Thompson Custom Bicycles

Spring 2018 deliveries

It’s hard to believe the new year is nearly half over already.  It’s been a busy spring in the shop with lots of fun projects.  Here are a few of them.

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Jeff and Wendy taking a very chilly first ride on their new tandem.

This was a fun project with lots of cool features like a thru-axle Schmidt dynamo front hub with automatic electrical connection integrated into the dropouts, a Rohloff 14 speed rear hub, and S&S couplers.

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Mike’s Raleigh 650B conversion and repaint.

Mike brought me a ’70s Raleigh Competition for a make-over.  I added numerous braze-ons, 650b wheels, modern drivetrain parts, and a hub dynamo light system.  My friends at Forever Powdercoating matched the original color.

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New bike day for Lesli!

Lesli got a new randonneur bike with all the bells and whistles- fully internal wiring for the lights, a stem top light switch, a usb charging port for her phone or GPS, and a set of low rider racks for light touring loads when she’s not doing brevets.  I look forward to seeing pictures of this bike all over the world.

John got a new bike too, and was in such a hurry to rush off to his first ride that I didn’t even get a picture.  Hopefully he’ll bring it back soon so I can take one because I think it’s pretty interesting- he chose SRAM etap wireless electronic shifting and it turned out to be the lightest randonneur bike I’ve built at 20.0 pounds with rack, fenders, lighting system, and pump!

Thompson Custom Bicycles

8 responses to “Spring 2018 deliveries”

  1. billm Avatar
    billm

    I’d love to know a few mor details of this build, as well as additional pics if you have them. Thx!

    Reply
    1. Thompson Custom Bicycles Avatar
      Thompson Custom Bicycles

      Which one, the tandem, the old Raleigh, the red rando bike, or the one with eTap?

      Reply
  2. Stefan Avatar
    Stefan

    I’d love to learn more about the tandem. Especially the thinking that went into the chosen geometry. How do you decide whether you could do without the diagonal stiffener tube? You built another (red) tandem without it. And I saw that one being ridden with a light touring load. Not a problem?

    Reply
    1. Stefan Avatar
      Stefan

      Also, are these 26’’ wheels? How about 650B with 48mm Compass. Did you consider?

      Reply
      1. Thompson Custom Bicycles Avatar
        Thompson Custom Bicycles

        These are 650b wheels with 48mm Compass tires. The 26″ version is basically the same tire. We could have gone either way on this frame, but since the front is quite large, I thought it would look odd with a smaller wheel.

    2. Thompson Custom Bicycles Avatar
      Thompson Custom Bicycles

      There are a lot of factors I consider with regard to tube selection- how big are the riders? How strong? Riding style? What will they carry? And so on. In this case, Jeff is quite tall, but Wendy is quite small and both are slender. The bike does often carry front panniers on a low rider rack for touring and staying in hotels. All things being equal, I can usually leave out the extra tubes if I make the other tubes very large. Most of the tandems I’ve built also have S&S couplers and leaving out the extra tubes saves a lot of expense on couplers and can make the bike easier to pack. It’s also less work to build!

      Reply
  3. davidbea (@davidbea) Avatar
    davidbea (@davidbea)

    I really like the red rando. Nicely done. BTW what handlebar is that?

    Reply
    1. Thompson Custom Bicycles Avatar
      Thompson Custom Bicycles

      I believe they are Grand Bois Randonneur bars.

      Reply

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