Bikes and Builders of Bespoked Dresden 2024 (Part 2)

Bike and builder portraits by Stefan Haehnel

Last year’s Bespoked event in the Dresden International Airport terminal was a successful proof of concept, but I’d say 2024 is the year Bespoked in Dresden really took flight. The mainland edition of Europe’s largest handmade bike show expanded to an additional level of the terminal building, which made space for more unique and innovative small builders, bag makers, and designers while giving attendees extra breathing room to admire and touch the works, engage with the creators, and hang out with great coffee and food. Bespoked is a unique lens into the wider framebuilding community, and I feel lucky I get to peer into this fascinating world just a quick train ride from home.

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I followed up with bike friends and creative folks I’d met there last year, hearing not only of their exciting new projects and trips but also the various challenges they face in this wonderful niche. Lucas and I met a number of inspiring emerging builders who blew us away with their cohesive and convincing concepts often well beyond their young years. We’re excited to continue following their journeys well after the show. With exhibitors and organizers stepping it up, I’d like to think our joint coverage here at BIKEPACKING.com improved, too, and I hope it does some justice to the incredibly high level of craft on display. We also hope you enjoy this next round of one-of-a-kind bikes and other creations, our profiles of the fascinating people behind them, and some patterns and trends we picked up on over the weekend.

Arko Bici Sub Utility Bike link

Hradiste pod Vratnom, Slovakia

We’ve shared Marek Parajka’s classically inspired work a handful of times over the years, most recently highlighting his vibrant Zutro, an adventure-ready machine with an entirely different demeanor but the same guiding spirit as the one shown here. Based in the village of Hradište pod Vrátnom in the serene Carpathian Mountains of Slovakia, Marek is known for his traditionally made bicycles with new tricks, and I was curious to see what he’d bring to the show.

Marek’s journey as a craftsperson started around the time he was just 14 years old. He worked alongside his father to refinish old cars, watching him weld and learning the basics of prepping frames for paint—skills that translated directly to his livelihood decades later. In the 1990s, Marek immersed himself in the world of bicycles by repairing and painting old Italian frames, developing a reputation for his work. “Once you strip off the paint, you see what’s underneath,” he said, adding that he’d obsessively study the lug work to figure out which brands were good, replacing tubes as needed and trying his best to do the work justice.

From there, Marek began fabricating his own frames, building on years of experience with cars and bikes and supplementing his knowledge by spending endless hours poring over pictures on Flickr from builders such as Peter Weigle, zooming in and examining the details at length. Marek started by making singlespeeds and fixed gears, fabricating the first bikes he was happy with around 2012 and going full-time in 2017. He’s self-taught as a maker of frames but became a certified welder with formal training early in the endeavor.

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These days, Marek is known for blending classic construction with modern looks. He stays true to the older ways of doing things rather than jumping on new production fads and trends—something he takes great pride in. His highly custom fillet-brazed steel and stainless steel framesets often take inspiration, names, and themes from the novels of Jules Verne, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

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One such example, the Sub, as he’s provisionally calling this frame, is a utility-focused porteur/city bike, a style that’s relatively new for him. “I don’t have time for a single-purpose bike,” he said plainly, noting that the custom racks and fenders can be quickly removed when the urge to zip along trails unloaded strikes. He took home the award for “Best City/Utility” with this one. The Sub is a bike I found something new to appreciate about every time I passed by it on display. The reinforced joints that Marek reinforced, milled, and carefully filled in are a striking detail. As always, he painted the frame himself, and it really glimmers in person.

Constructed with NOS Colombus tubes, this Arko Bici Sub frame is dynamo and Di2 ready and features mounts for three bottles and a top tube bag. The mix of frame, fender, and rack lines is a feast for the eyes. Marek built it up with a 3×10 Campagnolo flat-bar groupset he bought 12 years ago and has been waiting for the right occasion to use. Another standout touch is the painted-to-match set of pedals from fellow Slovakian maker RGD Bike. Going forward, Marek is considering a run of Sub frames in stock sizing if there’s enough interest.

