Cyclist
Meet the maker: Enrico Bellé of Bellé
On the outskirts of Barcelona, not far from the cycling mecca of Girona, Enrico ‘Kiko’ Bellé’s workshop is perfectly placed to develop, build and test high-end bicycles. After getting a taste for metal while working as a farrier in the Italian Army, Bellé dabbled in artistic fabrication, precision welding and forging before deciding to combine his knack for metalwork with his love of bikes.
Since 2016, Bellé has been creating and selling bikes through his namesake brand, garnering attention from all around the world. His creations are stocked by some of Europe’s coolest boutique retailers, and his keep-it-simple approach to frame design ensures they remain elegant and relevant across the years.
‘For me, the bicycle is a simple tool,’ Bellé tells Cyclist. ‘My philosophy as a builder is that if something is not absolutely essential, I don’t include it in the design. The goal is to make the bicycle simple and easy to use.’
Bellé grew up riding BMX, mountain bikes and anything else that took his two-wheeled escapades away from the road. But later in life he developed a need for speed that can be seen in the racy angles of his beautifully crafted steel frames.
‘I would say that off-road cycling was my very first love,’ says Bellé. ‘Then I discovered the speed of road riding. These days I’m between gravel and road, but my bikes are always sporty. I mean, my gravel bike is not all that different to my road bike – it’s just adapted for bigger tyres.’
Bellé’s frames haven’t always been super-aggressive and race-ready. Before the Italian set up his own operation, he was building urban commuter bikes for a Spanish brand. He built his first prototype frame in 2010 and still has it hanging up on his wall. Being his framebuilding debut, the resulting bike was sadly unrideable, but it serves as a daily reminder to Bellé of the mistakes he made early on and how to avoid them. His second attempt was more successful – ‘the person who tested it is still alive today,’ he laughs – and since then he has been building frames and honing his skills every day.
‘I started with steel and a jig, and I’m still doing the same today,’ says Bellé. ‘In fact, I’m still using the same jig – I’ve even bought another exactly the same because it is absolutely precise. In that sense, I’m using almost the same technique I used at the beginning. I try not to compete with all the modern technology we have. I feel a simple, well-crafted steel frame is still an amazing buy today. So this is where I am, and where I feel I must stay for a while.’
Rough with the smooth
The GRAR (gravel/all-road) is Bellé’s go-anywhere, do-anything, mixed-surface machine. It’s designed for sharp but surefooted handling and has plenty of that sportiness its builder is so fond of.
‘It’s quite an open platform,’ says Bellé. ‘You can build it for racing or make it more bikepacking-oriented. It depends on what the customer needs.
‘This particular version of the GRAR was made for a customer who had already bought an adventure bike from me with bigger tyres and more relaxed geometry. Then he asked me to make another one that was more geared towards racing.
‘The geometry and riding position are the same as the customer’s road bike, just with more tyre clearance. It’s built specifically for 1x transmission to allow the rear end to be shorter. This makes it responsive, punchy and agile. But because I ride a lot, I also know gravel requires that little bit of stability on the front end. So the steering is nimble, but with enough stability to go fast. Because the faster you go on rough terrain, the more flow you have.’
Bellé’s sporty GRAR frame is constructed from a mix of Columbus’s stiffest tubing, HSS and Spirit, and is built up with a set of Enve GR23 wheels, Shimano GRX Di2 groupset, Easton EC90 1x chainset and Enve finishing kit.
‘It uses a Syntace X-12 dropout system too,’ says Bellé. ‘It’s a very clever setup because the hanger can be easily replaced on the go. This is a feature that I put on all of my gravel bikes. It’s also one of the lightest dropouts available – I always tend to choose the lightest and simplest component for the job.’
Finally, the bike is decorated with an attention-grabbing tri-coloured fluoro paintjob. The customer was inspired by the early ’90s music scene and wanted something evocative of that time.
For a Bellé frameset with a similarly rambunctious paintjob, you can expect to pay around £3,500. Not exactly chump change, but a price that may well be worth paying when you consider Bellé’s commitment to his craft. ‘I treat every bike I make as my own,’ Bellé says. ‘I love my bikes, and I care about my customers too. I think this is an important point because we build a human relationship throughout the development process, and to me that is very important.’
• This article originally appeared in issue 147 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe
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