#vanilla cycles

2007 Vanilla fixed gear city bike. by sashae on Flickr.

The perfect city bike. Seriously. PERFECT.

OK I've been lusting after a custom steel bike for ages.  The question has now boiled down to not whether I should get one, but rather, whether it should be a cross frame, or a pure road frame.  Both have heaps of appeal. A cross bike would be great fun for off road action, and ideal for fast commutes to work in all weather. I could envisage it with a straight blade steel fork for the ultimate in durability, but with a trade off for weight.  I've been dwelling on these builds.

This Donhou belt drive single speed, built from a mix of Reynolds 631 and 725, looks close to the ideal urban bike. It's also pretty much what I would want in a cross bike but with normal derailleur shifting. I'm still a bit unsure about the need for discs, although it's probably not the right place to go into that thorny issue.

This also looks spectacular.  I think I found the image on one of the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show (NAHBS) reviews - it looks fast and functional. Could be almost as fast as a road bike with the right tyres.

And I'm in love with the look of these Speedvagen cross bikes by Vanilla Bicycles. They make a great looking road bike too (see below).

I'm also lusting after these Gaulzetti bikes - this one is aluminium, which doesn't quite fit with my steel mantra, but it sure does look cool and would no doubt weigh a bit less, which would be great for CX racing. Working against this is the improbability of getting my hands on one - there would be the shipping costs (from the US) and then import duties of about 15%. Nevertheless, a great style guide.

On the other hand, a road bike is where my heart truly lies.  Something reasonably light and tight with snappy road geometry.

There is this beautifully simple Donhou, this pretty much ticks all the boxes. Donhou are based in Hackney, London.

Of course Vanilla Cycles make excellent looking road bikes as well, like this Speedvagen built for the Leave it on the Road ride (featured by Prolly is not Probably).

And here's another excellent looking road frame from Vanilla Cycles, this time with a steel fork. Sweet.

Gaulzetti also make a somewhat traditional, yet beautiful looking steel-frame (Columbus) called the Cazzo, with the added touch of arguably the best looking forks around, from Enve Composites.