Huhn Ko Shamo Tall Bike link

Bischofsgrun, Germany

Tall bikes will save the world. Okay, maybe they won’t. But they’re awesome, and riding a tallbike never fails to put a smile on my face, which seems to spread easily to those around me. I dream of welding one from scrap and touring across the world on it someday.

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The spectacular Huhn Ko Shamo isn’t made from scrap, though. Ralf Holleis designed it from the ground up for Tommaso, otherwise known as Tallbike Tommy, who has big plans to cycle from Munich to Beijing aboard it with the aim of collecting donations for a cancer charity. He considers it his mission to inspire others to live fully and support those who can’t. What better vehicle for that than the most ridiculous two-wheeled vehicle imaginable? It’s completely over the top. I have no doubt he’ll raise a lot of awareness and hopefully funds along the roughly 13,000-kilometer (8,075-mile) route.

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As with most tall bikes, the Ko Shamo rides much like a normal bike once you get going. It’s stabler, even. The 29er mountain bike tires and a custom Intend 80mm suspension fork soothe the long-necked chicken. The frame cavities are filled by two Reisefix frame bags made in Halle, Germany, in the colors of Deutsche Krebshilfe, the German Cancer Aid Foundation, and there are free triangles for more bags. The Pinion gearbox simplifies the drivetrain. I don’t believe a bike needs anything like these fancy components to do some good, but the Ko Shamo was the one bike at the show that tempted me to drop everything and ride it off to the horizon.

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Instead, we took turns riding the big rig around outside of the terminal, and even our photographer Stefan Haehnel, ever the professional, couldn’t help but put down his camera for a minute to take it for a quick spin. He even managed to pop a wheelie that our new friend Fiona captured perfectly.

Parsec Objects Bags and Cages link

Amsterdam, Netherlands

At this year’s Bespoked, newly minted European resident Erik Fenner of Old Man Mountain officially launched his new side project, Parsec Objects, just two weeks after moving from Oregon to Amsterdam with his wife and two pups. The creative project takes its name from the Star Wars universe, and fans will recall Han Solo claiming to have made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs in his Millennium Falcon.

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Back here on Earth, Erik envisions Parsec Objects as a collaborative outlet for making everyday bike gear more exciting. “There’s no room for boring objects,” he said. The small brand launched its debut products: a minimal cargo cage and a waterproof bag that attaches to it using Voile straps. Both are highly customizable. Erik is open to orders for fully custom cages in quantities as low as 20, and he can do bags in black or gray in runs as small as eight, with more colors to come at a later date.

Parsec’s aluminum cages are cut, formed, and anodized in Oregon. The PU-coated 300D bags, which are fully waterproof, have 7L capacity, weigh under two ounces (56 grams), and are manufactured in Vietnam and printed in Oregon. Rather than simply looping around the payload and back with a Voile strap, you remove the nylon head and thread it straight into the side slots. A built-in hook on the opposite side of the cage enables users to snug the drybag down. Erik doesn’t have them just yet, but he’ll be selling matching Parsec-branded Voile straps soon.

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I can’t share details on all the upcoming products Erik hinted at during our conversation, but you can potentially expect tools, slingshots, decorative accessories, and more in the next year or so. If you’re a designer, illustrator, or artist with an idea to work together, Erik said he hopes to hear from you.

Zoceli Narum Full-Suspension link

Brno, Czech Republic

Among a number of jaw-dropping downhill bikes at the show by the likes Atherton and Auckland Cycle Works, I was drawn to take a closer look at the comparatively grounded full-suspension bikes by Zoceli from Czechia. Zocelia means “made of steel” in Czech, and the brand offers a range of ferrous full-suspension mountain bikes made in Brno by owner/designer/builder Martin Seida.

