Rider on cover : Jared Graves monsters the XC course at the 2013 Australian National Championships. Sweet pic by Tim Bardsley-Smith. Jared is a master of all two-wheeled disciplines and is a true professional athlete. Perhaps that’s why he secured second place in the inaugural Enduro World Series. Read about Jared’s story inside Enduro 26.

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Contents page : Hans Rey takes a moment during his recent trip to Uganda for his Wheels for Life charity – Carmen Freeman-Rey

ContentsREGULARS

ed note 7

Gear Chat - ellie wale 9

new Gear 1st look 10

punter vs. pro 14

industrY insider - lisa howard 30

subsCriptions 126

thankYou 128

fEAtURES

the sCott 25 17

wembo worlds 23

Cape 2 Cape 31

smithfield awaits 40

interview: baum CYCles 45

the annual Christmas ride 55

interview: jared Graves 56

CYCloCross China-stYle 62

kowalski ClassiC 2013 66

the paluma push 75

tourinG townsville 79

Club profile - the roCkwheelers 80

press Camp - 2014 82

ridinG out of povertY 92

staGe ridinG nutrition 98

b-SidES

1 x 11 for the masses 103

bike testinG

lenzsport leviathan 106

whYte m109 108

kona proCess 111 110

marin nail trail 112

whYte saxon Cross 110

produCt tests 114

ENDURO 265

publisher Freewheel Media adaM Macleod

editor Mikkeli GodFree Mikk@Freewheel.coM.au

technical editor wil barrett Mob: 0409 115 795 wil@Freewheel.coM.au

desiGner adaM Macleod adaM@Freewheel.coM.au

contributors ellie wale, Neil aldridGe, tiM beNNett, aNdy blair, ash hayat, brad davies, carMeN FreeMaN-rey, aNdy blair, shaNe taylor, brad davies, wil barret, Michael droFeNik, Paul bryaNt, troy bussell., deaN clark

snaparazzi tiM bardsley-sMith, suPersPortiMaGes, russ baker, adaM McGrath, alwilsoNPics, sPortoGraF, travis deaNe, adaM Macleod, sveN MartiN, Mikkeli GodFree, wil barrett, MarGus riGa, toM Pietkiewicz, tiM arch, aurora iMaGes, carMeN FreeMaN-rey, Michelle MccoNNell, rolaNd suys, sarah holMes, steve barNett (reFlex PhotoGraPhy) post correspondence to 29 loch st, kew, vic 3101

articles PriNted iN this PublicatioN are the oPiNioN oF the author, aNd do Not Necessarily reFlect the oPiNioN oF the editors or Publishers oF eNduro.

advertisinG & editorial Ph: +613 9853 0841 Mob: 0438 292 006 eMail: adaM@Freewheel.coM.au subscription enquiries (03) 9853 0841 eMail: iNFo@Freewheel.coM.au www.freewheel.com.au www.enduromaG.com.au print post approved pp320258/0114

Crew Issue 26

ED NOTE

welcome to enduro 26. In Enduro 25 we brought you Bec Henderson and Dan McConnell’s inspirational World Cup story; a story of years of hard work finally coming to fruition, with the pair netting some spectacular results on the world stage in 2013.

In this issue, we bring you the story of Jared Graves, among many others. Like Bec and Dan, Jared has been working tirelessly, year after year, to perfect his craft and has achieved some amazing results in that time.

Jared’s story is interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which is because ‘his craft’ is not 4X, it’s not BMX, it’s not DH, it’s not enduro, it’s not XC…it’s racing bikes. A lot of people live to ride, but few have the determination, aptitude and physiology to be able to be one of the best in the world at more than one discipline. Jared is one of these select few and this has led him to be a world-beater in 4X (he is arguably one of the best 4X riders of all time – winning the World Cup four times and winning the 2009 World Championship), BMX (second in the World Cup Series and sixth at the Olympics), DH (third at 2013 World Championships) and now, enduro (second in the inaugural World Series).

No one would ever accuse Jared of being ‘just a downhiller’. Nor would anyone accuse him of being a ‘one race wonder’. He is a career athlete in the mould of Eric Carter, Michael Ronning and Scott Sharples – riders who are just at home bumping elbows at 50 kph, five metres off the ground as they are (or ‘were’, in the case of Ronning and Sharples) riding Australia’s most proficient XC riders off their wheels.

We hope that you enjoy Enduro 26 and hope that it inspires you to get out there and enjoy your bike(s), your friends and your trails. To get you started, and to tie in with the Christmas theme, we’ll leave you with a post from Jared Graves, when he arrived in Whistler in August 2013:

“Always excited to ride, but Whistler makes you feel like a teenager again, No sleep-in for me, feels like Christmas morning.” we hope you enjoy issue 26 of enduro.

