INTERBIKE 2009 – In addition to their beautiful new road racing hubs (see those here), Chris King was showing off his latest labor of love: Cielo Bicycles.
Chris DiStefano, their marketing guy, told the story of how Chris King started out building frames, then headsets.  The latter became immensely popular (Heck, I’ve got three of them) and the rest is history.  Lately, he’s found time to build three models, the cyclocross bike you see above, a road touring bike and a 29er mountain bike with breakaway sleeves to make it packable.
The Cielo Cross bike is made of True Temper OX Platinum tubes that are TIG welded at their factory in Portland, OR, then capped with the Cielo seatstay cap and brass head badge.  King machines their own custom fork crown, stainless steel front fork ends & rear dropouts and headtube collars.
Hit ‘more’ for additional info, specs and photos…
Each bike gets the seat stay cap…
…and brass head tube badge.  Note the headtube collars adding a bit a polish to the frame.
The geometry of the Cielo Cross is in between a straight cyclocross race bike and a road bike, making it not just a solid competitor, but also something you could do light touring and commuting with.
Each tube is precision mitered to within .002 inch for a perfect fit every time, and each frame is handbuilt in their factory by the likes of Chris King, Jay Sycip (founder of Sycip Cycles), Buck Olen (formerly worked for Co-Motion Bicycles) and other craftsman.
Attention to detail abounds.  Framesets start at $1,895, and they offer modules with assortments of headsets, hubs, complete wheels and more, topping out at $2,800.  As on the Sportif road bike below, the Cross can be optioned with eyelets for rack and fender mounts, too.
The Cielo Sportif is King’s road bike.  Built with proven, stable geometry, it’s said to have a comfortable ride but able to perform if you’ve got the legs.  Same pricing and module options as with the Cross, they’re both available in 17 sizes in single centimeter increments from 49 to 62 for men’s and three sizes for women’s: 43, 47 and 49.
Honestly, can you imagine anyone building one of these up without Chris King components?
The 29er gets the same classic frame details as the Sportif and Cross bikes.  It was built as an in-house project for a cross-Europe ride leading up to Eurobike this year, but it got so much attention they went ahead and made a few more to show.
Singlespeeders rejoice, you have all the adjustment you could ever want on these dropouts.  The two bolts hold the actual dropout in place with the adjustment screw helping line things up and keep them secure.  Looking at the range of adjustment, it almost seems like you could run the the bike with 26″ wheels… A derailleur hanger makes it easy to set the bike up with gears, too.
Not all of the 29ers had the coupling links, but they looked very cool, so we photo’d them instead.
Price on the 29er is expected to be around $1,650 to $1,850 and hopefully a release date early next year.  If you want one, let them know.