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Reserved in English compared to the aggressive stance of his bikes, Martin’s a passionate mountain biker and has been developing the brand’s line-up for six years now. He offers four full-suspension frame models that range from versatile trail to aggressive enduro and free-ride. They are available in four frame sizes from M to XXL in custom finishes and can be had in 27.5-inch, 29-inch, or mixed-wheel configurations. While out of my usual wheelhouse, I was drawn to the powerful aura and gritty raw steel finish of Martin’s personal Narum trail bike.

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The Narum is designed for a 140mm fork, though it can take up to 160mm for more aggressive riding. It has 125 to 135mm of travel in the rear and a large triangle thanks to the vertical linkage-driven damper. Martin’s bike features a sleek upside-down fork and damper combo made by Indent in Freiburg, Germany. I imagine the Narum would be great for connecting flow trail networks in the Giant Mountains and rough hiking trails in the Carpathians with a minimal bikepacking load if you don’t mind the heft of steel.

Memento Kraken link

Montreal, Quebec

Founded in late 2021 by longtime friends Éliane Trudeau and Ronny Perez Jaramillo, Memento Cycles is a burgeoning operation based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On the heels of winning the People’s Choice award at the Philly Bike Expo this spring, Memento was awarded one of four BESPOKED x SRAM Inclusivity Scholarships to attend the show in Dresden. Their fantastical Kraken all-road bike exemplified the artistry and creativity they’ve nurtured in their three short years in the framebuilding space.

Memento started when Éliane was working full-time as a messenger and wanted a cargo bike but couldn’t afford an off-the-shelf option imported from Europe. She called Ronny to chat through the logistics of combining their talents to make one together, and although it ended up being too big of a leap for their first foray into making bikes together, the brand was born. The pair were soon building racks and frames for themselves and others (they now make cargo bikes, too!).

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Fast-forward to the present day, and Memento has developed a flair for imaginative bikes that makes the growing small shop right at home at an event like Bespoked. Éliane does most of the frame welding, Ronny manages design, machining, and rack welding, and they recently added a third team member, Aube, who does a little of everything. They’re now the first framebuilding team I’m aware of with two trans fabricators—a noteworthy feat.

The Memento Kraken on display in Dresden delighted onlookers with its steel tubes’ countless twists and turns from front to back. “We curved every tube we could,” Éliane told me. The bike, which they made for Ronny, sports an intricate squid fork with an integrated front rack, a suite of wireless SRAM components, carbon wheels from Zipp (a first for the brand), rear rack mounts, sliding dropouts, seat stays that curve on two planes, and 50mm rear tire clearance.

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The distinctive rear brake sleeve that wraps around the top tube and further conveys the Kraken’s sea-faring theme is a standout for me, but Éliane said the detail she loves most is the headtube ring, which features clouds up top and waves at the bottom, and she even hand-filled a tiny little boat into it, floating on the water. This little particularity encapsulates the incredible care and thought builders put into these show bikes, even if most people will never notice them.

Tensions and Extremes

Bespoked was a whirlwind again. Extreme, inspiring, and absurd on many levels beyond the unbelievable bikes. It’s a peak convergence of our tiny niche in cycling—my people—yet I heard from many exhibitors that they barely managed to get away from their booths all weekend. After three days of non-stop rushing around, I had about an hour to wander in a daze before everyone started packing up their stands. Now, with the show over, I’m texting folks who I really wanted to sit and have a beer with: next year!

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With the months and often years of hard work put in by builders and makers, I feel the pressure to do their exhibits some semblance of justice. That, I believe, takes a whole lot more time and attention than a fly-by interview. However, small publications such as BIKEPACKING.com depend on corporate social media platforms and search engines that incentivize quantity and freshness over curated quality, unfortunately pitting event journalists in a rat race to publish first.

