On this week’s show, my guest is framebuilder Todd Ingermanson who is part of a relatively rare set of artisans known for crafting nearly any sort of bike. While many builders base their business on mostly (or even exclusively) doing just one thing, such as road bikes, Ingermanson, under his label Black Cat Bicycles, has developed a reputation for building mountain bikes, road bikes, gravel bikes and even touring bikes.
Ingermanson is also unusual in that he fillet brazes almost all of his frames.
In 2016 Black Cat won best in show at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show with a 27 plus bikepacking mountain bike. Made for the owner of Bedrock Bags, a company that makes bags for bicycles, the frame was built with a series of brazeons by which the bags were attached, rather than Velcro straps. The look this gave the bike was clean and impressive and allowed Ingermanson’s paint job to show through better.
Black Cat is based in Aptos, placing him near a surprisingly high concentration of builders located in the Santa Cruz area.
Podcast (thepull): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:40 — 49.1MB)
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To learn more visit blackcatbicycles.com
Image of Ingermanson holding the Elvis trophy courtesy Bedrock Bags.