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Weekend pRo: Tim Bennett age: 37.

heighT: 166cm Build: tall, dark and handsome.

favouRiTe Bike? 2014 Giant Trance Advanced 0. 27.5 Rules! Riding sTYle? XC - Enduro

sun Tan oR moon Tan Sun Tan

favouRiTe TRail? Mt Gungin (Perth Hills).

favouRiTe Race? BC Bike Race mosT memoRaBle daY on The Bike? Crocodile Trophy

favouRiTe food? Pizza.

sWiss Ball oR couch? Couch with my feet up on the swiss Ball.

dRink of choice? IPA.

WhaT do You Think iTB sTands foR – I’m Tim Bennett

JeRseY pockeT conTenTs? Phone and food.

Bike Room oR Bed Room? Shed.

puB oR nighT Ride? Other way around, night ride then pub.

dReam Race? Monaco Grand Prix (after Trans Provence).

dReam life? Marry Jo Bennett, Own a bike shop & have twin boys.

WhY Ride? Keeps me out of trouble - ENDuromag

Weekend WaRRioR: Neil Aldridge. age: 46. heighT: 1.67m (5'6" in old money) Build: Lean and fighting that middle-aged spread....

favouRiTe Bike? My Old Skool Diamondback Apex steel hardtail, soon to be retired by a Giant Anthem Advanced 1 27.5

Riding sTYle? Out of control roadie! sun Tan oR moon Tan? Mild sun tan (which follows 30+ years of Scottish ‘rain tan’)

favouRiTe TRail? OMV in Hornsby (my local training ground) or Mt Annan

favouRiTe Race? The Jet Black 12hr at Dargle Farm, a cracking local event mosT memoRaBle expeRience on a Bike? Hitting the trails for the first time after a 10 year break – hair-raising, exhilarating and hugely addictive!

favouRiTe posT-Ride gRuB? Pasta or pizza

sWiss Ball oR couch? Couch.

dRink of choice? Shiraz, red wine is a proven recovery aid isn’t it?? WhaT do You Think iTB sTands foR? It’ll take balls...

JeRseY pockeT conTenTs? Phone, cash, gel and a banana. Bike Room oR Bed Room? Bed room

puB oR nighT Ride? Night ride

dReam Race? There’s got to be one held in Tuscany somewhere!

dReam life? Working in the bike industry or involved with a race team WhY Ride? Health, happiness and sharing fun times with friends - ENDuromag

P u N t e r

v s p r o

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t’s only ever a handful of riders that end up challenging for vic-tory at a 24-hour solo race and if that race includes Jason English then that handful can usually be counted on one finger. After yet

another win at the 2013 WEMBO 24 Hour Solo World Championships held at Mount Stromlo in Canberra, Andrew Lloyd was the only rider that managed not to get lapped by English, who continued his incredible run of victories. English has not lost a solo 24 hour race since 2008 when he finished second to Willo at the 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo Championships in Canada.

Jess Douglas also had an impressively gutsy ride to back-up her 2012 WEMBO victory in Italy, coming out of a brief retirement to win the 2013 edition.

With English and Douglas both victorious as WEMBO carry-over champions, the results might seem unremarkable. But they are not.

A 24 hour solo race is what you make of it. At one end of the spectrum you can ride just one lap and then go to bed content in the knowledge that you will get a valid finishing

result. At the other end, the sport has evolved to the point where you need to be spending the best part of 24 or 25 hours maintaining consistently fast lap times in order to contest

the podium. During his race to second place at the 24 hour Solo Nationals earlier this year, Ed McDonald noted how he didn’t spend a single second stationary in transition between 2am and 11.50am.

It took me three attempts to finally ‘ride through’ a 24 hour race. The first two both ended after 12 hours, physically exhausted and with the motivation to continue completely lost. Thinking that I simply lacked the ability to com-plete these types of events, it wasn’t until the third attempt that I learnt this feeling was just a symptom of low energy – and that it could be overcome by eating well.

Once upon a time, riding ‘solidly’ through-out the 24 hours would be enough to get you on the podium, maybe even challenge for the win – but not these days. What makes Jason

English’s run of success so incredible is not that he has dominated every race with seeming ease, but that he has responded to every single challenge thrown at him by a number of other

talented riders.Before the 2013 WEMBO field had even

reached the first metre of singletrack, heckles were heard emanating from the bunch for Can-berra’s Ed McDonald to launch his trademark early breakaway. He responded almost im-mediately and after 6 laps had quickly built a 6 minute lead. Behind, the pointy end of the field gave chase with English, Andrew Lloyd, An-drew Hall, England’s Matt Page and Canadian champion Cory Wallace all in attendance. In an impromptu pre-race interview, Cory said that he would be fuelling up on Canadian bacon and Maple syrup – apparently our bacon isn’t fatty enough for him. As a recent convert to the high-fat low-carbohydrate diet, I could relate well to this. As a vegetarian, I couldn’t.

