A Dear Susan & Dynaplug collaboration: Two bikes that cross the Atlantic.
It’s been almost a year since NAHBS. I was pretty nervous about going to America, but just before I left I heard that Dynaplug were in town (London) so we met up for fish and chips. Long story short, they were Awesome, we really hit it off and made plans to meet again in Chico, while I was there but my whirlwind schedule around NAHBS and subsequent road trip with the legendary Anna Schwinn (which was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life) didn’t allow time wise.
That trip was really a huge voyage of discovery for me. It was super interesting talking to Steve Potts, the nicest man in the world, Paul Sadoff, and the late Bruce Gordon about their relationship with the British frame building scene in the 1950’s. Much of their early work paid homage to Mercian, Hetchins, Holdsworth, Bates and all of the bikes that grew up being super excited about, which I found super interesting as I’m essentially living as part of the next generation of British frame builders, in the UK, in a scene that very much focuses its attention towards the work of builders on the opposite side of the Atlantic. It’s interesting to see the scope and range of frames coming out of both the UK and the US, I can’t help but feel like although there is such diversity there are somehow unifying factors in design or approach. It’s really hard to place exactly what it is that identifies an American made bike and separates it from a bike made in the UK. Most of the time I feel like you can tell, but to describe the way I feel about it I began looking for a specific example.
In 1987, I was born. In 1988 Dynaplug was born/invented and in 1989 Hope Technology began, as well as Paul Components. Hope and Paul both make the similar stuff but in each case, one is so incredibly different from the other. In 1989 when I was still in nappies. The Dynaplug meerkat was skating around listening to beastie boys and making the only tubeless tyre plugging solution out there for cars and motorbikes. Paul Comp and Hope Tech were both making quick releases. I did a quick search to see what was going on in Chico and Barnoldswick respectively, to find out what was going on in 1989 that spurred on the genesis of two very different approaches to making some of the best bike parts in the world. In Chico, where Paul was plugging away, Mudhoney played in a music venue. In Barnoldswick the road layout changed around a new roundabout. Nothing to report there really. Over the following 30 years Hope Tech and Paul Comp both expanded their line of products to include quick releases, stems, brakes, seatposts, hubs and more. Comparing a Hope stem to a Paul Comp boxcar, or a pair of E4 Brakes with Tech 3 Levers to a pair of Klampers with Love levers really speaks volumes about the difference in approach in terms of design between the UK and US. Both are absolute masterpieces of design. The best quality and best performing components money can buy, built for longevity and designed to enhance the cycling experience. They are each so SO different from one another. They both speak of the history of the last 30 years of manufacturing And looking through either Hope or Paul's back catalogues, as the years go on you can clearly see how cycling has changed culturally, and how these masterfully designed products have changed with the times to cater for the needs of cyclists at the cutting edge of cycling culture.
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I’ve personally maintained that the history of cycle design can be related quite closely to the history of warfare. Material science and the development of completely new materials and manufacturing methods are expensive pastimes, these technologies are often developed or discovered with the kind of big money afforded to research by big business, governments or the military. Without these there would be no high end steel, no readily available lathes and mills in the 50s after the Second World War or relatively inexpensive CNC machines in the 90s after the Cold War, without which steel frames wouldn't be the fabulous, robust, air hardened steeds we know and love, and components couldn’t be the complex and incredibly functional jewels that they are.
Going back through the Hope and Paul catalogs there is a clear development everything is better. Hubs, brakes everything. All the old Stuff works well, but all the new stuff literally lets you ride in ways and conditions that would have been much more challenging/impossible 30 years ago. In the last five years as far as I can tell tyres are once again the big news in cycling. New high thread count high volume tubeless tyres offer one of the most performance enhancing, experience improving changes that can be made to a bicycle. As such working with Dynaplug has been a real privilege. Not only because they’re the best/only sensible solution to repairing the good new tyres that everyone is riding, that make everything more fun for everyone.
The bikes are designed and fitted out accordingly. While both are designed point to point around my not patented “middle of the road geometry” which is in homage to the bizarre and hilarious acronyms and self-assessments of geometry of the past, and a poke at the current trend for mountain bikes being as low long and slack as possible. They both feature a slightly long but by current standards relatively conservative front Centre, they’re relatively low compared to everything else I build and they're slack enough to feel comfortable and agile on most things going up or down. They’re both built with a mix of Columbus life, zona and T45 steel with Columbus’s new gigantic head tube, with internal cups. Both feature paragon dropouts because there’s just nothing out there that compares in terms of quality design or versatility. The single speed utilising the incredible toggle drops for their Chain/belt tensioning prowess and ingenious design while the geared bike Uses the rocker dropouts for their versatility and Design. The Susan Hooptie nods to the Cleland Aventura that is the closest semblance the UK had to a mountain bike before mountain bikes were imported from the States, while the meerkat hooptie references the design of the Schwin Cruiser that Joe Breeze spoke so passionately about when I visited.
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Everything on the Susan Hooptie is made by Hope who’s new carbon fibre seat posts and bars are INSANELY WELL MADE. The weave of the carbon matches up at the seam better than a Savil row suit! The wheels are straight pull RS4 hubs on twenty five rims laced with sapim cx rays, to be bombproof, and give a nice round cushiony tyre profile. I’ve used a Lauf fork to reduce rolling resistance and keep it speedy, the derailleur and shifter are Shimano as the bikes were displayed at a Madison show (Icebike), with the jockey wheels upgraded to hope and running on a Hope Cassette. The tyres are fast rolling maxis icons, which work well in the dry but are no good in a British winter woodland, which is just as well because I’m neither wealthy nor mad enough to ride a bike with SUCH INCREDIBLE PAINT in those conditions.
The Meerkat Hooptie features a majority of parts made in Northern California by Paul and white Ind, to resemble as closely as possible the colour palette of a bucket of Lego.
Both bikes are painted by Cole Coatings, with the most incredibly even fade from black to clear laquer, with a generous helping of glitter all the way through. The decals are matched to the colour of the brass and some are so small I wouldn’t read them if they’re were on my bank statement, yet every edge is perfectly crisp and clean as is the masking of the Dynaplug and Hooptie fonts revealing the steel of the top tube.
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The head badges were made in engraved mixed metals by the legendary Jen Green and 1.6mm silver and brass by the insanely talented jeweller and close friend Billy M Vigne, featuring the classic Dear Susan head badge logo incorporating an angry dick nose (me) in the centre.
It's such a joy to be able to work with such an incredibly well made and meticulously designed parts, and really inspires me to up my game as a frame builder with every build.