A sub 7 pound Crumpton from Groupe De Tete

I have been meaning to post about Groupe De Tete since Interbike, but I seem to be on a 3-week delay lately. A post on Bicycling magazine’s “This Just In” blog about the company got my attention because this boutique bike builder is located about an hour north of here in Asheville, NC. They are not a custom framebuilder, but appear to be an upscale shop that is basically in the business of putting together custom dream bikes for customers who want something unique and top of the line… and are willing to pay for it. They describe themselves as a “couture cyclery” and refer to their custom process as “expressionering.” No doubt this company is narrowly focusing on a niche market, but I would suspect that the number of wealthy customers who are willing to spend a lot of money on a truly unique bike will continue to grow. Take a look at this custom 6.5 pound Crumpton fixed gear bike (by the way, Group de Tete is the first worldwide Crumpton dealer). One interesting thing to note is that the bike uses an American Classic disc brake front hub on the rear with a custom titanium cog bolted in place. Check out a detail picture of the set up on Bike Hugger. Not only is this bike amazingly light, but you would never see another one like it on your local group ride.

Groupe de Tete has also partnered with Simmons Racing to create custom made cycling shoes that will definitely turn a few heads. At 900 bucks a pop, the custom shoes are not for everyone, but I am pretty sure that both companies involved already know that. I was interested to see these shoes because I am very familiar with Simmons and the quality boots that they make for inline speed skating. To be honest, I don’t totally understand the design of the Simmons shoes pictured on the website. They are definitely minimalist, but I can’t really imagine cycling in super lightweight high performance clogs. Maybe I am just missing something. If so, will someone please fill me in?

Photo from Bicycling’s This Just In

Posted

October 12, 2006

Miscellaneous

James

Tags:

Comments

6 responses to “A sub 7 pound Crumpton from Groupe De Tete”

TR

October 13, 2006

I skate with Simmons Vision boots.
They are the best I have ever owned.

Reply
James

October 13, 2006

TR, I have never used Simmons boots, but they do look very well made. For the record, I have a pair of Verduccis as well as an old pair of Bont Hustlers that I have been meaning to sell on eBay.

Based on A2A participation over the past couple years, inline speed skating seems to be declining in popularity in the US. I would not be surprised to see more of the high-end boot makers getting into the business of making cycling shoes in the future. Check out some of the other shoes on Simmons website if you haven’t already.

Reply
lancejohnson

October 19, 2006

i just wanted to pop in a lt you know that the sub-7 pound weight was just a bit under what the project actually ended as. we were 7 pounds 3 ounces. nick and i will make a second attempt at this and take out another big chunk of weight before the hand-made bike show in march. look for mark II in san jose…

Reply
James

October 19, 2006

Hi Lance, thanks for the correction (though 7 lbs. 3 oz. Still qualifies as amazingly light in my book). I can’t wait to see the results of revised attempt that you are doing for NAHMBS. Good luck with the new business. I will look forward to seeing some content on your new blog.

Reply
Olivier Blanchard

November 2, 2006

Dare I bring up my 100mm K2 skates?

I guess I’d better not.

Reply
James

November 2, 2006

Hey Olivier, 100 mm’s. Nice. we should skate sometime. My speedskates have just been sitting in the closet collecting dust lately.

Reply