About Colorado Cycle Tailoring

Welcome to Colorado Cycle Tailoring

If you are looking for a Restomod Bicycle that's properly recycled to fit your particular cycling needs, this is the place.  While I tend to specialize in particular types of  Restomod Bicycles with 25+ years of experience in proven builds, new styles are being formulated and perfected to accompany what has already been accomplished. Requests that are out of my current particular realm will not be ignored, but can most likely be referred to someone who can accommodate your needs.

1959 Schwinn Corvette 26" BMX Restomod

If you have any questions, or would like a consultation on a possible bicycle tailored to your particular needs, please feel free to send me an  EMAIL  Thank You.

My Journey To Colorado Cycle Tailoring

I began my cycling life at four years old, when I followed my two older brothers down the driveway and into the street on a department store 24" wheeled step-through. Just as Hurl Everstone would set upon his cycling life through his accompanying loves of Freedom and Punk Rock, mine paralleled his primarily with the Freedoms it allowed to explore the World around me.

Since our parents didn't have the time or money to keep repairs up on our bicycles, my brothers and I were shown how to do most basic maintenance items on our coaster brake bikes.  By the time I was eight years old, breaking down a coaster brake bike and servicing the bearings properly was something that became second nature. If we wanted to ride, our bikes had to work and we wanted to ride.  At times we even helped the neighborhood kids with their bikes when they had no other options to join in on the shenanigans we enjoyed on two wheels.

The neighborhood kids where I spent my youth with all rode bicycles.  When BMX arrived, our Sting Rays were converted to BMX primarily with a discarded road saddle and motorcycle handlebars. My first Restomod was a Sting Ray to BMX conversion, completed in the Summer of 1972 after watching On Any Sunday. One of my most memorable rides on the BMX Sting Ray was when my grandfather offered to let me roll down a mountain truck trail we had driven up when my bicycle happened to be in the back of his truck.  He followed me down in the truck but was unable to keep up. When he pulled up at the bottom and saw my big grin, he knew he had done something really cool for me.  I do believe my need for pure unadulterated speed on a bicycle was born that day.

After our locally built BMX track that we poached into a vacant lot was leveled for an apartment complex, the neighborhood kids turned to more easily pedaled bikes for distances. We usually ran in packs and ventured further and further out of the neighborhood. The herd thinned as we aged and most of them abandoned their bicycles for motor vehicles at 16.  Even so, the 26" BMX Cruiser emergence in the Mid 70's kept a few on bicycles for recreational purposes. Me, I had no choice in the matter and unwittingly became a Utility Cyclist, due to my parents refusing to endorse me for driving privileges.

My late teen years were spent largely getting around via a Kool Lemon Yellow Schwinn Varsity or the various skateboards owned in those years.  Almost all of my friends drove, so getting places that were more unobtainable by bicycle was accomplished with a little help from my friends. The Varsity honed my Sub/Urban skills on two wheels and avoiding both traffic and the local constabulary (after curfew) became second nature astride it.

The only period of my life without bicycles being a big part of it was during my enlistment in the military. I did get opportunities to ride motorcycles and owned my first one during this period. Motorcycles are obviously not the same thing as a bicycle, however they can compliment each other.

After the stint in the service, my intent was to take up road cycling with an eye on racing.  That idea was quashed with an escalation in road cycling deaths, which prompted a look at Mountain Bikes.  I picked one up and began that journey by riding pavement on bike paths and restoring those old Sub/Urban skills on it when connecting home to the paths.  Morphing onto fire roads and then singletrack trails took some time, but not having to donate too much blood to the dirt seemed like a good idea.  The Slow Burn Learn worked really well and still does for any new cycling discipline I decide to enjoy.

For a long time, my cycling interests were limited primarily to singletrack dirt.  My first MTB became a piecemeal of OE parts and replacements for what was unable to take the punishment of a Clydesdale class Rider.  Along with a nice basic metric set of Craftsman tools, my bicycle-specific tool collection began to grow to accommodate the complexity of the geared bikes and various componentry which adorned them. Fortunately, the new bikes were not too complex for me and maintaining them was not very difficult.  A few years into this phase, I took utility cycling back up and have been practicing that since.  During this period, I added wheel building to my maintenance repertoire, while two degrees from Kevin Bacon to Gerd Schraner. With that learned tutelage from friends, building my own wheels had both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits, as well as the obvious financial ones.  I also had to opportunity to guide mountain bike tours for a number of years during this period, beginning with long multi-day tours and then eventually on to day tours.