There’s a strange kind of nervous expecta-

wordS ASH HAYAT photoS: SPORTOGRAF

WemBo WoRld solo 24 houR mounTain Bike championships 2013

a RideR’s peRspecTive

The difficulty in writing a rider’s perspective of a 24-hour solo mountain bike race is that apart from your own experience – which is undoubtedly filled with personal struggle, motivational highs and lows, any number of physical complaints and some deep introspective questions – unless you are contesting the race lead you don’t really know what’s going on during the race.

iCory said that he would be fuelling up on Canadian bacon and Maple syrup –

apparently our bacon isn’t fatty enough for him.

ENDURO 26 24

tion at the start of a 24-hour race. Regardless of how good you feel (or how fatty your bacon might be), you know that things are destined to turn bad at some point. If you’re really lucky, this initial optimism might see you partway through the night laps. Then you can use the approach-ing sunrise as motivation until morning. If you are unlucky, this feeling can desert you quicker than a cooler bag of Canadian bacon at Austra-lian customs. Although, as I have come to learn, this shift is nothing to do with luck, it is about energy – fuelling the body.

Only a couple of hours in to the 2013 race, it was clear that my low-sugar nutrition plan was not working. While familiar, it was quite strange to encounter this feeling so early. Thoughts quickly turned to pulling out. It seemed almost inconceivable to continue riding for the best part of a day when pedalling up a gentle fire-road climb was already a struggle.

As I rolled along slowly, trying to think up a convincing withdrawal proposal for my support crew, at the head of the race Jason English had made his move to bridge across to Ed McDonald and after nine laps (at around 50 minutes each) had taken the lead. Ed pulled out next lap, pay-ing the price for going out too hard too early and apparently for opting to

go with the cheaper Maple ‘flavoured’ syrup. I was also ready to pull out – having been lapped quicker than a

saucer of cream at a kitten convention. I’d been passed by leading Single Speeder Brett Bellchambers as well as the group of four leading females – Jess Douglas, Eliza Kwan, Liz Smith and New Zealand’s Erin Greene.

It’s at these critical moments that your support crew needs to take over and start making decisions. Mine quickly changed the nutrition plan, forced me to swallow some gel and sent me out for an easy lap in the hope of firing up the energy systems. Halfway through the lap and a switch flicked on, power returned to the legs, breathing intensity increased and just like magic, I could ride again.

Immediately my spirits picked up. This is a familiar feeling too – that I can ride indefinitely as long as the machine is kept well fuelled.

Thoughts immediately turn from pulling out of the race to some short-term goals: first, catch the girls that had passed me earlier. Second, catch Brett Bellchambers who, over the last few years, has become my arch nemesis in 24 hour races.

Clockwise from top left: Jason McAvoy practising his 'Blue Steel' raceface | Matt Page is certainly racking up those frequent flyer miles | Jess Douglas held off a very strong finishing Kim Hurst who charged like a 'woman possessed' throughout the night hours | Canadian Cory Wallace is also a regular for the solos in Australia and con-tinues his regime of punishment by topping it off at the Croc Trophy. | Eliza Kwan took the bronze in the women's race after a costly pit stop.

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ENDURO 2641

smithfield awaitsmounTain Biking ReTuRns To iTs RooTs

ExcEllEnt photoS: Tim bARdSleY-SmiTH

Tucked away in one of the smallest booths on the factory floor, Darren Baum sits quietly on a stool contemplating his next move, oblivious to the noise from the machinery

around him. He positions himself close to a collection of tubes, which are being held together by a series of clamps and dials with pinpoint precision. Clear plastic tubes

emerge out of each opening, snaking their way towards the nearby wall like a cluster of transparent vines. As Darren drops down the lid on his welding mask, I feel like I'm

about to witness a chemistry experiment.

Baum cycles

he art of a handmade bicy-cle is quite the meeting of the sciences, where chem-istry intersects with the schools of physics, math-ematics, engineering and

biomechanics. Paired with meticulous design and many years of experience, the end result is a product that repre-sents far more than just a collection of tubes joined together.

That might sound a bit conceptual, but having been offered the opportunity to step onto the workshop floor during our Baum factory visit earlier this year, I can't deny the level of science and atten-tion to detail that goes into bringing that tubing together.