It’s not a game I want to play, and thankfully, my collaborators Lucas and Stefan are firmly committed to quality and depth in reporting. But we’re not immune to the ecosystem’s troubled dynamics. Let’s just say we were working overtime and sleeping very little.

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The bikes are fantastic, and the humans are inspiring. Full stop. But outside, the glorious autumn sun lit up the vineyard trails along the Elbe River. Beautiful Saxony Switzerland beckoned. What am I doing stuck in an airport documenting show bikes that may cost more than I need to live for a whole year? Big brands jockey at the door. Saturated by showy bikes, I found myself wishing I was riding the unremarkable rack-and-basket Kona I saw cruise by while stumbling back to the hotel to write.

The Bespoked bikes are mind-blowing, and they are also a distraction. We’re missing some big, important things happening in the world while we’re hunched over custom dropouts and debating invisible tube gussets. As my friend Evan Christenson wrote: “The bikes all go when they’re pedaled. They all stop when we want.” We’ll return with another piece tomorrow, and then I’m looking forward to riding my bike—certainly processing the full spectrum of impressions left on me by this incredible event.

Hulsroy x Wit Slingers Japanese Odyssey link

Aarhus, Denmark

This year, one of my favorite duos in our little corner of the cycling world collaborated on a beautifully understated randonneur bicycle called the Japanese Oddysey. Framebuilder Mads Hulsrøj Jæger and bag designer Tijmen Kervers gave, even by Bespoked standards, an uncommon level of attention to the environment that rider Guillaume from France, organizer of the yearly event of the same name, will face. Both with backgrounds in design, they are pretty nerdy about their bikes, so allow me to get a little technical on this one.

As a randonneur, Guillaume wanted a fast, efficient, and comfortable bike suitable for riding long distances on any kind of road. Mads went above and beyond the brief. For constructing the frame, he went with a lightweight Columbus Spirit tubeset and fairly narrow diameters. So far, so common. For the segmented steel fork, he used a thin-walled steerer and custom-machined drop-outs to reduce the weight to around 900 grams, shaving around a quarter off the weight of a typical production fork. The strength doesn’t suffer much because he added strategic reinforcements throughout.

The frame features a host of clever details that were easy to miss among all the other extravagant show bikes. The fenders bolt directly into the fork crown, and the dynamo wires route partially through the frame. The rack features light tabs on both sides so Guillaume can switch his headlight from left to right when he gets to the left-hand traffic in Japan. The previous-generation parts with hints of silver keep it somewhat down to earth (if that can be said about a truly custom bicycle).

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When it comes to bags, Tijmen of Wit Slingers proved that all black doesn’t necessarily mean all boring. Functional accents of UltraGrid and UltraStretch on the luggage break up the otherwise flat black sides. The rear sees an improved version of Wit Slingers’ seat bag with additional stiffeners after extensive testing at the Paris-Brest-Paris super brevet. The Hulsroy side-loading bottle cages, which I highlighted in my Bespoked coverage last year, allow Guillaume to fit large bottles with the half-frame bag.

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I was intrigued by the unique flat-front bag. “Guillaume wanted his time trial extensions and didn’t want anything near them. I guess in randonneuring you just get so used to a certain position that you don’t want to change anything,” Tijmen ventured. He made it work with the forward-facing roll-top case on top of the rack. The ultralight frame and bags should make for a feathery build, which is sure to be welcome while transporting it across the globe.

The thorough optimization is impressive, and I’m excited—but not too surprised—to see Wit Slingers win the “Best Bag” award at the show, albeit for another bag set. For a photographer, he designed a duffle rack bag to fit a padded camera cube and a laptop. The bag snaps onto the rack with orthogonal Fidlock magnetic latches and tightens with the twist of a dial. The duffle rack bag was exhibited on the Kasoon gravel bike by Cyber Cycles. Congratulations, Tijmen!

