Home > Event Coverage

PBE17: Eric Baar’s Ground Up Speed Shop titanium BMX masterpiece

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar
17 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

There is something completely romantic and thrilling about what Eric Baar does. His constant push for new mediums to master coupled with the way he weaves his areas of technical and artistic expertise together allows him to create some of the most unique frames in the world.

His single frame for the Philadelphia Bike Expo, the sole BMX frame on the floor, was designed and crafted to be a demonstration of Eric’s current level of mastery, laid bare without an opportunity for error, for everyone to see and scrutinize.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

Since we spoke with Eric last, he’s continued to push his most current area of focus, striping and leafing. He recently returned from the Brushmaster’s Get-A-Way, a three day intensive workshop with some of the world’s best painters, to give his lettering, brushwork, and gold and silver leafing skills a bump. This frame is the first he’s touched since that experience.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

As with other frames of his we have seen, Eric has created his characteristic striped pattern in the tubing surface (Ground Up Speed Shop enthusiasts will remember that Eric creates this pattern as it reminds him of his cat’s tail).

While seeming to be just a neat little visual effect, the stripping serves a very impressive purpose. As the striping is performed before welding the tubes, any post processing such as buffing or bead-blasting would damage or destroy the pattern. This means that the weld beads as you see them are untouched after finishing pass. There has been no process to obscure or clean up Eric’s beads… he’s basically leaving it all out there for you to see as a demonstration of the level of his work.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

Eric’s philosophy behind this is that it allows people to see the raw level of his craftsmanship. He is not hiding anything because he can not hide anything.

He utilized Paragon sliding dropouts for the rear. The titanium chainstays and seatstays are 22mm and 19mm in diameter, respectively.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

The rear of the seat cluster.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

As with all of his titanium BMX bikes, Eric constructed a unified seat/seatpost, his reasoning is that it much lighter and stiffer than having an adjustable assembly.

Plus, it looks pretty cool.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

As with many of Eric’s bikes, the finishing is ambitious. Notice the gold leaf lightning bolts on the saddle, outlined in blue striping.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

This finishing theme continues onto the top of the top tube, where Eric has placed a very interesting logo. It is a gold leaf brush with flames for bristles – a perfect logo for a man who puts as much emphasis in his brushwork as he does his torch work.

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

Philadelphia bike expo 2017 ground up speed shop Eric Baar

Ground Up Speed Shop

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

17 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
OldTimerCat1
OldTimerCat1
6 years ago

Hate the uneven brushed stripes. Looks sloppy to me.

JOSHUA CLARK
6 years ago
Reply to  OldTimerCat1

(deleted)

Ol' SHel'
Ol' SHel'
6 years ago
Reply to  JOSHUA CLARK

Yeah, OldTimer doesn’t seem to understand that custom building isn’t really about the product anymore, but all about the image and cult of personality around the builder.

We have a reality game show host for a President and our frame builders are web personalities.

Image is everything.

Jesse Kaba
6 years ago
Reply to  JOSHUA CLARK

Nice 1

TheKaiser
6 years ago
Reply to  OldTimerCat1

In what way are the stripes in the tubing uneven? And if anything was going to look sloppy, it would be the brush painted lettering on the stays, but that is kind of part of the charm of this guy’s work.

Mechanic
Mechanic
6 years ago
Reply to  OldTimerCat1

Go buy a Specialized.

Sevo
Sevo
6 years ago
Reply to  OldTimerCat1

The fact this guy has “cat1” in his handle says it all.

Also note a lack of a link to his site where he does a better job than Eric and shows us how it’s done.

(deleted)

Drew Diller
6 years ago

Gorgeous work indeed.

Cam
Cam
6 years ago

That thing is bad ass!

Seraph
Seraph
6 years ago

Looks awkward. Would like to see it built up.

Collin S
Collin S
6 years ago

Sloppy? It looks freaking awesome. Kind of like a wink/nod to 12k Carbon fiber weave. Not so sure about the seat/post combo thing but if it works for his client, so be it. I didn’t realize bmx’s use sliding dropouts. I’m used to them always having track style stuff. I’ve loved every SS bike I’ve had with sliding dropouts. Wish more companies did that.

Skip
6 years ago

Those who can make art, those who can not…criticize…..

k_dawg
k_dawg
6 years ago

I’m not a BMX fan, but this thing was really nice!

Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
6 years ago
Reply to  k_dawg

Agreed. Gorgeous work those welds are eye wateringly beautiful.

John Caletti
6 years ago

Great work! Eric is a real talent. An exceptional welder with painting skills too.
Also, great work on the writeup Anna.

AZBikeFreak
AZBikeFreak
6 years ago

Cat1 don’t mean nothin’ if you can’t ride a BMXer like this. Take it to the track and then tell us how sloppy it looks.

Vaughan
Vaughan
6 years ago

Love Ti for the bare necessities of the metal, especially the checker shapes. Sorry man, but from the flawless meticulous welds, my mind went ablure at the kitchiness of the rest of the artiste’s handiwork. Id keep the Elina-styled uni-seat for its solidness

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.