Hotspur and Bikehugger

Though Davidson Bicycles’ new Hotspur frame precipitated from Bill Davidson’s ideas on what a high performance bicycle should be, Bike Hugger provided the impetus to bring the idea to reality. Bike Hugger had previously worked with Bill on the Modal concept bike, based on some of my ideas about travel bikes. Setting aside the Modal’s unique features, Bill used Byron’s off-the-shelf race bike as starting point for the Modal’s geometry and then tweaked the geometry to improve the fit. Then a funny thing happened when Byron actually got to ride the bike. The Modal turned out to fit and perform better than Byron’s regular race bike.

Which begged the question: what would happen if Bill built Byron a bike designed for performance? This gave Bill the perfect opportunity to pull out some tricks that he’d been waiting to use … some subtle refinements on the titanium materials.

New chainstays, new top and down tubes, and different machining for the head tube stock. Above all, Bill wanted to build a new bike, but still offer customers a custom fit, durability, high performance, and a reasonable delivery time. The idea had been simmering for some time, but he doesn’t believe anyone should have to wait more than a couple months for a custom bike.

For the Hotspur Byron wanted a bike optimized for the type of racing he does most often, criteriums and rolling road races. Something along the lines of what the Dutch call a kermesse bike. A bike like that is typically a bit more relaxed than what would be considered an America-style criterium bike; a little more stability makes for surer footing on circuit races on poor or cobbled roads. Also, the kermesse bike is better for all-day training rides. This isn’t really a bike designed for Le Tour’s high mountain stages; it’s a bike designed for the roads we really ride.

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