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PBE17: Engin Cycles flexes new process chops with proprietary Ti frame goodies

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian
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Drew Guldalian, the builder at Engin Cycles, has been very busy. A few years ago, in addition to his extremely well-tooled shop of manual machinery and to up the game on his beautifully and cleanly welded titanium frames, he acquired a CNC mill and started going to town on custom, house-made dropouts. More recently, however, Drew has kicked his custom part operation into a higher gear, adding a proprietary machined yoke to the mix and acquiring a CNC lathe for head tubes and threaded bits.

What does it mean? At a time when there is low diversity in domestic sources for titanium frameparts, Engin continues to increase its internal machining capability in order to build unique custom titanium frames with impressive functionality.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

Increased capability at Engin is probably no better shown than through this particular hardtail he displayed at the 2017 Philadelphia Bike Expo. It retains the truss-style proprietary dropouts the brand has been using for awhile now, the treats are in the details however.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

This is the first show where we have seen, up close, the new Engin yoke. Machined in two halves (similar to other clamshell-style yokes), it’s hollow on the interior for a lightweight, stiff construction.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

In practice, the yoke clears a 2.6in tire and a 32t chainring in a quite “tukt” rear triangle configuration.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

Drew is also hard at work making other components in his mechanical laboratory. The seat collar shown at the top of the image is another example of this.

(Take a moment to appreciate the lines and welds of this particular frame).

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

What’s quietly the extremely exciting detail on this particular frame are these seat tube studs. Machined on Engin’s new CNC lathe for use in conjunction with a dropper post configuration, they allow riders to run a bottle cage without sacrificing clearance or proper thread-engagement for a post…because the threaded stud sticks out of the tube rather than threading a bolt into the tube.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

In contrast to the titanium hardtail, we have this lovely plum colored road bike.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

From this headtube, it is easy to see that Drew is having fun identifying new opportunities to use his new CNC lathe. On his show bikes, the logo was machined into the headtubes rather than applied as a separate headbadge.

Philadelphia Bike Expo 2017 Engin Cycles Drew Guldalian

The rear triangle featured fat, formed in-house, shapely seatstays welded into his proprietary flat mount dropout system.

With this continued momentum for internal machining capability and the creativity and problem-solving that accompanies it, we are excited to see what Drew decides to tackle next.

EnginCycles.com

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Tom in MN
Tom in MN
7 years ago

Their web site says they are currently too backlogged to take any new orders.

Tom
Tom
7 years ago
Reply to  Tom in MN

Not a surprise, given the extent of original machine work means less time for actual building of frames. I suspect this guy is an inveterate tinkerer, and will find new things to custom machine, even if commercially available high quality component supplies are out there.

Kirk Thibault
7 years ago
Reply to  Tom

@Tom – Actually, the backlog is probably due to high demand. I think “this guy” is building a frame right now out of vintage Ti tubing for Gary Helfrich <- google him.

Jake
Jake
6 years ago
Reply to  Tom

you would be amazed how much less time it takes to machine a ti headtube with CNC.

Ryan S.
Ryan S.
7 years ago

Love my Engin, glad to see Drew get some spotlight on his detailed approach to every step of his builds.

Tyler durden
Tyler durden
7 years ago

Wow

AngryBikeWrench
7 years ago

Just want to give a plug for Peter Verdone Designs, who worked with Engin on that yoke (and I think on his dropouts, but correct me if I’m wrong). PVD can be polarizing, but the dude knows his bike parts, and his blog is well worth reading. Even if you disagree with him, you’ll learn something.

Matthew T LaPrade
Matthew T LaPrade
7 years ago

Pete is one of the best people I have had the pleasure of meeting in my life of bikes. So much #truth

Danel
Danel
7 years ago

I believe the MTB in your photo is set up with a 36 tooth chainring. It’s my co-workers. Thanks for covering the show! We’re lucky to have it so good here.

Rusty
Rusty
7 years ago

That stud design is very similar to what Parlee have been running since the first Z1’s. It’s super functional.

AngryBikeWrench
7 years ago

Re: the bottle cage studs – is there a way of replacing them if you strip/damage one?

Drew
Drew
7 years ago

No more of an issue than internal threads. The threads are 6/4 titanium which is incredibly strong. How hard is it to thread on a nut? This is fixing a problem not creating one.

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