Vendetta Cycles
NAHBS Booth: #810
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Vendetta Cycles believes in producing something tangible, something personal. We started building bicycles because we loved bicycles, but over the years we discovered that it is now the connections we make with people that keep us motivated.

A custom bicycle is a very personal thing – designed to fit your body, perform best when ridden the way you ride, and speak to your aesthetic taste.   When the builder listens carefully and delivers a perfectly integrated machine and experience, the resulting feelings of both the customer and the builder are hard to describe.  It’s a beautiful feeling, though, and creating bicycles gives us the opportunity to share that feeling.

Exhibitor Products:
Maggie’s All-Rounder:

Columbus Zona tubing with Henry James lugs and fork crown.  Built with Campy Chorus 11spd, White Industries hubs, Chris King headset and hand-built wheels all finished off with a stunning combination of purple metallic and mint liquid paint.

The S&S couplers, fenders and and wide-range gearing will ensure there won’t be anywhere that Maggie can’t go with her new Vendetta all-rounder during her travels.

Dark Soul – A Concerto:

Mysterious and subtle at a distance Dark Soul reveals more of its character the closer you get. Built using Columbus SFL main tubes, curvy stays and a rich assortment of Campagnolo, White Industries and Chris King components this bike features distinctive details like the polished stainless steel head badge and fork crown.

The paint is black with a purple HOK ice pearl glass and purple passion accents that give it a touch of royalty. Custom painted logos add to the final effect.  It’s a very difficult bike to photograph.  The purple glass over the black paint doesn’t show up very well in images but it does look spectacular in real life.

Ice, Ice Baby:

Luscious ice blue paint and Columbus double-oversize tubes create a modern frame with classic road bike design. Custom touches include the wishbone rear stay with our “Vendetta Flute” attachment. Quick and agile this frameset will serve its new owner for many, many miles.

Contrasting the new Chris King Campy hubs and existing headset the ice-blue metallic paint is based on a mid-60′s Ferrari light-blue metallic used on sports cars from that era.

Paul’s Classic Road Bike:

We delivered Paul’s bike approximately two years ago.  This past summer he was, unfortunately, hit by a car and suffered mild injuries.

During the accident his bike was scraped in a couple of areas so we’ll be touching it up over the winter.

His parents dropped it off to me around Thanksgiving and since it was available I thought it was a good idea to snap a few pics of how our bikes look after being ridden in real-world conditions.

We used 1/8″ diameter brass pins rather than our normal 1/16″ diameter stainless pins.  The larger brass pins really make a statement.

English Racer:

This classically styled bike is heading to a classic part of the world – London. Its new owner assures me that riding in the English countryside includes Surrey and Box Hill, home of the Olympic Road Race.

The Campagnolo 10-speed alloy grouppo and modern CK hubs and headset along with hand-built wheels and leather accouterments will all assist in this effort.

The game is afoot.

Cindy’s Road Bike – The Abyss:

Cindy wanted her bike to look like the ocean. Blues and greens inter-playing against one another mimicking the abyss of the sea. Of course looks aren’t everything and the bike itself is built with Columbus tubes, polished stainless steel lugs, stem and fork crown and features a geometry good for all day riding.

A mixture of Campagnolo 10spd components, hand—built wheels and then finished with parts from White Industries and Chris King create the final bike.

Award Entries:
The Abyss (Entry for: Best lugged frame):
There is much more than meets the eye on Cindy's bike. It is constructed entirely of Columbus tubing, but is a special mix for this particular customer. We have chosen Spirit tubes for their thin cross sections that reduce weight and soften the ride for this lightweight rider. Additionally, we’ve chosen a thicker Zona down tube to provide high torsional rigidity for the critical bottom bracket-to-stem loads when Cindy is out of the saddle, as she often is. The double-taper SL seat stays provide an elegant and functional treatment that slightly decrease rear stiffness on a bike designed for all-day riding.

The mating of polished stainless steel lugs and fork crown to the Columbus tubes evoke a classic Italian road bike design but the new metallurgical alloys and silver-brazing technique ensure a thoroughly modern ride.

Then there is the part of Cindy’s bike that does meet the eye. She wanted her bike to look like the ocean, blues and greens inter-playing against one another mimicking the abyss of the sea. The custom-mix candy blue paint achieves this with a metallic gold base coat and multiple layers of transparent blue all beautifully finished by Eric Dungey at Colorworks Bicycle Painting.

The finished bicycle is completed using a mixture of Campagnolo 10spd components, hand-built wheels and parts from White Industries and Chris King to create a functional, durable, and beautiful bicycle.
Pre-V (Entry for: Best finish):
There are many items that collectors like to collect. Bicycles, cars, cameras, and watches are a few that come readily to mind. In the collectible watch world there are a few items that conjure visions of desire amongst the Paneristi any more than the Pre-Vendome or Pre-V Panerai watches.

This city/commuter bike is being built for a client in NYC that also happens to be a watch collector with a particular penchant for Panerai watches. We've taken cues from the coveted Pre-V watches that include carving the distinctive Panerai crown guard into the seat lug along with additional carving to mimic the case design. The lugs and fork crown are polished to a mirror finish just like the Panerai cases from that era.

The matte finish by Eric Dungey of Colorworks Bicycle Painting is a masterpiece of simple elegance. The black matte paint conveys the tone of the black dials used in the early watches and the cream and gold decals pay homage to the radioactive tritium used for the Arabic numerals. Additionally the decals are "buried" under the clear which means the bike was painted, had decals applied and then cleared and sanded to achieve the final matte color. This technique is difficult and time consuming and is something that is rarely if ever done on matte finishes.

The frame itself is silver-brazed using Columbus SFL tubing and designed for an upright, tooling-around-town riding experience. The build will feature a Shimano Alfine 11spd drivetrain finished with various components from Paul Engineering and Chris King along with hand-built wheels.