Random and I went up into rural Larimer County north of Longmont. We pulled into a gravel driveway to a workshop behind a house covered with solar hot water panels. The old, non-descript white concrete block building belongs to world-famous bike builder Mark Nobilette.
Today, Nobilette custom crafts about 100 frames every year. He tells me that his typical customers are "bike weenies who appreciate high quality in a bike." He approaches each bike -- whether its a road bike, mountain bike (27" or 29er), tandem, bent or trike -- from an artistic angle. "I've learned some metallurgy and engineering, but I originally wanted to be an artist and took art classes all through school; jewelry, painting, sculpture, that kind of stuff."
His artistry shows in his fillets and lugs and crowns. Many of his lugs are custom machined in his shop. He bends his own tubing to get just the right look for his bikes, going so far as to custom-craft his own tube benders.
His custom frames are beautifully brazed and filed to produce seamless transitions between the tubes, while some of the frames he does for other people use a TIG-welded main triangle, brazed dropouts, and silver-soldered stays. His custom-made lugs are welded, brazed, then hand-filed into outrageous shapes, making the finished frames highly distinctive.
Nobilette builds under his own brand as well as all of the steel bikes for Lennard Zinn Cycles in Boulder, the frames used on Racermate's Velotron ergometer, and lightweight racing trikes for AngleTech. Nobilette has also built a few bikes for Rivendell over the past year, managing to meet the exacting specifications of Rivendell's legendary Grant Peterson.
5 comments:
His bikes are incredible.
I always wish I would have learned the craft, so I have immense respect for those who have.
How about the 80 tooth used for a Velotron?? or maybe some sort of indoor trainer??
I think the 80 toother for a human powered aircraft!
Girls Luv is correct! It's for the Velotron ergometer.
Mark built my custom time trial from True Temper steel in a 61 cm back in 1999. The top tube and down tube were radical for the time, ovalized, and the seat tube was contoured ala Cervelo long before this was de rigueur on all TT geometries. We painted it with pearlescent white (8 coats) and full DA and it still came in at 20 lbs! It never ceases to draw praises and inquiries, and his braising work is unparalleled artistry. Had it retrofitted last year to road bars for a charity ride, the Challenge to Conquer Cancer, www.p3ride.org, that benefitted cancer research and treatment through the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Greenville (SC, where I live) Hospital System. We rode a relay to Austin, TX, my part covering 325 miles that carried us through Tropical Storm Rick and 45 mph winds and sheeting rain. My Nobilette was up to the challenge, and at the concluding LiveStrong Challenge I cruised with some gearheads from Austin that were powering a 31 mph pace for 20 miles. Not bad for a 6'4", 220 lb Clydesdale. Hail Nobilette, a master builder.
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