No. 22 Bicycle Company Little Wing fixie

Simon Whiten

The gorgeous No. 22 Bicycle Company Little Wing fixie

I do like a bit of track racing but would never usually think of titanium as the go to material for blasting the boards, until that is, I saw this little beauty – the No. 22 Bicycle Company Little Wing fixie.

 

 
I was looking at their cross bike, the Broken Arrow, which is a nice looking bike but this took my breath away, so I had to feature it on the site. It is very rare that I get at all ‘soft’ about a bike; they are just tools to do a job after all. But this is something a bit special…
 

 
A bike like this would be equally suited to posing down the town or hammering round the Red Hook Crit as to ripping round the velodrome, and I imagine it being at home on a big outdoor track like my local at Herne Hill; I certainly wouldn’t mind finding out…
 

 
Each new Little Wing is finish welded by a chap called Frank Cenchitz, who built up over 18 years of titanium welding experience at Serotta before joining No. 22.
 

 
The frame uses American-sourced 3Al-2.5V titanium tubing which No.22 claim offers a strength-to-weight ratio far better than aluminum or steel, and thereby more frame stiffness with less material.
 

 
They also claim ‘incredible crispness and responsiveness’ but not ‘at the expense of ride quality’. It must be built to last as there’s a ten year warranty…
 

 
The new Little Wing has an integrated seatmast and new seatmast topper, which is a one-piece, zero offset, cast titanium part. This results in a lighter and stronger, more compact part which in turn allows a greater range of height adjustment on every size frame. No.22 use Enve’s saddle mounting hardware.
 

 
Feedback from racers led to a lengthening of the bike’s horizontal dropouts, which are machined from a solid 2″ 6/4 titanium bar, to give an inch of fore/aft adjustment. This allows for larger chain ring or cog changes without having to break the chain; a necessity when making gear changes down the track.
 

 
The seatstay bridges are water-jet cut from a solid plate of 6/4 titanium to add strength and a bespoke signature to the Little Wing stays.

You can choose from two fork options, either with or without a brake mount hole. Both forks, finished with subtle black No. 22 graphics, are full carbon with tapered carbon steerer tubes and a custom rake to suit the Little Wing’s geometry.

Frame RRP is GBP £2,199 / USD $2,099 which includes seatmast topper and Enve hardware. If you are in the UK, then for £2,329 you can get a Chris King headset and a No. 22 carbon tapered fork thrown in. In the USA complete builds featuring Campagnolo, Phil Wood, Chris King and Rolf start at $3,899 and the build shown in the photos is $5,999.
 

No. 22 Bicycle Company

VAM Performance

[rps-include blog=127.0.0.1 post=30120]