Naked Bikes

So I was biking on Quadra today and saw a bunch of naked Bikes. Beautiful paintjobs. Nice looking bikes. I had looked at them before but he couldn't get the chainstays short enough fr me. They seem to be built using very traditional methods. No machines yokes or anything like that. 

Disregarding the price point, would anyone here bother with a naked frame? Or do they lack the technology to build a modern geo frame with capacity to have a longer fork, short stays etc?

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf8xsLjgc4s/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1kll9v0w436dn

How short are you looking? He has 410 there with a big 29+ tire. 

How many year's ago did you inquire? I would say if Sam can't currently build something it can't be built. 

He has gotten on board with modern geo progressive geo. I would definitely say reach out to him and run your numbers y him.

There are tubes available now that allow more progressive geo that were not available two years ago. Vari Wall does long downtubes, PVD had a run of special bent seat tubes that I know Sam got. These solve a few of what was hard to accomplish previously.

Sam is totally on board with modern geo... Drop them a line and he will happily discuss the merits of different geo and his build philosophy..

http://nakedbicycles.com/the-bikes/mountain

First line of bikes half of them are Forward Geo.  

As an OG Surface owner I'd get a Naked before a Surface Ti

Posted by: Endur-Bro

http://nakedbicycles.com/the-bikes/mountain

First line of bikes half of them are Forward Geo.  

As an OG Surface owner I'd get a Naked before a Surface Ti

I lust for ti but given the ever-changing nature of things I would much rather have a beautiful locally made custom steel bike.

Posted by: craw

I lust for ti but given the ever-changing nature of things I would much rather have a beautiful locally made custom steel bike.

Naked will build you a beautiful custom Ti frame for the cool, cool price of $4,300

Posted by: rnayel

Posted by: craw

I lust for ti but given the ever-changing nature of things I would much rather have a beautiful locally made custom steel bike.

Naked will build you a beautiful custom Ti frame for the cool, cool price of $4,300

Exactly. That's not an unreasonably price for custom ti. But that's a lot of money for a hardtail, so I would expect it to be a very long term purchase. Given how quickly things are still evolving it feels like a huge investment. A perfect application for a road/cross/gravel bike that you could realistically expect to own for a long time.

Posted by: craw

A perfect application for a road/cross/gravel bike that you could realistically expect to own for a long time.

My friend Peter's dad just did exactly that. He's recently retired and his retirement gift to himself was a custom ti road bike with disc brakes and sufficient clearance for knobby tires. He expects the bike to outlive him, lots of money went into the build but with the amount of use it is getting and is going to get, the cost per KM is very low.

That's a reasonable price given a non custom non locally made Surface Ti retails at $3600. At that point, whats an extra $500 for custom AND local made

It all boils down to what one values (at the time.)

Part of myself is "Yay; all Gucci bikes for myself!"

and the other part is "You know you have the knowledge to find very reasonably priced bikes 99% of people would lust for" 

The struggle is real...

At times

Posted by: rnayel

Posted by: craw

A perfect application for a road/cross/gravel bike that you could realistically expect to own for a long time.

My friend Peter's dad just did exactly that. He's recently retired and his retirement gift to himself was a custom ti road bike with disc brakes and sufficient clearance for knobby tires. He expects the bike to outlive him, lots of money went into the build but with the amount of use it is getting and is going to get, the cost per KM is very low.

Family heirloom.

Nice. I was there the day after you.  It was pretty smokey though.  Did you join the Sunday ride?

But ya. I bought my partner a Ti hardtail from Sam.  I personally would get steel, but she loves the Ti.  Steel is easier to modify later on as well.  Titanium is really hard to modify / fix later on, but it should last for a very long time.   Assuming it's not too big of a change, Sam has modified bikes he sold long ago to work with modern standards.

I would say that if you're thinking about it you should send them an e-mail and stop by the next time you're on Quadra (bring beer). 

Also, Sam was also doing "Super Boost Plus" before it was a thing, just so he could get the shortest possible chainstays.

Photo

Posted by: extraspecialandbitter

Photo

That is one beautiful naked bike, WOW! I didn't do the group ride on Quadra. I have to say, morning beer is now my all time favorite trail. I'm back working on the island in September. Will be planning to go back to quadra on the weekend. Any not to miss trails? I may make a plan to drop in on sam too.