W.H. Bradford is a small builder out of Rancho Cordova, CA. His collection spanned the range from a road bike worthy of being in Campagnolo’s booth to this Moto Clunker to a pair of bikes made for exploring the outer reaches.
The Moto Clunker mountain bike is a twin top tubed hardtail with single pivot “springer” fork that rides like a moto when getting rowdy. It was built for Ty Hathaway of Golden Saddle Cyclery and there’s more to it than just that odd suspension fork. Double top tube makes it more rigid, but it’s really just for looks. The dropped bend let’s the saddle’s nose nestle in there when dropped for a very moto look.
Check it, and some fabulous titanium bikes from Wittson, below…
Moonmen’s titanium riser handlebars add a bit of cush and look the part.
The fork doesn’t provide a ton of travel, but it should get a ton of looks. All tubes are custom bent at Monkey Likes Shiny, which is local to them. They also paint local to the Bay Area, keeping everything as close to home as possible.
A coaster brake with disc tabs just in case.
They road bike was the most straightforward of the bunch, but it did have this little bit of custom paint work to catch the eye:
Note the exposed metal on the top of the seat mast for slip free clamping of the saddle’s post.
Their adventure bike was a labor of love to get what they want out of a touring fun bike. It has an oval top tube for shouldering and a dropper post because, well, you never know what you might get into.
Ruckus Composites molded these carbon water bottle bosses on Whisky fork for them, which stopped several folks in their tracks while I was snapping pics.
There’s clearance for up to 45mm tires, but really they built it for these Bruce Gordon Rock ‘n’ Road tires that they love.
The 27.5+ Long Ridge is their backcountry do-it-all mountain bike. It’s Boost spaced and the longer wheebase is meant to make it more comfortable for all day rides.
A lot of the hardware comes from Bentley out of the U.K., including some dropouts, cable guides and inserts, and the clamp for the integrated top cap and stem piece.
Tubes are run through the frame to guide the cables and housing…
…and they’ve done some really cool stuff with their layout to add a little form to the function.
WITTSON
Wittson is a father-son team of builders out of Lithuania. The elder, Vitas Zukauskas, originally built for Colnago and then others before turning his attention to their own brand and building exclusively of titanium. Their frames come with a lifetime warranty as the craft is being passed down to his son, Mindaugas.
The Cross Country Bestia gets their handmade titanium fork, too, which can be made for thru axles to stay current. It’s for 29ers only, can handle up to a 3.0″ tire and weighs just 1023g with an uncut steerer. And there’s no rider weight limit. It’s about $1,000, give or take for exchange rate (€739).
The internal routing is very clean, hiding the brake hose from just behind the head tube all the way to just in front of the caliper. Considering the shape of the stays (below), that’s no small feat:
Excellent tire clearance, too, and no chainstay bridge to collect mud.
The Road Race Suppresio is their pavement pounder and gets shaped tubes to provide a laterally stiff ride without giving up ti’s inherent vibration damping properties.
A larger brake cable exit port makes it easier to fish the cable and housing out during install, then gets a titanium cover to hide the excess opening.
The chainstays flow into the bottom of the BB shell, something we don’t usually see. It’s one of those things you may not immediately notice, but just gives the bike that “yeah, that looks really good” vibe. The internally routed front shift cable pops out of the tube and runs through a guide to the front derailleur – very clean!
The rear shift cable runs inside all the way through the BB shell and out the end of the chainstay.
