flickr- go there!

so who won? obviously, the bikes aren’t exactly the same style. the mavic racing road bike and shimano di2 gravel grinder have different strengths. in terms of long term reliability and consistency (and ability to approach radio towers), i’m going to say the shimano system is a clear winner. however, i was pleasantly surprised that our mavic project worked so well. they were great bookends to the electronic shift movement and made for a great show booth. everyone wins!

big thanks to eric baumann for the excellent photography.

[royalh]

belt drive... dual cables running to the non drive side chainstay... this can only mean one thing- ROHLOFF! and this one is clean. check out more of eric baumann's shots on the flickr. indoor shots. there is a blizzard going on out there.

[royalh]

just in time for (greek orthodox) chirstmas

well the new batch of royal h t-shirts are done! not quite in time for any specific holiday, but it's always a good time to buy a t-shirt, so i'm thinking it doesn't really matter.

as you can see, they are perfect for wheelbuilding, as well as other activities around the shop. big thanks to rudi for taking me under his silkscreen wing and staying late to churn these out. he is a true champion. also thanks to katty for the shots. if you would like to purchase one of these shirts, send me an email at [email protected]. right now i have a lot of sizes, but i'll be honest, i made mostly mediums. they're $25 shipped. unless you live in another country. then they are $250. just kidding. but they are probably going to be more if you don't live in the united states. happy holidays!

[royalh]

concerning show bikes

if we are being completely honest, i think i needed a little time away from these bikes before sharing them with the world.

but what we have now is a nice bit of distance, and an interesting story to share. read on to hear of the tale of two brothers, and the 2013 philiadelphia show bikes...

so the two brothers are my dad and uncle. both of them more than a little responsible for my path to framebuilding, and each with their own specific take on the ideal bicycle. but it was a gift from my uncle to my dad though that precipitated the first of these show bikes-

i think pete (uncle) found it at mt. airy bikes, probably buried underneath years of cycling detritus, made a nice wooden box for it, and gave it to my dad for his 50th birthday. it was a beautiful part. intriguing. and it sat on the shelf for a few years without shifting anything.

in the meanwhile, pete (owner of the first frame i ever made) had a design of his own he was working on... the clubman!

a very slight update to the british bikes of the 30s (in that it has 700c tires instead of 27"), built to measure in the present day. in keeping with our own english heritage, this bike would be a hollingsworth, not a royal h. what had me puzzled was how to do an updated version of the thimble fork- the iconic raleigh front end that is quintessentially english.

my long time shopmate marty had been building his updated version of the new england style segmented forks for years, and it was only a matter of time before i saw my solution. old england meets new england! it was a perfect solution- with a little re-tooling and filing, and some welding help from marty, i had my thimble fork. i think it was our first true collaboration. the rest of the bike was truer to history- carlton birds eye lugs; reynolds 531 tubing; sturmey archer close ratio 4 speed internal hub. i didn't know much about clubman bikes, but apparently in the 30s, the mindset in england was that these internally geared, fendered bikes were the way to go.

meanwhile, on the other side of the channel (we're still back in the 30s), the french had their own take on what the best variable geared setup was.

at the time this was a hotly debated topic, and external derailleurs had not yet won the upper hand. but an idea had started to form in my mind- i was working on a vintage clubman bike, and my dad has this french rod shifter from deep in the past... why not make a french counterpoint to the british clubman?

my instinct was to of course begin immediately. i think a lot of framebuilders suffer from these bad instincts- where the allure of building an interesting one off outweighs the completely unprofitable nature of the project. but the idea of putting that rod shifter back into service kept me inspired- a once discarded part in the back corner of a shop ressurected. and it shifts like a champ- very clean and crisp. stainless steel pads on the seat tube act as the limit stops, and the actual shifting isn't nearly as suicidal as the name suggests. the rear, slightly less crisp (you really need to muscle against that spring), but still completely functional.

in the end, neither project was 100% historically accurate- the clubman has a tig welded fork, the french bike for my dad has new reproduction rene herse cranks, an skf bottom bracket, and cane creek 110 classic headset. so i didn't pull out ALL of my hair building these up. i work with steel and flame, and it was fun to build these frames in a similar way to the builders of yore.

and it made for a great story to tell in the booth at the philly bike expo- the tale of two lovingly competitive brothers and their difficult, vintage bikes. it was a lot of fun, and very rewarding to create two very unique machines, but it did take a certain toll. it's only now, one year later, that i am sharing these with the world. like i said, i needed some distance. especially from those cottered cranks. these show bikes aren't my bread and butter, but they are another reason to go custom. hopefully i'll be able to share the 2014 philly bikes a lot sooner! check out the full photo shoot and nerd out on the vintage british and french parts on the royal h flickr, and stay tuned for philly show updates.

see you there!

[royalh]

do not block

indeed! this bike was featured in the royal h booth at this year's new england builders' ball in providence, and it is a true show bike- paragon track ends, shaped columbus downtube, san rensho style crown, phil wood hubs and cranks (!), and a magnificent coating- tinted purple clear over chrome. way too tall for me to throw a leg over, but the owner assures me it's as fast as it looks. check out more of eric baumann's shots on the royal h flickr.