As far as boutique frame brands go, Baum is without doubt one of the best-known names in the business. Baum Cycles is an Australian bike company that is based in Geelong in Victoria and has been for over 15 years. They position themselves at the higher-end of the mar-ket, specialising in handmade frames for road cycling, mountain biking and touring. They custom build frames from either steel or titanium, all of which are tailor-made for each customer.

Baum Cycles began its life at a time when there were actually quite a few frame builders

in Australia, but over time, the number of frame builders have dwindled to leave just a few small single-person backyard operations dotted around the country. It’s no secret that mass production has come to dominate a market that was once the domain of handmade artisan bicycles.

In many markets around the world though, the handmade bicycle still enjoys some market share, and over in North America there has ac-tually been a noticeable surge in the presence of local frame manufacturers, thanks in part due to the popularity of the annual North American Handmade Bike Show. This, combined with the buying public's growing preference of sup-porting local manufacturers, means that new companies are emerging and are offering up something different from the norm.

Perhaps as an indication that we may also be about to experience our very own revival of the local industry, last December Melbourne hosted the inaugural Australian Custom Bicycle Show. Baum Cycles displayed at the show, joining renowned builders including Ken Evans, Gellie Custom and Llewellyn, as well as smaller names such as Fikas Bikes, KUMO Cycles and Primate Frames. Despite the modest numbers of manufacturers and attendees, there was a lot of buzz about the show, and there’s every indication that it will continue to grow into the future.

Our visit to Baum came several months after the ACBS, where Darren Baum and his team were working through one of their busiest months on record. With eight full-time

employees and plans to take on more, Baum has proved that not only is there demand for the custom bicycle on home turf, but that that demand can also create a sustainable, and profitable business when done right.

In what is a rare moment for the dynamic factory floor at Baum, a number of the bigger industrial machines were turned off in order for us to conduct our interview. As the whir-ring slowed down, we sat down with Baum’s founder, Darren, and their ‘Front of House’ man, Ryan Moody, in order to find out just what they’re doing right, and how they’ve consis-tently remained competitive, and relevant, since those early days.

baum beginningsBaum Cycles began as a commercial entity

back in 1996. Prior to that time, Darren had spent the previous seven years learning to build frames under various apprenticeships, where he drew upon his experience as an aircraft engineer and certification as a stainless steel TIG welder. Whilst the temptation to work in the aerospace and automotive industries was strong (and lucrative), it was ultimately bikes that ignited Darren’s engineering obses-sion. As an A-grade level road cyclist, Darren possessed that rare combination of riding experience, genuine technical ability and an engineering mindset. Whereas many backyard custom frame builders are self-taught to an extent, Darren had years of formal training and the quality of his work highlights this.

T

ENDURO 26 46

“I started building bikes in ’89 as an arrogant 16 year old,” he explains, casually pointing to a bike sitting up on the shelves above head height that represents ‘Baum 001’. In addi-tion to that original track bike, Darren built up a bunch of different frames “for friends and family” up until 1996, slowly honing his craft with the adoption of new techniques, includ-ing the use of cast lugs and brass. Aside from the interest in frame building, from a technical standpoint, what pushed Darren into taking his hobby more seriously was his interest in biomechanics and how the bicycle could be set up to provide maximum efficiency for a specific rider. Creating a custom bike based around a rider’s proportions, flexibility, weight and riding ability became the clear answer to achieving that efficiency, whilst also delivering comfort and control in a beautifully crafted, lightweight and aesthetically pleasing package.

To most people that sounds like an impos-sible task, but to Darren Baum it became a necessary challenge. And so in 1996, Baum Cycles was launched.

Most of Baum’s core business comes from the road, but his crew also build mountain bikes, tourers, track bikes and now cyclocross frames too. While Baum is a team operation that’s made up of many specialist roles and responsibilities, Darren largely influences the direction of the business and therefore the type of customer that Baum attracts. “We make what I like to ride,” says Darren, matter of factly. That basically means that you won’t find any 160mm travel all mountain bikes with the

Baum label on the downtube. “To be honest, I’m not that type of bike rider, that’s not where my experience is,” explains Darren. “I’m not very good at getting the wheels a long way off the ground!” he laughs, “I’m not gonna push a company that takes away from my experience and expertise.”

Baum build with both steel and titanium from a couple of different producers, depending on the type of tubes they require. Almost 100% of production occurs in house - tube mitring, polishing, welding, alignment, painting, graph-ics, C.A.D. - even the tubes are custom butted in house with a very secretive process that we weren’t to be made privy to. The only items that come into the factory ready to go are the drop-outs, which are sourced from Paragon Machine Works in California.

