Bespoked, Europe’s largest handmade bike show, took place outside of the UK for the first time last weekend, with framebuilders and brands from across the continent descending on Dresden, Germany to show off their finest creations.
We nosied around the show among the hordes on Friday and have gathered some of our favourite builds and paint jobs to peruse for those who missed out. The standard was completely mind-blowing, with bikes from across the spectrum that showcase the best of function and form, including a mass of fully-integrated racers that wouldn’t look out of place at the Tour de France. And it’s a great time to own a 3D printer.
Look out for more in-depth coverage of some of the bikes and their makers in our ‘Meet the Maker’ series.
Bespoked took flight this year, landing in Dresden airport.
Legendary British builder Sturdy Cycles didn’t make the trip to Germany but Bespoked director Petor Georgallou brought his incredible Star Wars-themed Sturdy Cilla.
It’s all fake dirt anodised titanium, made in-house.
If you know you know.
It even goes down to the bottles.
This is the droid you’re looking for.
Strasbourg’s multi-talented Manivelle popped across the border with this colourful city bike with the aptly named Schwalbe tyres to boot.
Britain’s Spoon Customs always has an array of brilliant bikes.
This Izoard RR steel bike is the first to feature the fully integrated front end, something mentioned in our review of the bike in the summer and shown off for the first time just before the show.
It was one of a few bikes painted by the incredibly talented Jack Kingston, made to match the customer’s Ferrari.
It’s a brilliant head badge too.
This from Italian framebuilders DeAnima isn’t done by Jack Kingston but it is awesome.
Of course at Bespoked it’s far more than just standard bike genres. Colorado builder Black Sheep Bikes works with the University of Iowa on its Hand Built Bicycle Program and brought a range of bikes including this one that caught our eye.
Sadly 3D printed saddle maker Posedla wasn’t measuring ifs.
Swiss builder Stolz had several cool specimen, including the track bike in the background, which is worth checking out, but it’s always good to shine a light on the smaller builds. Part of what makes custom bikes essential is that not everyone fits one of five stock sizes.
Ichnu Cycles brought this awesome carbon bike with 3D printed titanium lugs. Starting off plain, people were invited to write the brand’s name on the bike in a gold pen. A risky decision.
German mountain bike builder Huhn Cycles brought this gnarly gravel tourer and was one of several to match bags with paint jobs. We’re very here for it.
There were plenty of cargo bikes on display too, Veloheld has its priorities in order.
This tracklocross bike from Ballern Cycleworks is a beauty. I’d say it was a shame to cover the paint job with bags but you can’t beat the Wizard Works design.
Europe’s biggest frame building school Big Forest Frameworks had a stand, encouraging punters to get stuck in themselves. That’s right, even you can make a fully integrated road bike, who needs big bike brands?
Local off-road specialist Sour Bicycles was mainly showing off its flat bar creations but brought along this special pair of dropbar bikes.
Czech brand Festka didn’t have far to come over the border and always has a new eye-catching paint job on the go.
This one goes right down to the hubs.
And it’s not a Bespoked without a couple of wooden bikes, British brand Twmpa Cycles is no stranger to the show and looked right at home among the carbon, steel and titanium.
It wouldn’t be a 2023 bike show without an electric bike, Ormonde is a British bespoke e-bike brand building with titanium. Love the retro design.
This from True Love Cycles is one of my personal favourites. Every detail is impeccable.
One for Mike Sweatman.
This ‘GRAWUMM’ from Cyber Cycles is 90s-inspired and looks like a good time.
Wittson is former Colnago, master builder Vitas Zukauskas and his son’s titanium framebuilding brand, and boy are the bikes cool. Not only the bend on this front one but the road racer behind is incredible.
Another Brit now and this bike from Quirk is special, made using 3D printed stainless steel with a Jack Kingston paint job.
You can see where the 3D printed section meets the Columbus XCr tubes.
What it looks like under the hood.
Spanish builder Amapola Cycles also showcased a pair of eye-catching designs.
These bags were specially designed using AI to match with the bike’s awesome paint job.
St Joris Cycles from the Netherlands brought a rare glimpse of a Campagnolo groupset.
But its Sputnik gravel bike, like most of the room, had a SRAM touch.
This bike/bag match from Selemma Cycles and Timba is especially good, although it took an embarrassingly long time for me to figure out it was a German flag (it’s not actually the German flag, there are four colours and the edge isn’t black, but we’ll go with it).
Project_D looks from this angle to have created a really nice road bike.
Look closer though and the twin seat tube and twin top tube are revealed.
This super-lightweight steel stunner from Yaad Cycles featured in issue 120 of Cyclist, so it felt like greeting an old friend. There have been a few minor updates since then but it’s always worth appreciating.
One for the haters: the bike has been ridden plenty and the clearance clearly works fine.
This bike wasn’t on Cicli Bonnano’s stand but it caught my eye from a distance, just lovely stuff. Grey tyres are really in.
Get you a brand that can do both though. This Bonanno was great too, the oversize pulley wheel is a neat touch.
British builder Curtis’s Slack Jack was being showcased on Schwalbe’s stand. It’s a cross between an XC bike and a gravel bike, if you can’t tell. It’s gold.
A long way from its home in Seattle, this lovely randonneur is from Rossman Cycles and has custom bags from Dutch creator Tim Tas & Rek.
Both of these bikes by Atelier Pariah are really special, with hand-drawn design and details for days.
Belgium’s Boucif Custom Bikes brought this very cool steel build. More deep section rims on artistic creations please.
Woodalps’s aero and fully integrated frame is something to behold.
This from the south of England-based CMG Bicycles has a double top tube and down tube, and is fitted with a custom made rack and frame bag too.
Dlouhy was one of quite a few builders with bikes featuring slick, wide tyres. Comfort is cool at last.
Speaking of comfort, Denmark’s Starfish Bicycles is all about it. Its motto is ‘soft bikes for soft people’ and this is one of two bikes it had on show, the second of which will be coming to a magazine near you soon.
Another friend of the mag, Avalanche Cycles was in Germany for another year of award winning, it was the gravel bike that won this year but we loved this road bike with 3D printed stainless steel features.
And the sparkle.
Excellent details.
Czech builder Repete featured in the most recent issue of Cyclist but not with this bike. This is the brand new R3: Reason and it’s exceptional.
Why would you ever want a mass produced bike if this is possible?
It’s hard to beat the finish of titanium though, as demonstrated by Portuguese builders Triton.
This Bordure is definitely a winter bike, right? If you can’t see behind the white, it’s an integrated ti-carbon bike, with exposed material showing off its true colours at the rear end.
Speaking of colours, Kocmo’s anodised titanium design on this one is to die for. It’s so eye-catching it takes a while to spot that down tube shape.
It’s not as eye-catching as this touring bike from L’Atelier des Velos though, with bags to match each section.
And three cats hidden in the design as a nod to the creator’s own pets (this is his bike he doesn’t just put his cats on customer frames).
Finally, this tandem is so long it wouldn’t fit in the picture. That’s a big belt drive. The custom frame bags are very cool too.
If you didn’t make it down, keep your eyes out for the next edition, as we’ve barely scratched the surface of what was on display in this gallery.