Intend Suspension Forks link

Freiburg, Germany

I didn’t exactly count, but this year, it seemed like half the suspension forks at Bespoked were of an unusual upside-down variety. Upon closer inspection, they were made by Intend Bicycle Components, a small manufacturer located and producing in Freiburg, Germany. In addition to a range of forks for everything from XC to free-ride, they also make rear shocks, stems, and various other accessories. They say their supply chain resides mostly in Germany.

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I’m guessing the Intend engineers would call this design right-side up, and builders at the show seemed to appreciate the sleek CNC-milled aesthetics. Putting the narrow stanchions at the bottom has some real advantages, especially for bikepacking. Gram for gram, such forks will be stiffer and more sensitive to small bumps due to permanently lubricated seals and lower unsprung mass. The suspension performance doesn’t suffer as much when you load the fork with cargo. They cost more since the uppers are milled in small numbers and not cast as with mass-produced Fox or RockShox forks, but they’re a pretty compelling alternative, I’m curious to learn more. What do you think?

Don Sebastiano Monster Gravel link

Vienna, Austria

The winner of this year’s “Best New Builder” award went to Sebastian Bauer of Don Sebastiano, who was displaying the third bike ever to come out of his shop. Based south of Vienna, Austria, Sebastian’s show bike for Bespoked 2024 was an arresting monster gravel rig designed for bikepacking. In addition to building it, he wet-painted the frame himself, painstakingly masking its many unfiled fillets by hand.

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Designed for all-day riding on any terrain, Don Sebastiano No. 03 has a short reach and high stack for an upright riding position and rolls on burly 29-inch wheels and tires. Reminiscent of something out of the Drust Cycles workshop, the centerpiece of the build is a trapezoid fork with four linkage points and 51mm of linear travel provided by a repurposed rear damper. Suspension Express in Austria custom-tuned it to 1:1 to soften up the ride feel, which was originally far too firm to be comfortable.

A master car mechanic by trade, Sebastian has been making bikes for just two and a half years. He also built all of his own framebuilding jigs for the show bike. He told me he always prefers to make things himself when he can instead of paying someone else to solve problems for him. Three bikes in, he’s off to quite a strong start.

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The first frame Sebastian built was a TIG-welded bikepacking rig, which was a great learning experience with some flaws and room for improvement. He followed it up with a brazed gravel bike with a custom front rack, which he pedaled some 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Vienna to Albania over a month and a half. Sebastian had several colorful handbuilt racks on display at his booth and said he loves the artistic freedom of making racks with less concern for the ultra-high tolerances required for framebuilding. He added that he’s always open to discussing custom rack projects with customers.

Cargo Bikes Are Here to Stay

Cargo bikes have rapidly become an everyday thing in European cities, exploding in popularity in the last few years. Lucas told me he’s been seeing more of them even in the car-dominated Western United States, too. It’s great to see the Bespoked organizers honor this heartening trend with their “Best Cargo Bike” category, and plenty of visitors showed up on distinctly utility-focused bicycles.

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One bike that sadly doesn’t fit my lifestyle—at least not yet—is the well-designed Muli with its unmistakable folding front cargo bay. I was intrigued to learn that they’re made over in Cologne, Germany. And, ironically, the Muli is perhaps the only bike not built by hand at this handbuilt bike show. The owners have a background in industrial welding, and they’re automating some parts of the frame welding with industrial robots.

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Monopole from Switzerland had an impressive display presenting a lovely vision of how cargo bikes can be used in and out of the city. I also spotted a couple of Milaras from Berlin and Omnium-like customs in the visitor bike racks. My favorite sub-genre right now is the mini velo cargo, such as the off-road-ready Mini Longtail by Paul Piegsa that we shared in the first installment of our Bespoked coverage. Here’s to even more cargo bikes next year!

If you missed it, be sure to catch the first part of our Bespoked Dresden 2024 coverage. Stay tuned for more from the show. What’s your favorite find? Which builders do you want to see more from? Let us know in the conversation below!

Further Reading

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