Baum unashamedly focuses on the high-end sector of the market, because that’s where they can be competitive. Darren admits that mass production has advantages in terms of deliver-ing a complete bicycle at a certain price point but there are so many assumptions that have to be made about the end user. “A hand built bicycle isn’t trying to make a bike that serves all things to all people. A hand built bike is about narrowing it down to what that person’s specific needs are.”

the business behind the bikesWhen asked how long it took for Baum

Cycles to become profitable, we received an answer from Darren that honestly surprised us. “We started making money basically from the

start” he proudly states, going on to reference the general preconceptions of the custom frame building business. “It’s all warm and feely and all the rest, but at the end of the day it’s a business, and for the people that work here it needs to function like a business.” he says.

Baum Cycles certainly achieves that goal, and as we’re served an espresso from Ryan who often flexes his barista skills on a daily basis for clients, you get the sense that this is one slick operation.

Part of creating this professional atmosphere involves Darren staying put in his welding booth and focussing on what he does best, fabrication. While he is without doubt a man with a wealth of knowledge and strongly held opinions, Darren knows his strengths and weaknesses. Are customers always receptive to his advice and knowledge? “Not always” he laughs, “I’ve been known to upset a few people!”

He isn’t what you would describe as a ‘people person’, and that’s evident in his shy manner that we encounter upon our arrival. There was no red-carpet greeting, no grand introduction and we didn’t even realise we were in the same room until Ryan interrupted Darren’s chat with his apprentice in order to in-troduce us. Up until that point, we just assumed he was one of the machinists, but I think Darren likes it that way.

The longer we chatted though, the more Dar-ren warmed up and the more comfortable he became. There’s clearly a lot of passion behind what he does, and it’s in discussing the techni-

wordS By wil bARReTT photoS: Tim ARcH

photo: Ale di lullO

ENDURO 2647

Above: Inspiration for Baum's paint jobs can come from anywhere, though with a mix of staff with passions ranging from downhill mountain biking through to automotive racing, the theme is always tied to speed. Centre: Much of the tooling in the Baum factory has been in service for many years before arriving here. Right: Some examples of the progression the Baum logo has gone through over the past decade.

Left: Ryan talks us through some of the custom details that are being applied to one customers dream machine. Each one of these boxes contains the starting point for each build; the dropouts, head tube, bottom bracket shell and built kit are all waiting patiently for their time in the welding booth. Above: Dressed in protective gloves and a welding helmet, customers are often unaware that Darren is indeed the owner of the company.

This bright little hardtail is a custom singlespeed project designed and built for Baum's own Ryan Moody. It turned out to be the perfect showcase for what Baum is capable of; sliding modular dropouts, a 'Barbados Green' paint job that's complete with matching ENVE stem and seatpost and custom fork and wheel graphics to finish it off. The fit is tailored to Ryan's proportions, with a no-compromise, race-oriented Titanium tubeset that is built around 650B wheels.

“no matter how beautiful a bike is, it is incomplete until it is ridden. the bike is nothing without a rider. therefore, to make a perfect bike, its rider must be present in the design. if people came in just five stand-ard sizes the evolution of the bicycle would be complete, but we are all different. every rider is unique, and a bicycle can only improve a rider’s performance if it respects their individual differences.” – baum cycles

ENDURO 26 48

cal details where we really struck a chord and his excitement lifted. However, Darren doesn’t pretend to be the smiling salesman and so he hands that important job over to Ryan Moody, a charismatic guy who returned to the Baum front of house nearly two years ago. Ryan is the (stubbled) face of Baum Cycles, and from the very first point of contact, whether that’s an email or a phone call, right through to deliver-ing the finished product, Ryan looks after each customer every step of the way.

Like Darren, Ryan’s professional background extends beyond two wheels, with a career as a qualified myotherapist supporting him prior to working for Baum. Ryan has also had alterna-tive employment opportunities come his way, such as offers to work with the Australian Ballet and to teach myotherapy in the TAFE sector. However, running the Baum front of house has allowed Ryan to combine both his formal training and his passion for bikes into the one profession, where he spends great time and effort in correctly fitting customers on a custom-made fitting jig that takes centre place in the front room of the factory.

“That fitting process typically takes some-where between three and seven hours” explains Ryan, “and that’s looking at fitting, colour, design, the whole bike; what wheels, what groupset, what colour headset they might go for, the aesthetics of the bike, you know, the top tube - Is it horizontal? Is it sloping? – all of those details.”

