Here at HampCo, we’ve long been fans of – and influenced by - production bikes and their related size charts. When I look back at the almost 500 frames and whole bikes we’ve sold since 1999, I’m struck by how many of them would fit two of my favorite size charts with minimal tweaking – the charts from Moots and from Dario Pegoretti. The “geometry” as such – angles, BB drop, wheelbase, fork rake - is our own, but if we look at the relationship between the top tube, seat tube, and head tube, we see a good deal of consistency. The consistency is there, of course, because human physiognomy is pretty consistent. I’d say about 80% of our customers could fit on that imaginary amalgamated MooPeg chart. The other 20% are off the charts for their proportions, or for their lack/excess of flexibility, or maybe just a need to sit differently.
So the idea was: what if we designed and built in-house a frame that combined the best features of our favorite charts with our best-selling model in our preferred material? A greatest hits model, if you will, and we’ll call it “Crema” because that means both “cream” (as in “best”) and also refers to the top layer of an excellent espresso. And coffee and bikes and Seattle are so…
Anyhow, Crema is a lightweight welded steel frame with a brazed steel fork designed to work with bigger tires and/or fenders – pretty much a stock-size Classic, not unlike our Strada Bianca. This is intended as the ideal rainy-day or winter bike, commuter, dirt-road explorer, or simply all-purpose sport bike with plenty of versatility.
We’ll offer four lovely stock paint colors, Wound Up carbon fork if you want, limited options – all for $1800 for frame and fork, reasonably-priced build kits also available.
But wait, there’s more: we can extend/shorten the head tube +- 1cm at no additional charge, and we can tweak the top tube or seat tube the same amount for only an extra $100. Custom paint adds $100. So it’s not a complete custom frame – call it semi-custom – but we can get it darn close. If you need a full custom frame, so be it, and we can treat it as such. Tube weights will be adjusted to suit each rider and each frame is built and painted to order, for now. In the future we hope to have a few welded frames waiting for paint. Right now, we’re laughingly shooting for a 2-month turnaround time on these.
How does it work?
You send us:
· Saddle height
· Reach from tip-of-saddle-to-center-of-bars
· Center of bars to ground
We send:
· Bike CAD drawing
· Price quote
· Projected turnaround time
Then you get a new frame and fork or whole bike...
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