Calfee Design

Calfee Introduces the Manta, New Model, RBA Exclusive First Ride

Sales — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:24:53 +0000

We debuted our new frame model, named “Manta”, at the 2013 Sea Otter Classic this last weekend. Click here to review Manta Pro (road) frame geometry. We promised the first ride to Neil Shirley, Assistant Editor at Road Bike Action. He’s the perfect pilot for our prototype; pro-peloton fast and lucky enough to pedal every frame made. He took the Manta out on Thursday, Friday and again on Sunday. How did we do? What does it look like all finished up? Did he like it? Make certain to enjoy the complete feature, here; http://www.roadbikeaction.com/Features/content/313/6676/Calfee-Unveils-New-Suspension-Manta.html

BikeRumor.com Discovers Prototype Calfee Ahead of Sea Otter; Comprehensive First Look

Sales — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:53:01 +0000

Tyler from BikeRumor visited Calfee HQ on his way to the 2013 Sea Otter Classic. His timing was serendipitous as he stumbled upon a cache of show bikes including a prototype of our new frame model. He writes, “Poking around a company’s manufacturing plant almost always yields a few peeks at what’s in the pipeline, and my tour of Calfee’s factory didn’t disappoint. A full factory tour will be posted after Sea Otter’s put to bed, but this new bike just couldn’t wait! This is a prototype (albeit a rideable, pretty finished version) of a new frame that’ll be available in Pro (road), Adventure (gravel/endurance) and Cyclocross build options. Craig Calfee says it’s the first time in 20 years he’s been able to take all they’ve learned from so many years of developing their systems and molds and tooling and start with a complete clean sheet, and he seemed pretty excited telling the story…” Enjoy the complete feature here.

Paved Magazine Makes a House Call; Calfee Design Factory Tour and Photo Essay

Sales — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:40:17 +0000

Kevin Rouse, Senior Editor at Paved Magazine, dropped by the Calfee Design workshop in March, 2013; during his tour, he collected some great pictures. He writes, “This is where all of Calfee’s lugged carbon creations come together. Calfee wasn’t worried about any picture taking here—their production methods were already patented decades ago—one of the benefits of being one of the first to the carbon game.” Enjoy the photo essay here.

Paved Magazine Swoons Over 14 Pound Dragonfly Pro with SuperClean Front End

calfeeD — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:37:37 +0000

The editorial team at Paved recently took delivery of the Dragonfly we featured this year at NAHBS. They were smitten; they told us we’d have to send cops to get the bike(s) back. Kevin writes, “I’m sorry. Why? For a lot of reasons, frankly, but mostly for the dirty things I’d like to do to this bike…the Dragonfly Pro does something to me that most other bikes can’t even come close to matching.” Intrigued? Consider this technical build detail. Enjoy the complete article here.

Updated Complete Coverage; Calfee Dragonfly Adventure Project Gravel Bike for RBA; Bike Review, Race Review and Video

Sales — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 19:15:21 +0000

Earlier this year, Zap and Neil at Road Bike Action asked us to build the frame module, a Calfee Adventure, for a gravel road race project bike. The challenge; build a bike that Neil (recently retired top domestic pro) could race to victory in a grueling gravel road race. RBA’s October issue landed and here is a link to the 10 page feature. Here is a link to complete online coverage of the bike, rider and race. The results are in; Neil won the King of the Mountains competition and second overall in Crusher in the Tushar aboard this Dragonfly Adventure. Our Dragonfly with Adventure frame options proved the “perfect” bicycle for the rigorous event. This video captures Neil and the balance of the Pro field throughout the difficult day; rain, gravel, altitude…

Cycle Sport; Craig Calfee and Greg LeMond at the Head of Affairs in 1991

Sales — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 20:39:02 +0000

This extremely comprehensive feature tells an interesting and important story that you are sure to enjoy, it begins; “In 1991, Greg LeMond was searching for a bike fast enough to keep him at the very pinnacle of professional bike racing. Craig Calfee was busy forging a quiet revolution in carbon construction. Together they changed the face of cycling.” This publication generally does not devote resource to features about bike builders and manufacturers; we’re honored that they chose to tell this special story. Enjoy the complete article here.

18.5k Miles on Calfee Bamboo

Sales — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:36:50 +0000

On July 4, 2010, Joost Notenboom and Michiel Roodenburg, began a 20 month bicycle journey from Deadhorse in northern Alaska to the Antarctic Peninsula south of Ushuaia. Their mission was to take one bottle of icy Alaskan water from the Beaufort Sea down to the seas around Antarctica in a symbolic effort to complete the natural water cycle and raise awareness for the global water crisis that is leaving over 1 billion people around the world without access to safe and clean drinking water.

This incredible adventure took them through sixteen countries and across roughly 30.000 km of paved and unpaved roads, mountain passes, and dirt tracks. The trip started above the Arctic Circle and other regions along the way included the Alaskan and Canadian wilderness, the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the desert areas of Baja, the rainforests of Central and South America, the Andes highlands of Peru and Bolivia, the steppes of Patagonia, and the ice sheets of Antarctica.

To make this an even greater challenge, Cycle for Water was the first ever attempt to do all this by cycling the entire route on bamboo bicycles. This was a critical component towards minimizing the team’s carbon footprint and to demonstrate that many challenges can be overcome by using sustainable solutions.

