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#1
03-25-2017, 07:37 PM
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I was told I have to introduce us.....Enigma Bicycle Works
So I've been on here off and on for years and never 'pushed' the companies I worked for cause it's not cool to do. I have helped out with different things like posting prototype Thomson stuff or helping with Lezyne pump problems. Well, I went and did it. I bought an ad square up top. So Keith says I have to do an introduction now.
Enigma Bicycle Works is a manufacturer of steel, stainless steel and titanium frames. We are based about 50 miles southeast of London in East Sussex. It's an 11 year old company who got started kind of oddly. The founder, Jim Walker owned iRide, a distributor in the UK. He decided to sell it to a couple of employees and retire. Well, retirement lasted for a couple months. He wasn't done yet. He spoke with Mark Reilly, a custom frame builder who owned Omega in the UK. Jim and Mark formed Enigma in 2006. They went on to build a stellar reputation for steel and titanium in Europe. There are numerous reviews out there from Pedal, Road Cycling UK, Cycling Weekly, Bicycling Australia, Road and many many more. Our Enigma Elite HSS was just reviewed and featured on the cover of the May 2017, 'Euro Edition' of Road Bike Action Magazine- on newsstands now! As things picked up, they wanted to showcase the people who are really keeping cycling and handmade bikes alive. So they produced the book, '73 Degrees' It highlights builders like Richard Sachs, Pegoretti, Seven, IF, Crisp, Baum and more. With wonderful photos and great text from the builders, it allows fans of handmade bikes and of these builders to get inside the builders thoughts and processes. While it's a single volume right now, I am hoping to convince Enigma HQ into a second and third volume- one of only carbon builders and one of just US builders. In 2013 they expanded to Australia and in 2016 to North America. Which is where I come in. After working for some incredible companies in the past, I got burned one to many times- many of you know by who! And I had been speaking for about 3 years to Jim because I loved the bikes and how clean they are. Having wanted one myself for years. And the timing finally became right for both of us. Interbike marked our first showing of Enigma in North America. We had a tremendous response from everyone including people like Pez Cycling News, BikeHugger, Road Bike Action, Gravel Cyclist, CX Magazine, Handbuilt Bicycle Guide and more. Which led us to NAHBS Salt Lake City. We brought out 9 bikes- one in the Reynolds booth, one in the FSA booth, a frame in an Anvil FrameWorks jig and 7 in our booth. One of which took home The Presidents Choice Award- the Enigma Exemplar. The bike at the show is my personal bike. We did come close on a couple other awards and I know what dinged us so it's off to the workshop for NAHBS Hartford 2018. Looking forward to bringing home some more awards. We make about 700 frames a year. We do all of our finish work in-house. Whether it's a polished or brushed titanium frame or a Gulf Racing inspired paint scheme, it's done in our East Sussex facility. Joe Walker, the founders son is our lead welder and does most of the titanium frames. We even have a frame building course for those who want to try their hand with a torch. I'm happy to answer questions about Enigma and what we do differently. I'm not really here to push frames or anything. So you won't be seeing that. I've just been say "us" for awhile and people have asked who "us" was. So I figured it was time and a good way to support the site. Last edited by sales guy; 03-25-2017 at 07:55 PM. 
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#3
03-25-2017, 07:54 PM
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The mods and rules say not to be posting stuff about your brand unless you have bought ad space. And i get that. I am fine with that rule.
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#4
03-25-2017, 08:06 PM
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And once you have ad space you have to post about your brand. So...let's see those bikes! How did that fendered bike come out in the end?
Thanks for supporting the forum.
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#7
03-26-2017, 07:56 AM
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It's actually the crankset, front and rear derailleurs, shifter/brake levers and even the headset spacers got a blue clearcoat. Add into it the enve rims. Lots of time masking off components.
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#8
03-26-2017, 08:01 AM
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I will post more. Have to change them to fit. The fender bike was awesome. It made it to the final four round for commuter. I was super proud of that. I really wanted a bike I personally would buy or ride and it was excellent. Shin-Ichi from Cherubim was next to us at the show and walked over to it and said it was beautiful. I was like ?!?!?!? Really? So that was a massive thank you. We made to the final four on best finish as well with the American Jack paint scheme. It has real 24kt gold leaf on it. The paint job took almost 3 months given all the masking and the gold leaf application
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#9
03-26-2017, 08:06 AM
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Several frames say "designed and finished in the UK" where are they actually welded?
Nice bikes I tried to buy one a couple of years ago. but no shipping to the US then. Jeff
__________________
Sonder MTB, Planet X Ti Gravel, Seven Ti, Lynskey Ti Last edited by sokyroadie; 03-26-2017 at 08:08 AM.
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#10
03-26-2017, 10:25 AM
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We make most of our frames in the UK. We do offer some Asian made frames tho. Main reason, we don't have enough welders. We are training some but that takes time to get people up to speed. So something like the Etape frame. That is made in Asia. But if you want something other than a stock size, it would be made in the UK. We've also had people specify they would like a UK made frame which we can absolutely do for people. Even in stock sizes. But it takes longer is all. So anything custom geometry is UK made. Anything that is part of the Signature Collection is UK made. Everything get finished in the UK. Braze ons, rack and fender mounts. Water bottle mounts. Cable guides/stops and adjuster barrel mounts. All of those things are done in the UK on even the Asian made frames. So there is a ton of time put on the Asian made frames in the UK. A couple years ago we moved into a bigger facility to make space for more people including welders. It's just a slow process to train people up is the problem. We are working towards 100% made in the UK. We are actually making two new models that will be made in the UK and dropping a couple of Asian made frames. Those will be announced in April. So we're getting closer. As for shipping to the States, obviously that's fixed now. That was one of the hurdles as to why we didn't do something before last year. I was all set, but things were not squared away with the insurance and everything in England. There was also another issue which has since moved on. So everything fell into place last year. Last edited by sales guy; 03-26-2017 at 10:28 AM.
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#12
03-26-2017, 10:37 AM
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The paint looks excellent on all of these. I really love the blue campy equipped bike, did that take the campy award?
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http://arcycles.weebly.com/
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#13
03-26-2017, 11:26 AM
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I like those colors.... blue candy over silver??? Awesome!
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#14
03-26-2017, 11:27 AM
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NO, we were not angry in the picture. What happened was the lights were kicking off at different times. And the photographer was talking to us. We didn't know he was taking the pictures cause he was telling us about the lights. In the end, it looked like we were pissed and all but we weren't. We were actually joking around right before it and we were just waiting for the whole 'Smile now" command.
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#15
03-26-2017, 11:31 AM
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LOL!!! Oddly, no. We didn't take the Campy Award. And the whole reason....it had Enve Wheels on it. We were old you can enter it without Campy wheels. So I did. But in the end, that is the reason we didn't win. I was told by someone who will remain nameless that the only reason we didn't win was the wheels. Other than that, they wanted to give us top prize. We did take the Campy Build Award at the BeSpoke Bristol show last year for that bike. Oh well. We are working on something special for next year and it will have Campy Wheels for sure!! We actually missed out on another award. All cause of the tires we had on the bike. They were too narrow. That was crazy. All of these were pained in-house by our guys. They do an incredible job with finishes. Last edited by sales guy; 03-26-2017 at 11:37 AM.
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