No. 22 Bikes Great Divide

The No.22 Bicycle Company was founded in Toronto, Canada in the spring of 2012; their aim to produce bike frames that ‘strike equilibrium between enjoyment and performance’, which sounds pretty good to us. They say that No. 22 bikes are built for enthusiasts who appreciate titanium’s ride qualities as well as stiffness and low weight, with classic, proven geometry and refinement as opposed to gimmicks defining their frames.

The rather attractive, hand built, titanium Great Divide is named after that area of the Rocky Mountains and somewhat appropriately is built in the USA by Lynskey before being finished in Canada at No. 22 Bicycles. It uses double or triple-butted 3Al-2.5V titanium throughout, designed to ‘showcase the best characteristics’ of that material. The frame has some clever modern touches such as swaged chain stays, an oversized, bi-ovalized down tube, a PressFit 30 bottom bracket shell, an oversized head tube with Enve carbon fork, and a comfy svelte seat tube and seat stays.

 

Interestingly each titanium tube is worked by hand with varying wall thickness being specced to match the size of the specific frame, before being precisely shaped, mitred and welded by Lynskey. The anodized graphics are added by electrically changing the structure of the titanium’s surface layer to create a durable and corrosion resistant finish that nicely contrasts the raw titanium.

 

Each frame comes with a Chris King Inset 8 headset, full Enve carbon fibre fork with a tapered steerer tube, and a Thomson seatpost collar. You also get a useful lifetime warranty. There follows a few photos of the frame and an Ultegra kitted bike. Look out for test ride in the near future… See the photos >