We received this email from the Cycle for Water team on March 30, 2012. In their own words;

“Twenty months ago, me and my buddy Joost started cycling from Alaska, going south on two of your bamboo bicycles. I’m very happy to report that we made it to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the America’s after a 12.000 mile trip. It was the first successful cycling expedition from Alaska to Argentina on bamboo bicycles!

The bamboo bicycles performed perfectly and after putting in the bamboo spokes at your workshop, did not have any problems with broken spokes whatsoever.

One of the things we learned on this trip was the importance of teamwork; not only the two of us working together, but also all the people and organizations that supported us along the way. In short, we couldn’t have done it without you and the bamboo bicycles. The bikes created so much attention and together with our mission to raise awareness for the global water crisis, which is leaving 1 billion people on this earth without access to clean drinking water, we were able to get a lot of press and media interested. Our highlight: 6 interviews with CNN.

Along the way we spoke at many schools, universities and companies. And the bamboo bicycles were always in the center of attention.

Long distance bicycle touring on bamboo bicycles is not a very common thing, but I hope we inspired some people to choose bamboo.

Last cool thing I wanted to mention; we actually took one of the bikes with us to Antarctica where we cycled a couple of miles on the ice. We think this might be the first time a Calfee Design/bamboo bicycle made it to the icy continent, the last true wilderness on earth.

Thanks again for all your support and the great bicycles, of course. They are truly pieces of art, but very functional at the same time.

Kind regards,

Joost and Michiel

www.cycleforwater.com

PS; find attached a couple of pictures of us and the bamboo bikes!

NAHBS 2012 Press Highlights

Sales — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:33:00 +0000

Road Bike Action, video: Zap, venerable editor of RBA, stopped by the Calfee booth at NAHBS 2012 bright and early Friday morning; he grabbed Mike for a quick product update. Mike described the new SuperClean front end and PowerPost on our 2012 show Dragonfly as well as our Lemond inspired Calfee Adventure with dual discs, integrated front lighting, Ultegra Di2, PowerPost and more. Those were only two of the eight bikes we displayed at the show. More to come on the balance of the bikes. ENJOY THE VIDEO HERE

MTBR, video: The founder of MTBR caught up with Craig Calfee at the show and shot this great video; they were fascinated with our newest tandem model; Tetra 29er. This no-compromise adventure tandem weighs just over 30 pounds, features electronic shifting and is ready to accept any tire you choose; imagine a rail-trail tour or a gravel road race with 35c tires. ENJOY THE VIDEO HERE.

Bike Rumor, photo essay: Tyler from Bike Rumor spent a good amount of time in our booth at NAHBS; he walked away with some great photos and product details. His photo of our brand-new SuperClean front end goes a long way towards explaining this new module; enhanced form and function for your electronic drive train equipped bike. ENJOY THE PHOTO ESSAY HERE.

Bike Radar and Cycling News, photo essay: James Huang from Bike Radar and Cycling News spent some time in our booth at the show. He managed to photograph just about every bike we brought; he did a great job capturing the key features of our Dragonfly with PowerPost and SuperClean front end. You’ll find a beautiful bamboo tandem in the mix; that sled featured a Rohloff hub, dual belt drive, dual discs, generator front hub, a special font for the logo and tons of red anodized highlights. ENJOY THE PHOTO ESSAY HERE.

Velo, photo essay: We are very excited about this demo Calfee Adventure dual disc with our PowerPost and our Internal Battery and Wiring System for Ultegra Di2; we collaborated with Nick Legan, Tech Editor at Velo, to create this machine. We discovered Nick is a gravel road enthusiast and approached him with this opportunity. He’ll shortly take delivery of the machine; he’ll ride it for a spell. We can’t wait for him to share his thoughts. He also noticed and featured our new SuperClean front end; that module deserves more space. Look for further mentions and details very shortly. ENJOY THE PHOTO ESSAY HERE.

Los Angeles Times, article: Handmade bicycles earn a mention in the LAT; we’re increasingly busy and so it seems are our fellow boutique, domestic bicycle builders. ENJOY THE ARTICLE HERE.

Road Bike Action, article: The editorial gang at Road Bike Action showered us with some pre-NAHBS love. They justify their enthusiasm for Calfee Design with a Top Five reason list. ENJOY THE ARTICLE HERE.

Bicycle Quarterly Reviews Calfee Tetra Adventure

Sales — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:41:53 +0000

When we launched our “Adventure” frame model in 2011, we immediately turned to Jan Heine, Editor of Bicycle Quarterly, and asked if he’d like to take it for a ride. He expressed interest and we delivered a Tetra Adventure. Months later, he published his review. He writes, “For racing, weekend rides of supported events, the Calfee’s exhilarating speed is on part with the best bikes I have ridden. Perhaps even more important, the bike felt good at all speeds and effort levels. With its quality construction and assembly, the Calfee was a bike that always felt on my side, ready to bring out the best in the rider.” Enjoy the complete article here.

2012 Velo Buyer’s Guide; Craig Calfee Named One of Cycling’s Seven Most Inventive Thinkers

Sales — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:56:43 +0000

2012 Velo Buyers Guide; they honor Craig in their “Creators” feature highlighting “7 of cycling’s most inventive thinkers”. Brian Holcombe writes, “He was the first to supply an entire team with carbon bikes at the Tour de France and is currently leading the industry with his incorporation of electronics into modern frames…” They also selected our Dragonfly to feature in the Custom Road category; a total of 81 bikes were chosen for the entire 2012 Buyers Guide and only 6 were chosen for the “Custom Road” category. Enjoy the complete article here.