With so many options available, the process can become quite overwhelming for some cus-tomers. It’s Ryan’s job to process customer's concerns and preferences to make sure that Baum is able to address both what the cus-tomer wants, and what the customer needs.

So how long does the process take from go to whoa? “It varies greatly. It really can be an email, with a customer sending their fitting details from a previous bike, this can be a domestic customer or it can be an international customer, and it can be ‘here’s my details, I like this picture that I’ve seen previously, please reproduce this colour, and I want it to be a neutral handling bike.’ They might provide you everything in that first email. And that’s obviously very straightforward.”

Over their 17 year history, there have been a huge range of riders who have been attracted to Baum, from people who value the craftsman-ship, to those who have fallen in love with the idea of owning a one-of-a-kind bike. There are elite-level road racers who are after the perfect no-compromise fit, and there are weekend war-riors who have owned multiple road or mountain bikes over the years and have identified specific elements from each bike to create the perfect machine. They also deal with many custom-ers who simply just want an Australian made product.

“In most cases, the customer has been wanting and desiring a bike for many, many years, and that’s typically how it happens” says Ryan. “Most people don’t do it on a whim, they might have seen our product 5 or 6 years ago, maybe talked to Darren or someone who’s had one, and they’ve been thinking about it for six years and then all of a sudden the time is now, it’s ready to produce this bike, and you know, they’ll pay a deposit and maybe a couple of months later they’ll come in for the fit.”

At the time of our visit, there was a six

month waiting list for a new customer to get their hands on a completed frameset, but the more you change your mind about details such as frame colour and spec choice, the longer that wait becomes. While Baum produces the frames in-house they also build those frames into complete bikes with a whole range of dif-ferent components, as well as having a ‘BYO’ option if you want to use an existing fork or wheelset.

The level of detail on their complete bikes is, in a word, astonishing. Inner cables are not crimped, but soldered. ENVE stems and seat posts are custom painted in the same process as the frame so as to create a perfect match. Cable routing is obsessed over and nothing is bolted down without a torque wrench. Every component is installed and configured for both absolute functional and aesthetic perfection.

Part of that perfection includes setting the bike up with the correct stem and headset spacer arrangement so that it doesn’t look like an afterthought. The frame size takes into

account the type of saddle and seat post being used, so as to ensure the saddle sits perfectly in the middle of its rails. Necessary? Perhaps not. Obsessive? You bet. But it’s subtleties such as that lifts the quality of Baum's bikes above the mass produced competition.

That level of aesthetic perfection makes the initial fit absolutely crucial in order to get those details right from the beginning. “We do our fitting off of body language,” explains Darren, and by that he means with a dynamic fit that is done with the customer riding their stationary fitting jig. A lot of research goes into finding out what experience the customer has had prior to coming to Baum, including the bikes they’ve owned and if they’ve had a professional fit done before. “We also work back with different fitting systems. Not one system works for everyone, it depends what type of person it is. You don’t just throw out the experience they’ve had with other fitters or other bikes, you actually take that into account.”

In discussing frame fit for mountain bikes, we

ENDURO 2649

inevitably steer towards the highly fashionable topic of wheel size, spurred on by the fact that Darren’s latest personal hardtail sports 27.5” hoops. “My view is, if it’s about having fun and just flicking around on the trail, 26 is the most fun wheel size to ride. The fastest wheel size to ride is the biggest wheel size that biome-chanically fits you.” Ryan goes on to explain that they’ve actually had to convince some custom-ers to change their mind in regards to a specific wheel size they’ve requested, simply to get the bike to fit them properly. A set of preconceived geometry numbers may be all well and good on paper, but the challenge for Baum is to factor in real-world riding characteristics such as toe overlap, chainring clearance and whether the dials on top of the fork crown will clear the downtube.

Once those core fundamentals such as wheel size and geometry are established after Ryan has completed the initial fit, a digital rep-lication of the finished product is created with C.A.D. software. More options are discussed and once the customer signs off the final revi-sion, it’s time to turn that computer image into a real life bicycle.

the factoryStepping through the office onto the con-

crete floor of the workshop, you quickly under-stand Darren’s statement about Baum being an engineering company. Our ears are immediate-ly greeted by the loud whirring of about three different machines, all cranking at thousands of RPM, while machinists tend to lathes dressed in overalls, boots, glasses and earmuffs.

