No. 22 Bicycle Company

by Simon · 27/03/2014

No. 22 Bicycle Company

By Simon Whiten

New frame building operation for No. 22 Bicycle Company

No. 22 Bicycle Company, the titanium frame manufacturer, has launched a new framebuilding operation in upstate New York.

The team they’ve put together is composed of cycle industry veterans (including some staff from the recently closed Saratoga Frameworks) with a combined 53 years of titanium frame building between them. The team will produce all of No. 22 Bicycle Company’s models, including the recently revised Great Divide road frame that we featured previously, as well as frames under contract to other high-end brands.

“We are extremely excited about the opportunity to work with this team as the long-term manufacturing home for our bikes,” said Mike Smith, co-founder of No. 22. “We have been building our brand around the resurgence of North American craftsmanship, and the frames that Scott, Frank and their colleagues are able to build have us thrilled about this relationship. We feel privileged to be working with them to produce bikes that we can all be proud of.”

The Great Divide frame also has a few changes for 2014 including a 200g weight reduction in size 56cm. The CNC butted 3al-2.5v CWSR (cold worked stress relieved) titanium tubeset meets parts that are locally machined by Paragon Machine Works and Loco Machine to create the frame. Offered in mechanical or electronic cable routing, finish options include anodized blue violet or raw titanium with brushed graphics on matte Ti.

The Great Divide includes an Enve fork and Chris King headset. With geometry leaning more towards performance gran fondo and all day riding rather than a crit racer, the BB is low, chainstays are longer and the ride is generally slightly more mellow than a pure race bike. The 2014 bikes are available in two finishes, as shown below, with an anodised as well as the ‘raw’ titanium finish. The anodized frame looks stunning in the flesh as we can attest, having one in for review…

Founded in 2012 by Bryce Gracey and Mike Smith, No. 22 Bicycle Company’s bikes are sold both direct and through dealers, working with Stage Race Distribution in the US and VAM Performance as its distributor in the UK.