Cyclist
Meet the maker: Bryce Gracey of No.22 Bicycle Company
You only have to glance at a No.22 bike to know that it’s the work of someone with a deep-seated understanding of aesthetics and proportion. Perfectly balanced, beautifully finished and with some of the cleanest lines in the business, No.22’s bicycles are influenced heavily by co-founder Bryce Gracey’s background in architecture.
‘It’s a very similar process,’ Gracey explains from the company’s facility in Upstate New York, USA. ‘You come up with an idea, then it’s a case of working out how to execute it. Typically in architecture every project is unique so there’s always a need to explore new technologies and systems to make a concept work. I think you can see this in some of the things we’re doing at No.22 that haven’t been done before.
‘It’s like: this is what we want to do, now let’s figure out how to get there. And really knowing how to collaborate with our team and different manufacturers to bring these ideas into reality is a big part of how we work.’
Gracey has been a bike fanatic since the late 1990s, around the same time he went to design school and did his masters in architecture. And while the bike took a back seat during his studies, his endeavours in cycling and design have been intertwined ever since.
This was what eventually led to the No.22 Bicycle Company, created by Gracey and co-founder Mike Smith in 2011 with a view to making the most of their favoured framebuilding material: titanium, atomic number 22 you see.
‘We’re always pushing the material forward,’ says Gracey. ‘I think when we started we were coming at it with an approach of combining artisan precision and contemporary performance, so we’d stand toe to toe with what was going on in carbon bikes. We wanted to do away with the stereotype that metal bikes were antiquated in comparison.
‘I mean, we had flat-mount disc brakes on our forks before Enve had even released its flat-mount forks, and we’re always exploring different technologies. This is what led to us working heavily with 3D printing. It has allowed us to develop our own internal cockpit system, our own dropouts – pretty much everything on our bikes now is bespoke to No.22. It’s either made by us or for us, and I think that has really set us apart.’
One of No.22’s proudest achievements is its fully integrated titanium cockpit system. By our reckoning this is one of only two such components in the industry (the other coming from UK builder Sturdy Cycles), and it can be seen proudly displayed on this Aurora road bike, put together by German custom-build expert Light Wolf Studio for Bespoked 2023.
The Aurora
‘I call the Aurora a nine-tenths race bike,’ says Gracey. ‘It’s still very performance-oriented but it’s going to be more comfortable than our all-out race bike, the Reactor, for all day in the saddle. It’s an incredibly well-handling bike, especially when it comes to going downhill and cornering at speed thanks to the longer wheelbase and stable front end.’
The Aurora’s frame composition combines Grade 9 titanium tubes with a carbon fibre seat tube. Gracey says the idea is to improve compliance by allowing the feel of the two titanium triangles to come through to the rider without creating too stiff a ride.
‘It sounds a little counterintuitive, but if the frame were all titanium it would feel overly stiff for standard road tyres,’ he says.
The seat tube is made from three layers of carbon fibre each placed at different angles. They’re layed up to provide the necessary combination of strength and flex for the seat tube, but also to enable the tube to resist the forces of the front derailleur clamp and No.22’s unique seatmast topper. Like the integrated cockpit, the seatmast topper is 3D printed.
‘It was a machined and welded part to begin with,’ explains Gracey. ‘Then we moved into investment casting before finally landing on 3D printing, which gives us more options and allows us to adapt very quickly. That’s the beauty of this technology.’
The bike also makes use of a complex finishing treatment that gives it its luscious pearlescent colour.
‘It’s an electrolytic process,’ says Gracey. ‘You’re running voltage through the material, which changes the way the outer crystalline layer of the titanium refracts light. There’s actually no pigment on the frame. It’s like seeing a rainbow in an oil puddle – it’s purely light refraction, which is unique to titanium and a couple of other alloys. It’s a really tricky process – part science, part dark art to get the colours to work.’
If you fancy adding an Aurora to your fleet, your first step is to drop Gracey a line. ‘People typically just reach out to us through the website and it’s usually myself and my partner Mike who help each customer through the process,’ Gracey says. ‘We figure nobody knows our bikes as well as we do, so we’re able to offer the best service to make sure people get exactly what they’re looking for.’
• This article originally appeared in issue 151 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe
The post Meet the maker: Bryce Gracey of No.22 Bicycle Company appeared first on Cyclist.