Ryan gives us the tour, as he does with every customer who comes in to see where his or her custom bike will be born. For some of the more well-heeled customers, the rawness of the factory floor can be quite a surprise if they’re not expecting it. Even the drive into the North Shore industrial estate where the Baum factory is located had us double checking the GPS, and with the exception of a small sign, the dull factory exterior with its unassuming front door certainly doesn’t indicate that there’s

a bespoke bicycle business inside. The high ceilings are lined with fans and

ventilation units circulating air throughout the building and a cool concrete floor helps to keep temperature in check over the summer season. The factory floor is made up of multiple ‘zones’ that see the tubes travel in a clockwise direction from where they’re initially delivered through the warehouse roller door, all the way round to the workshop for final assembly of the complete bike.

Each bike begins its life inside a long open cardboard tray that slides neatly into a stack of shelves that holds around 60 builds in waiting. On the outside of the box is a printout of the final C.A.D. drawing, as well as a checklist with all of the colours, tube dimensions and any revi-sions the customer has made along the way. Inside the box you’ll find the dropouts, bottom bracket, head tube and any other components that are already scheduled for the final build.

Next to the shelf stack is a booth lined with open boxes full of steel and titanium tubes, organised into specific sizes for predeter-mined parts of the frame. One box has super thin-walled steel tubes that we’re told will only make it to the seat stays for riders under 80kg. Another box houses large diameter titanium down tubes, and next to it are Columbus tubes that may end up as a top tube or a seat tube.

Perhaps the biggest drawcard for getting a custom frame is in the ability to have the builder ‘tune’ the frame to create a specific ride characteristic for the customer. One of the problems that mass production cannot get away from is in the making of assumptions about the end user in terms of their weight, riding style and handling preferences. “Ti and steel tubing allow us to manipulate a frame and the ride quality to the style of rider, to achieve comfort and performance,” explains Ryan. “We have a lot of power to manipulate those tubes to make the right bike for the right person.”

Like many custom builders, that customisa-tion involves selecting specific external tube diameters for each part of the frame, though

Baum takes it one step further by using a very secretive process to also control the internal diameter as well. This ‘manipulation’ involves butting each tube to create a very specific wall thickness from one end to the other, which not only affects the end weight of the tube but also how it flexes and dissipates vibration.

“Our strength is in the personalisation side of things. Our bikes aren’t any stiffer, or any more compliant than mass produced bikes,” admits Darren. They certainly have the capability of building the stiffest or most compliant frame in the world, but that’s not really the point. “It’s the ability to interact with the person to make sure that they’ve got the experience of the right bike for them. The aim is to make the experi-ence better for that individual.”

For a manufacturer of high-end road and mountain bike frames, an obvious question that we had to ask was: what about carbon fibre? “We will build in carbon one day. When that is, is when we can tick all the boxes of how we want to get the ride characteristics of how we like things to work,” adding that “I believe there are no bad materials, just bad design.”

While they’re happy to admit that there are a lot of great carbon frames out there, Darren is also keen to point out that you can still get fa-tigue from carbon fibre, where the frame loses its stiffness over the course of a few seasons of riding. Their aim is to create a frame that a customer will own and ride for the rest of their lifetime, and so material fatigue is an important aspect of the product they offer. On top of that, to achieve the same level of customisation with carbon fibre as they currently do with high-end steel and titanium, the pricing, in their words, would be “astronomical”.

After the tubes have gone through the butt-ing processes and surface preparation, they are then precision cut at each end in a process called “mitring”, which ensures that each tube nestles up neatly to the next one with minimal gaps. The final collection of tubes, including the bottom bracket shell, head tube and dropouts, are then delivered to Darren.

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Distributed by Monza Importswww.monzaimports.com.au/bicycle MonzaImportsBicycle

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

AND THE TRAILIS MY LIFE

MTB

M1 UOMO

M3 UOMO

HANDMADE IN ITALY

M1 UOMO $489rrp

Materials: Kangaroo Leather/Nylon Mesh/ Anti-scratch Leather

Straps: Sail Cloth Resistant

Outsole: Carbon Fiber/Removable Cleat; Skid Plate

Insole: 3D-Flex Cycling Moldable Insole

Buckle: SL Micrometric

Weight: 310 g. (size 43)

M3 UOMO $349Rrp

Materials: Leather/Nylon Mesh/Anti-scratch Leather

Straps: Sail Cloth Resistant

Outsole: Carbon Fiber/Removable Skid Plate

Insole: fi’zi:k Cycling Insole

Buckle: Aluminium

Weight: 280 g. (size 43)

WWW.FIZIK.IT/

Above: Metal tubes are marked out with the butting gradients and lengths in order to determine wall thicknesses. Baum can determine the weight of a complete frame before completion, due to the accuracy of their custom butting process.Right: Each frame is individually air brushed with automotive-quality PPG paint in a sterile room that uses huge filtered vents to remove any airborne contaminants.

