This year’s Chris King Open House chose 18 builders from all over the world to display their new colors for 2020: Bourbon and Violet. Thanks to ENVE, Santa Cruz Reserve, SRAM, Brooks, and Spurcycle. these bikes were built out appropriately for such a showcase. Below is a gallery of half the bunch, in alphabetical order for your enjoyment, with each builder’s description of the bikes. Make sure you comment on your favorite because there is some gold in these galleries!
333fab: Ti Silk Road Mountain
This bike was made to participate in the inaugural Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgistan. Made to handle rugged mountain roads with lots of elevation gain and a self-supporting load. In its current state, its more of a burly ‘All-Road’ made for having fun on most types of terrain.
Allied Cycleworks: Able
We built the Able with the goal of being the highest performance gravel bike on the planet. It pairs large tire volume (700X43) with an aggressive geometry highlighted by the 420mm chainstays achieved through the use of the elevated drive-side stay. The steering geometry is focused on high-speed off-road use with a headtube angle of 71 and a trail of 66mm, Built around the specific use of 1X drivetrains, this bike is spec’d with SRAM Red AXS “mullet” set up that gives a huge gear range with the simplicity of 1X. Since its release this bike has been piloted by our athletes to some of the most incredible performances, winning both men’s and women’s Dirty Kanza helping us realize our goal of the Able being the fastest gravel bike on the planet.
Argonaut Cycles: GR2
The Argonaut GR2 is intended to be the “if I could only have one bike” bike. With custom geometry, we can tune the bike-specific to where and how the rider chooses to journey. A tight rear end and clearance for up to 38c tires make the GR2 equally suited for fast-paced road riding or multi-day gravel adventures. This particular bike is built up as a road plus machine where the rider will be on a 60/40 mix of asphalt and dirt.
Breadwinner Cycles: G-Road
Versatility, comfort, and stability make the G-Road the perfect all-day, mixed-terrain bike. Designed for 650B wheels, with clearance for high volume tires, an Igleheart segmented steel fork and options for custom braze-ons, the G-Road can be set up for all your adventures. Use 2.1” knobbies for off-road exploring, add frame bags and cargo cages for a bikepacking trip, or slim it down with nothing but a few bottle cages and supple herringbone tread tires for a day of pavement or gravel riding. The G-Road is made for all-day comfort no matter what lies ahead.
Caletti Cycles: Ti Gravel
We selected a Gravel bike for the show this year as it has been a very popular format for us for a long time, but even more so this past year. Some recent parts releases, including the amazing Enve + Chris King wheels and the wide range 1x wireless 12-speed drivetrain from Sram up the performance of our Gravel bike. The versatile geometry and ability to run up to 45mm tires make this a capable bike for rides off the beaten track. The new Matte Bourbon color from Chris King inspired us to come up with a new finish design incorporating colors that compliment the Bourbon with elements of “Dazzle Camouflage” and some inspiration from a Ducati Streetfighter, over a base of our “Blue Whale” color.
Davidson Bicycles: Ti Road
Custom geometry titanium road. Butted downtube. OS headtube. 1” OS-chainstays for lateral stiffness, thin seat stays to soften the vertical compliance. T47 bottom bracket. S&S couplings to make it travel-ready. Rim brake because packing/reassembling hydraulic disc just isn’t worth the hassle when the best rim brakes are actually really good. Wireless/electronic drivetrain makes packing/reassembly an absolute breeze. It’s a straight-up road bike that you can easily throw into a travel case, go someplace to get away from it all, drop some snacks and sunscreen into the handlebar bag, and go lose yourself on some winding roads.
DeSalvo Custom Cycles: Ti All Road
The bike I built this year for the Chris King open house is a titanium version of an all-road bike. For riders looking for a single bike that is quite versatile, an all-road bike may be a good choice. This bike combines the lively ride of titanium and tires up to 40c to give all-day comfort on a variety of road surfaces. To give this bike a one of a kind look the custom paint was sprayed by John Slawta at Landshark Bicycles.
Isen Workshop: Ti All Season
We set out to make the ultimate version of our most popular bike, the All Season. The best titanium tubing from Reynolds, complimented by their 3D printed dropouts and finished off with liberal amounts of PMW components. The frame has been built around the sweet spot of long-distance comfort and pedal-stomping stiffness, whilst being optimized to utilize to the fullest the latest generation of top tier componentry from our friends at Chris King, Enve and SRAM. We also try to bring our award-winning paint skills to what can often be the quite restrained world of titanium frame fabrication and have created this limited edition scheme to perfectly compliment the amazing new Chris King anodization.