A Devon Step Through

This step through tourer was one of the bikes I showed at Bespoked Manchester 2025.

It’s a bit of a sleeper of a bike, subtle in many ways: from the satin powdercoat to the classical form and low cost, simple parts.

It’s made from Reynolds tubing, and was built for my neighbour who will use it to roll her way across Devon carrying produce from her small holding to her home, and on tours across Europe. She was looking for an easy to ride bike – something stable, easy to mount and dismount, something to carry loads safely.

I love building step through bikes, because they’re so fun to live with, and have so much scope for experimental approaches beyond the beautiful tyranny of the double diamond frame. I made a cute sleeve for the secondary seat stays (Bilaterals? Mixte tubes? Do those have a proper name?). Then there’s the steering lock. This is a stainless pin that is guided on a keyway into a reinforced hole in the steerer. A spring pushes it out. This keeps the front wheel from flopping around when the bike is up on the kickstand and you’re loading the front rack up. Curvy braces for the disk mount are fun, and you can kinda see where the dynamo cable heads into the rear rack.

There are things a mass produced bike will probably never have, care taken over a detail, a personal touch added for that one specific human whose bike it is. I love handmade things, and it’s become a foundational part of me, a core belief.