Hampsten Cycles

[hampco]

Steve, thank you for getting Smoked Out. I've had the good luck to meet you and always enjoy your style as reflected in your company and here on the salon.

I have a pseudo-question that may be more musing than asking. It seems to me that from the content and photography on hampsten.com to the Strada Bianca to the rest of the fendered brilliance, there's as much Seattle/Northwest "aesthetic" to what you do as there is anything else. Is this my locally-colored glasses at work? Or is this northern clime, utilitarian component of your company intentional?

Andy and I both being midwestern boys - from North Dakota, no less - and given that Seattle strikes many as a very midwestern city, I'd say it's no coincidence that our bikes reflect both ours and the local aesthetic. And pretty early on in the course of our company's history, while Andy wanted the Strada Bianca to be a great dirt-road bike - with the necessary clearances - I wanted that model to work well as a fendered bicycle for rainy climes such as ours, thus our ensuing fanatical attention to bridge heights and chainstay clearance.

Steve,

here's the first of many questions. Every Hampco or Tsol that leaves your shop seems to be set up perfect. Paint and graphics as well as the component selection and lines all look super refined. Please pass some wisdom along how you keep your styling tight and focused, and how you influence the choices the client gets to make to have the end result look the way it does. Thanks

Maybe a weird confluence of BikeCAD and good taste both on my part and that of my customers? I suppose there is a look that I'm shooting for and my assumption is that most customers want that look. 'Zat make sense?

Steve - Can you go into a little detail on who makes up Hampsten and who does what? I know there's you, wearer of many hats, but who else is on the team, what are their jobs, etc? Also, who dishes your delicious paint and what are your rules for such, i.e., how much input do you allow the customer? I ask this because all your bikes seem to follow a classic scheme and you appear to not fall prey to paint jobs that look like dayglo Nikes covered in hangover or 15 color fades and some folks just can't seem to help themselves. What's your secret?

Brief answer is: exercise control, don't be a afraid to edit and make suggestions, sometimes ya gotta say no. And sometimes things still go horribly awry. But the other side of the coin is that I know our design, craftsmanship, construction and materials on each frame are top-notch - almost can't be beat. And I love our graphics, having them designed by Paul Barnes was a huge coup and really stepped up the overall look of our bikes. To pile on a fancy, over-the-top paint job would simply detract from what I want the focus to be: a perfect frame with great graphics.

The long answer (from our website) is:

Steve Hampsten works with customers on fitting and design, orders/ships, pays bills, wrangles animals, and does all the other stuff.

Chase Blanton wrenches, assembles, and builds wheels.

Martin Tweedy has been building lugged steel bicycle frames since 1996 when he took the two-week Framebuilding course at UBI. Martin and Steve worked together at match bicycle company in 1997-98 and have worked together on Hampsten Cycles since 1999. While at match, Martin built frames for Schwinn Paramount, Rivendell, and Beckman as well as the first few runs for Hampsten Cycles; Martin also worked for Dave Levy at Ti Cycles for two years after match closed. Mr. Tweedy builds all of our lugged frames and brazed forks.

Max Kullaway works full-time fabricating and welding our in-house-built steel, stainless, and titanium frames and helps with design and planning. Max started with bicycles in 1993 at Rhygin, followed by Merlin for three years, then an eight-year stint welding at Seven Cycles. Upon moving to Seattle in 2005, Max has worked for Davidson Cycles, Gulassa & Co., and has a partnership (with Bernard Georges) called 333fab.

Paint is by Russ at Air Art in Chico, CA.

All photography by Michael Matisse

Website design and admin by Martin Fernandez at Fresco Designs

Andy’s day job – Cinghiale Cycling Tours – is where we go to relax and have fun in Italy.

Andy here's an old rant, touching on paint colors:

Here's an old post from a couple of years ago - these things get buried and with all the new orders coming in this month I'd like to draw a little bit of attention to my need to be controlling and to cement my reputation as "The Bike Company of No".

Enjoy.

Working with a customer on a new frame can be a balancing act: will the customer accept the type of frame or whole bike we like to do or will they want something different? Will they "get" it? Will I understand what the customer wants? Our ideas change, the market changes, and what our builders are willing to do can change. With these points in mind:

Paint: we like single color paint jobs. We like the lug cutouts - if we're using lugs - to be filled a contrasting color. We're loving panels less and less as time goes by: hey, we'll do it if you ask but we're not wild about that look for Hampsten and Tournesol. And we don't offer lug striping, we eschew fades and purple, and Team 7-Eleven paint is the only multi-color scheme we're liking these days.

We don't offer chrome or nickel plating of frames nor do we polish stainless - sorry. We don't offer custom carved lugs: Sachs "Rene Singer" is standard for Tournesol; "Issimo" for Team Pro. Peter Weigle, Curt Goodrich, and Sacha White are good sources for frames with carved lugs if you can deal with the wait.

We've pretty much given up on shaped tubing (Columbus MAX being the exception) and carbon rears.

Like our decals? Great, 'cause that's what we use and we have plenty of nice versions to chose from. We don't make custom decals and we prefer to not use yours. We'll put your name on the top tube if you kick and scream, maybe. Decals on head, down, and seat tube generally.

Boy, this makes me sound like a grump - sorry to be so negative but I've had a few cases over the years where I wish I had laid all this out before we started talking. Some builders ask you what you want and try to build it for you. Others say: "This is what we do. We build great bikes and if you can work within our parameters then we have a deal."

We're the second type of builder. We have a vision and we want customers who understand that vision. There is nothing wrong with wanting something else, whether that be shiny lugs, purple-to-gold fade, or carbon chainstays; we're just not going to be the builder you want in that case.

Hey, thanks for reading!