Portland isn’t Oregons only bike centric city. Eugene is home to several custom builders, including English Cycles. English Cycles, like so many others, is a one man operation with Rob English at the helm. According to his website he is the designer, builder, machinist, painter, racer, and bike geek.
The time trial bicycle pictured above is his personal race bike. He has raced this bike to a second place finish in 2008 and a win in 2009 at the Oregon State Time Trials.  And, even though a low weight was not his first priority, this bicycle comes in at just 16 pounds.
Mash that ‘more’ link to see photos of all the trick parts he has made for his TT bike, as well as a very clean build on a 29er.
Rob custom machined a super narrow front hub to help reduce drag.  The silver bits sticking out the sides are airfoils.  For all the details of his build click here.
When talking to Rob about this bike, he told me that due to his longer arms, he always had trouble getting low enough on stock TT bikes.  His solution was to engineer a one piece fork and aero bar setup.  The aero bars are aluminum and they bolt on so they may be adjusted.
You may have noticed the brake in the pervious image did not look like an off the shelf part.  You would be correct.  Both brakes on this bike were handmade by Rob himself, in order to fit the tight tolerances of the frame, and to keep them out of the wind.  He admits they are not the most powerful stoppers around, but they get the job done.  Besides, you don’t really want to slow down when you are time trialling right?
The goal for this bike was a very clean set up.  English ran all the cables internally (including the hydraulic line for the front disc brake.)  The seat mast (using Thompson hardware) and one piece fork, stem, and bar combo add to the clean look and feel of this rigid 29er.
This bike has a very clean one piece fork, stem, and bars.
The use of a Niner eccentric bottom bracket allows for proper tention on the belt drive.
