Last weekend we visited the handmade bicycle show in Bristol, Bespoked 2018 and also had a studio tour from our friends at Purple Patch Workshop.

Purple Patch Workshop

Purple Patch Workshop creates beautifully crafted handmade cycle rucksacks, panniers and tool rolls. Their workshop is in Bristol city centre where they design and make luggage using a mixture of natural fabrics including waxed cotton, canvas and leather.

Image: Tom Parsons

Their ethos is to produce functional luggage that is minimal in design, rugged and functional that gets better with age. All their products are made in-house by Jacob and Josh using a collection of antique industrial sewing machines.

Image: Tom Parsons

We love their products and even use their tool rolls on our own personal road bikes. Their bags are minimal in design but can adapt to suit your lifestyle and environment. The range is perfect for casual wear but equally suitable for the daily commute and work.

Image: Purple Patch Workshop

We then visited the Bespoked handmade bicycle show to meet some incredibly impressive shed warriors, expert fettlers and garage inventors. Bespoked is a celebration of the independent makers of custom bicycles, components and apparel. We have put together a collection of the makers that we believe are bringing true innovation and ingenuity to the handmade community.

Flight Rider Bags

The Flight Rider bag is more than just a pannier. Each pannier unfolds to form the two halves of a fabric flight case, which you then zip together to take your bike on the plane. When you get to your destination, there's no heavy flight box to carry around on your touring holiday. We lingered to get the full demonstration from the founder and his enthusiasm for his product and the show was clear!Image: Cycling UK

Robot Bike

Robot bike was there to launch their new hardtail cross country bike, the R-ZERO. Similar style to its big brother full suspension bike, the R-ZERO uses 3D printed titanium lugs to link carbon fibre tubes making a lightweight, stiff and futuristic take on the cutom bike.

Sven Cycles

Sven Cycles showed their new longtail cargo bike. The steel workhorse has fat tyres, a pinion gearbox drivetrain, a dynamo for lighting and integral panniers capable of taking your kitesurf gear to the beach as demonstrated here.

Enviable paintwork everywhere

Custom paint plays a big part at Bespoked every year with lovingly hand painted examples littered across the show. This matte multicolour effect was from Filament cycles. Colourburn Studio was also there showing their incredible painted creations.

Moskito Watch

We loved the clean heritage form from Swiss watch brand Moskito. For their first product, they have taken the function from a Garmin and simplicity of an analogue timepiece to create a timeless smartwatch. We loved the simple button UX switching it from timepiece to speedometer. One of the small dials also gives you text/ call alerts but don't expect a digital display here, analogue dials only. You can also unclip it from your bike and attach a wrist strap when you get to work.

Rideworks

Great to see some UK CNC component manufacturers thriving like Rideworks, founded by Paul, a machinist by trade and giving the big guys a run for their money! Rideworks showed a growing range of anodised CNC, lightweight aluminium components in a bunch of colourways from understated to the brightest bling.See you next year!