Hasta La Ideas

It seems like just yesterday I was commenting on the seasonal influx of urban cyclists riding both for business and for pleasure. Oh wait, it was just yesterday that I mused on the topic du jour (or of the week, as it were), and apparently I’m not the only one: local framebuilder Thomas Callahan is stepping up to the task of supplying savvy Brooklynites with handcrafted bicycles at a reasonable price.

Photo by Michael Rubenstein

I’ve known Callahan of Horse Cycles for a couple years now, ever since he hosted the afterparty for the first annual New Amsterdam Bicycle Show; his booth at last year’s show was a standout (no word on whether the show is returning this year). I’ve made a point of peeking into his shop in South Williamsburg from time to time since then, and it seems like he’s always juggling a constellation of new projects alongside his bread and butter of building beautiful bicycles.

For the past few decades, a custom bicycle was the sort of luxury that only a select subset of cyclists would even consider, and most modern-day commuters are still content to stick with off-the-shelf offerings from industry giants (no pun intended). But with a growing market for discerning riders looking to upgrade to something a little nicer, Callahan hopes to meet them halfway with a line of Made-in-Brooklyn production bicycles. Where Detroit’s Shinola has the deep-ish pockets to put some marketing muscle behind their launch, Callahan’s turned to good, old-fashioned crowdsourcing to launch the Urban Tour Project:

We had the chance to interview the sometime artist and jack-of-all-trades on the occasion of the Kickstarter campaign:

Core77: What inspired you to launch the Urban Tour project? I imagine you’ve seen increased demand for touring/townie bicycles?

Thomas Callahan: Yes, I have seen an increase in the demand for touring bikes and townies—or just a bike that is versatile. More people are riding more of the year. They’re looking for something they can run fenders on and racks, both for touring or just the commute into the city. The train ride into the city from Brooklyn is getting crazy and I think people realize they can actually enjoy their morning commute on a bicycle and often reduce their commute time [in the process].

Also, a lot of people want a single bike that they can commute and also tour on. Obviously, people log more miles on the commuting side, but to have something that can handle the occasional tour is great. The bike is set up specifically for this—the geometry is a little more snappy that your average touring frame to give you the performance you need in an urban environment.

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