Texas Bike Builder Gets Big-Time Publicity
Category: Cycling/Running/Fitness...
Posted Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 02:22 PM [GMT-6]

Bicycling Magazine runs an annual "Best of..." feature in its print edition where the editors pick their favorite bikes in various categories (e.g. Best Commuter Bike, Best Trail Bike, Best Racing Bike, etc.). This year their choice for the "Best Dream Road Bike" (the criteria for which is nebulous but apparently requires that the bike carry a wider-than-usual tag on which the price is written, IYKWIM) is the Crumpton SL Road, a hand-built carbon fiber-framed machine crafted by Nick Crumpton in Austin, Texas.

This jewel of a bike weighs just over 15 pounds and there's one with your name on it – or at least containing your detailed specifications – if you have the patience (one guy can turn out only so many bikes each year) and almost $9,000*.

You'll also have to provide some very specific information about your body, including the length of your femur and the distance from the middle of your sternum to your crotch. Crumpton provides a quite jocular skeleton on its order form to help you figure out your anatomy, if you're challenged in that regard.

If you have the patience and the money, you'll be rewarded with a bike that rides as smoothly as a "wait-list-only cabernet," whatever that means. And, you'll likely be the only person on the block to have one.

*Before you gasp too strongly at the price, consider that the runner-up in this category is the Parlee Z1 which lists for $12,800, and the third place bike, the Seven V-II goes for $10,900, making the Crumpton a relative bargain.