Aaron Dykstra builds beautiful bicycles in Roanoke, VA, under the moniker Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. In 2011, he took home the award for best track bike at NAHBS. In 2012, another award was earned for best cyclocross bike. While no awards came to Six-Eleven this year, personally, it was my favorite booth at the show. Aaron brought customer bikes (save one) to the show that oozed class, performance, and beauty.
Up first is this fine example of a “lugged” mountain bike. The customer for this ride had requested a classy looking mountain bike. Aaron set to work designing a lugged MTB, only to find he couldn’t find lugs that worked for his application So, he took existing lugs that he liked, cut them into three pieces and then brazed the frame and lugs together. The desired result of classy was certainly achieved.
Past the break you get more of this bike, plus some wild paint, lightweight steel, and a sparkly purple track bike…
The matte black lugs work well juxtaposed with the charcoal metal flake paint. The gold accents keep well with the classy theme.
Jon Woodroof of Two Tone ATL commisioned this S&S coupled cross machine. Due to the intended offroad use of this ride, it has an overbuilt frame that consists of a 44mm headtube and a 38mm downtube.
I was very happy to see Retroshift on the bike. I personally ride it on my gravel bike, and Adam had really designed a good product.
The paint was laid down by Airglow.
This tiny frame is for a woman who really loves to ride her bike, but does not race. Her request was for a bare bones road racer. She was looking for an alternative to her overbuilt carbon roadie. Should she ever take to competing, this 14 lbs 14 oz bike will definitely get the job done. In fact, it’s lighter than her Cervelo. The tubeset is Columbus Spirit.
Sparkles! The plain looking white paint really pops in good lighting thanks to the addition of purple metal flake.
Aaron loves track bikes. He’s even raced them for Team Pegasus in the past. For the past three years, he has shown one amazing track bike after another. This year he brought the Six Eleven 3Rensho (San rensho) tribute bike. This was the only bike in the booth that was not a customer bike. I asked if it was for his personal collection, and he said while he would love to keep it, he purposely built it in a size he can’t ride so he will sell it.
This bike is all about the little details. The full NJS build is period correct with parts dating back to the late 80’s and early 90’s.
This bike bike is accurate down to the pointed lugs and level, squared off seat colar.
On hand was a raw frame to illustrate how fillet brazing works and looks. And that fork, it’s the Whiskey thru axle.
So fresh and so clean.