Due to a family commitment, I landed in a largely urban environment for a few years, where getting anywhere to ride dirt was a hassle at best.  To keep my love for singletrack from being tainted, I turned mainly back to my Sub/Urban roots and rode for utility purposes as well as the Freedom to explore and experience new places.  I also began to do community based bicycle rides and that's where I witnessed the beginnings of the fixed gear surge in the area.  The fixed gear kids who were corking intersections on the community rides and were going really fast and having a blast doing it.

By this time, I had been steadily creating purpose-built Restomods for friends and family for over ten years.  I built up a Schwinn Le Tour into a drop bar brakeless fixed gear conversion (with some help from Sheldon Brown) and began to Slow Burn Learn the ins and outs of it all.  Running hard on empty bike paths and slowly getting used to being in traffic a little at a time worked really well and soon I was taking it on community rides.  The fixed gear youngsters looked at me a bit sideways at first due to my obvious age and (to a few) the gall to join in on a mere fixed gear conversion instead of a proper track bike. That all changed after winning my first circuit underground street race, which leveled the respect field because my respect for many of them was already there.  That was also where someone first approached me and asked if I was "that guy from the MTB realm" and being a bit sheepish about it all.  I still am and normally answer that by stating I'm just someone who enjoys riding.  As far as the attitude towards fixed gear conversions go, I built another up after my Le Tour was destroyed in a hit and run. I picked up a 1984 Schwinn Le Tour Luxe and after having the frame powdercoated in a dark blue metalflake, built a nicely specced conversion.  A few of the youngsters stated that though they still disliked conversions as a rule, mine were something they respected.

A move back to close proximity to the mountains and a nearby bike park brought on the next style of Restomod builds I was to learn.  This happened accidentally by finding out that my singletrack skills at speed had suffered a bit while riding the pavement more than the dirt.  The solution was a rigid 2x9 v-brake MTB that helped me get back on board with negotiating the smooth twisties (now commonly called "flow") at proper speeds.  Once back on track with that, I began offering to show any friends with interest in mountain biking a few basic things about handling a MTB, using the methods learned in my tour guide days.  Watching them learn quickly on frames I built up specifically for them on this kind of terrain was inspiring to say the least.  I also learned that this type of build works really well on most terrain that's smooth, including pump tracks.

The MTB Restomod pump track builds only differ from what I found works in flow terrain by their handlebars, tires, and being singlespeed.  This allows them to be transferable from pump to flow seamlessly with the right tires.  These bikes are by far the most complex Restomods I have built for many reasons and after five solid years of testing, I have the formula down-pat.

The most recent addition to the list of styles that have been refined is gravity bikes.  They are pedalable, but generally not comfortably so and any pedal power is generally used for starts at the top of a hill.  These builds are solely for going very fast downhill on straight or twisty paved roads.  The Beta Bike in this realm allowed me to easily take 35mph signed turns at over 50mph on its initial test run.  The aforementioned motorcycling connection and my oldest brother's infinite Sport Bike Motorcycling knowledge helped this Restomod build's configuration and it was solid right out of the gate.

All of that said, this is where I am now. I've been fortunate to be able to apply what I have learned over the years to getting people on bicycles that they want to ride.  This is true from ratty looking (by request) town bikes that run deceptively well, to the 1972 Schwinn Paramount P-15 fixed gear conversion I like to ride on jaunts over 30 miles.  All builds are priced by the costs of initial frame acquisition, parts acquisition, paint (if needed) and shop rate.  Frames for builds are used and inspected for serviceability before paint restoration or custom paint/powdercoat requests.  Most parts being utilized on builds are not new, but have been cleaned and inspected as thoroughly as the frames have been.

Primary Restomod Styles Available

Standard Cruiser

Town

Commuter/Utility

BMX Cruiser*

Fixed Gear Conversion*

Flow Trail*

Pump Track*

Gravity*

Klunker*

Tallbike**

Thank You For Your Consideration

JD

 EMAIL

BUILD STYLE EXAMPLES BELOW

Restomod Cruiser

Restomod MTB to Town Bike

Restomod MTB to Commuter

Performance Capable(tm) Restomod Cruiser to BMX

Performance Capable(tm) Restomod Road to Fixed Gear

Performance Capable(tm) Restomod MTB to Flow Trail/Pump Track

MORE SOON!

*Performance Capable(TM) Restomods normally require more new parts for their intended use.

**Currently require at least six months lead-time.