Photo Gallery: Rob English

Page One
By Padraig 0
We were really wowed by this gravel race bike. The curved top tube gave it nice lines that were accentuated by the custom frame bag.

As a follow-up to my interview with Rob English, I’ve created a gallery of images from a couple of bikes he submitted for awards at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.

The tiny seatstays are a hallmark of English’s bikes. Even with no decals, I’d know one of his bikes from the thin seatstays.
As frame builder flexes go, clear-coating over fillet brazing ranks near the top. It’s not uncommon for a builder to use a little bondo or other putty to smooth out uneven fillets, Rob’s are remarkably consistent and don’t suffer the pitting that we sometimes see when heat hasn’t been controlled sufficiently.
There’s no faking a fillet-brazed bottom bracket. If his work wasn’t top-notch, it would show here.
This race travel tandem, or travel race tandem, was one of the more creative tandems we ever saw submitted for awards at NAHBS. His blending of steel and titanium gave the tandem a fresh look as well.
The two bolts under the top tube allow Rob to disassemble the tandem for travel. That Rob was able to ovalize the tubing so they fit perfectly was a marvel.
Rob’s design for the stoker’s bar mount allowed for both height and fore/aft adjustment.
The fillet brazing on this bike allowed for some very complicated joints that would have been difficult to achieve with lugs.
Rob used a triple to be able to run the timing chain on the drive side of the tandem.
What we found remarkable about the seat-tube cutout wasn’t that it existed, but that the arc of the cutout perfectly matched the curvature of the tire.
You can see how perfect the fit of the boom tube is, as well as how smooth his fillets are.
Padraig

When playing drums in a rock and roll band didn't turn at to be as lucrative as he'd hoped, Padraig left his hometown of Memphis to pursue an MFA in poetry at UMASS Amherst. Writing about his other love, bicycles, seemed a natural progression; certainly it paid better than either poetry or rock music. His work has appeared everywhere from Bicycling Magazine to the LA Times. His feature, "My Day With Ilya," won a Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing. These days he lives in Sonoma County, California, where he attempts to inspire his two demitasse ninja with the wonder of bikes. Favorites: flavor: maple; wine: Boheme Pinot Noir; beer: Russian River Pliny the Elder; neurochemical: dopamine; poetry: Andrew Hudgins; fiction: Thomas Pynchon; music: David Sylvian; comedy: Firesign Theater; event: 8-Hours of Wente.

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