It's a very plush bike. The vertical compliance is the first thing I noticed, as the ride is very smooth. It's what steel must feel like, without the weight. Yet there's no loss of road feel, just loss of all the chatter I've gotten used to with carbon frames. The tubeless tires running at 90 psi do make a difference, but I have the same setup on the Tarmac, and I can say this contributes about 15% of the smoothness and the rest is the bike. It's a smooth and silent ride. It's very comfortable, and I could ride this bike all day. I'm tempted to use it as my century ride bike, if there aren't a lot of climbs.

The torsional rigidity is very good. Cornering is sure. I do notice some sluggishness from the bottom bracket area, or maybe the rear triangle. At first I thought this was just a result of the tall gearing, and mashing on the gears. But I tried some accelerations at higher speeds, and there is definitely a little loss of snappiness from the pedals to the rear wheel. It feels like the bottom bracket area.

I'm amazed at how stable and true the bike tracks. I took some descents at 50 mph and it tracked like an arrow. I've had frames from major manufacturers that didn't track this true, and it's a testament to your precise frame building. It's an accomplishment you should be proud of. -- R -- CA

The frames are all custom, base price is $1200 USD for your typical shaped bamboo frame with carbon lugs. It goes up from depending on how crazy you want to get with it. We take a $500 non-refundable deposit to start construction, the rest payable when the bike is completed. All the details of the design are worked out and submitted to the customer for approval before any money is taken.

We prefer to just build frames. The reason being that our bikes are totally custom, and we want you to have the parts on them that you want. Given that there are SO many options for parts, often it is easier for everyone if you build it yourself.

That being said, if you aren’t a person who wants to build your own bike or take it to a bike shop to do it, we are happy to work with you to figure out what parts to get and assemble it for you. When building a full bike we do ask for the cost of the parts up front as well as the $500 build deposit.

Six to eight weeks. Each bike takes about 40 hours to build (depending on the design), and we have five to six bikes in process at any given time.

Absolutely! If you know the geometry you want, or have a favorite bike that fits you well whose geometry you want us to duplicate, we will be happy to do it. If you just want a bike but don’t know what geometry you want, then we will help you figure it out.

Either way, every bike we build for a customer is totally unique, we don’t have stock bikes, stock designs, or stock geometries. Just shoot us an email if you have questions, we usually respond within a day or so.

Yes you can. We build frames with multiple top tubes, bent tubes, different colors of bamboo, carbon truss structures, all different styles. We can make a bike look earthy and unfinished, or sleek and industrial. Again, shoot us an email with your vision for your bike and we will be happy to work with you to make it happen.

Absolutely. They are safe to ride, safe to race on, safe to train on, they are as safe as any bike out there if not more so. We’ve been riding, racing, and testing out bikes for years. All bikes built by Valid Cycles are built to our own rigorous standards, are thoroughly tested, and comply with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s requirements for bicycles outlined in Title 16, part 1512 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

Most importantly, we would never let a bike leave our shop that we didn’t have the confidence to ride ourselves, everyone at Valid Cycles rides bikes built by Valid and loves them, we think you will too. However, anything built with natural materials is by nature a prototype. But, I trust my life to mine every day and don’t give it a second thought.

We’re happy to give direction and answer questions for aspiring builders. We don’t have any trade secrets or special patents; just a lot of experience and an eye for detail. If you’re in Seattle and want to get together, we love meeting new people, going for rides, sharing a pint and talking shop.