As it turns out, Darren has welded up every single frame that has come through the Baum factory, so you’d like to think he’s gotten quite proficient at it over the years. With steady hands in a well-practised routine, Darren shows us the path that his welding torch takes around the complex bottom bracket junction, with a smooth, single stroke. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.

Current output from the Baum factory has reached around 150 frames per year, and that’s about as many as Darren can weld comfort-ably. With the current staff mix and previous improvements to manufacturing efficiency, that number is unlikely to increase unless they take on board more hands. Darren wants the business to grow, but he’s conscious about retaining the personalised touch that has made their services so sought after. “Our future aim is to keep the same feel to the place, and grow until that feel disappears. And that’d be a hard decision, do we keep growing and turn into another type of company? But at the moment, we’re quite happy to be a very personal com-pany making the bikes that we produce, so our aim is to stay in that part of the market.”

After being welded, each frame goes through a quality control process to check for proper alignment and to identify any blemishes before being sent over to the painting room. Located at the back of the factory, the painting area is sealed off from the rest of the building and features an industrial air filtration system to ensure that there is no chance for contamina-tion from air particulates during the painting process. With a pressurised paint gun in one hand, one of the painters is sealed inside the minimalist booth to begin applying the second-ary colour to a steel road frame positioned on the stand. Dressed head to toe in what looks like a white biohazard suit and face mask, he tilts the frame in multiple directions to apply an even coat to each side. Baum exclusively uses PPG branded paint, which is regarded as one of the leading automotive paint specialists. The paint is sprayed on wet, and then the frames are baked dry. If you want your frame raw, pol-ished or only partially painted, Baum also sand

blast and ball-burnish in house.While there are a number of different paint

and graphic combinations available, Darren and Ryan won’t let just anything go out the door with the Baum name on it. They have very exacting standards for their work, which is ap-parent in the practical application of the Golden Ratio: a long-standing mathematical theory for determining ‘aesthetically pleasing’ proportions for architecture and art. This magical number of 1.618 is utilised to determine the correct location for logos, paint bands and pinstripes in relation to the frame’s overall proportions. It might sound over the top, but it’s another example of the uncompromising approach that Darren takes to his work.

Inspiration for each paint and graphic scheme that Baum offers is mostly drawn from cycle racing and motorsport, but there are many other influences too. They’ve had customers come in with a picture of their favourite motorbike or even a personal object like a watch that they like the colours of, and it’s Ryan’s role to translate that aesthetic onto the complete bike.

After coming out of the oven, the frames require little else aside from an application of clear coat and preparation of the head tube and bottom bracket. A tidy workshop is the final stop for each frame, where the complete bike is assembled and checked over before being delivered to its new owner.

As a sign of the amount of pride they take in the end result, and as a final farewell from the factory, the completed bike is taken into the photo studio. The idea is for each build and frame colour to be documented for all future customers to see, while serving as a reference point for Ryan if he’s searching for inspiration. Baum has a loyal following on social media, and a ‘Friday Hottie’ is exhibited weekly on Flickr for all to see.

Down the roadWhile watching over one of the mechanics

fine-tune the cable routing on a nearly complete bike in the workshop repair stand, we asked Darren what his thoughts were about the market

for custom bikes in Australia. “It scares me a lot when, you know, in Geelong we had four or five frame builders when I was sixteen. Now we’re lucky to have four or five good frame builders in the country, well not good builders, but commer-cial frame builders that are, you know, making a living off it, paying to support families.”

Given that the company has been profitable since day one and with demand only increas-ing over time, it appears that while they may be going against the trend, Baum is going to be around for a lot longer as a commercial frame builder.

Will we see a reversal to the trend of mass production? Will we experience a revival of the local market?

“It’s going to be a slow thing. I think the mar-ket place is certainly demanding more customi-sation and personalisation” says Darren. “And the resurgence in the US is certainly strong, but if you dig a little deeper and look at the econom-ics of it, a lot of those builders are part time, not making money, they’re scratching through. I prefer an industry that is both making fantastic product and is economically strong.” Having witnessed the very guts of the Baum business first hand, it’s clear that it is possible to have a thriving local custom frame-building industry in Australia. As to how big that industry can grow, only time will tell. What I can conclude from our visit however, is that Baum has been able to create a sustainable business not by simply relying on being an Australian made product or by producing beautiful frames, or by concentrat-ing on the custom fitting process but rather a combination of all of those things. They’ve man-aged to remain both competitive and relevant by offering a tailor-made product that is also techni-cally oriented. And until we all start coming in at standard shapes and sizes, it is clear that there will always be a place in the market for the custom bicycle. - ENDuromag

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