Tour of SPEEDVAGEN / The Vanilla Workshop

"OUR DESIGN PHILOSOPHY IN A WORD: BALANCE." - speedvagen.com
"Look closely: every curve and line of the Speedvagen frame is designed to look and work perfectly together. The headtube, for example, is shaped perfectly to pair with the lines of the Enve Composites fork, smoothly transitioning from frame to headset to fork crown. The tubing of the frame is robust at the front of the frame and is smaller toward the seatmast, to smooth out any roughness from the road that's transmitted up to the saddle and the rider. The seat stays hug the wheel tapering flat and wide for a smooth ride and creating a beautiful silhouette from behind. Frame-to-component interfaces are mated with stainless reinforcement in high-wear areas-their curvatures smoothly blending between the tubes they attach."
"The ultimate example is our integrated Di2 battery that tucks away inside your seat mast with our own machined aluminum cap that echoes the shape of a classic sports car gas cap - not only is it beautiful, but it requires no tools, it's silent and is a pleasure to use. Small parts like cable stops, stainless steel reinforced brake bridges, head tube reinforcing rings, and down tube adjusters and big parts like our custom super strong tubing are all of our own design. Each detail is there to improve on what has historically been done in the bike world."
In this video, JOM of the Gravel Cyclist crew joins Bradford Smith of Speedvagen / The Vanilla Workshop, for a look inside this legendary brand's Portland, Oregon, manufacturing facility.
"FIT MATTERS. One part of fit is comfort. And another part of fit is efficiency and power. These are the aspects that all fitting methods will focus on. There's another dimension to your fit though: how you are weighting the bike and how that affects the handling of the bike. We call this Balance. Balance is the key to confidence and confidence is the key to, well, anything that anyone is working to achieve."
"To get you in this place of balance, we first line up your center of gravity above the bike. This evenly distributes your weight across the contact points, (the saddle and handlebar). The second part happens when we design your bike from the ground up to distribute your weight perfectly onto each wheel - an elusive attribute of bike design and the secret to next level awesomeness."
"With balance dialed, the rider has an intuitive connection with their machine and through that, they feel connected to the road. Because the bike is perfectly weighted, you can push through corners harder, and with more confidence than ever before. We believe so deeply in this, that we travel the world on our Fitting Tours as well as fit Speedvagen customers in our Portland, Oregon Workshop."
Links of Interest:
Speedvagen - speedvagen.com
The Vanilla Workshop - thevanillaworks...
Gravel Cyclist's Route Library - www.gravelcycl...
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[@astrayagrarian]

I love my Speedvagen. Best riding bike out of all the tons of bikes I have owned over the past 16 years.

[@iantelinside]

You can really see that a lot of thought has gone into each of these bikes into getting the small details right. The tube shapes are also much more organic than most other builders and have to be seen in person to be appreciated

[@themississippikidful]

Thanks ! Shared with the American Built Frames Only Facebook group ! Digging the Hi-Fi t-shirt 😎

[@GravelCyclist]

Thank you! I also have a factory tour from Argonaut, posted to the channel. Those folks are out of Bend, Oregon.

[@jasboehlke]

Welcome to Portland! Glad you ventured over the mountain when you were here this round.

[@GravelCyclist]

Thank you! I have one more factory tour video to produce from the PDX area.

[@swakemudi8682]

awesome shop and I love those single speed bikes

[@fernfloyd]

A+++ video! We got to see lots of nice bikes, great tour, dogs, and I'm glad you showed that Dura-Chee crank towards the end! When I first saw the crank at 13:10, I thought "I want to see it!" And you did show it! Very cool video start to end. Will you ever do a factory tour of No. 22 from New York? That's my dream bike right there!

[@GravelCyclist]

Hello there, I hope to visit New England later this year. If that happens, a good friend of mine is a staff member of No. 22, so a good chance I can arrange a tour to happen :)

[@maxmichelson5649]

Very nice flavour VANILLA

[@alexrobles6492]

Another awesome video! Art..

[@BruceChastain]

wow these are great looking bikes, love the style. Would be also interested in their design process.

[@stevenpike7530]

Thoroughly recommend SV….great to deal with….beautiful rig…rides great.

[@alongtvkeanashley210913]

cool bike

[@SuzyChapsticksArmy]

oh man that OG urban racer

[@aaronedgeart]

Putting more of our Portland awesomery on the map (including that HiFi shirt).

[@GravelCyclist]

Hi-Fi Wheels!

[@chadbarbaro]

So we know where to carpet bomb first.

[@bikepacking330]

Good 👍 👍 👍

[@anthonyharris483]

Their bikes are truly pieces of art.

[@3deffy]

😍🤩😍🤩

[@sebbelito2975]

Dura ace crankset chrome, my wallet hurts just looking at it. My god that is SO COOL! and beautiful and EXPENSIVE haha Red axs cranks feel and look dirt cheape to chrome...

[@GravelCyclist]

I believe the crankset was heavily polished, it was part of a project bike. The wheels were nearby, but did not make the final edit.

[@chriswoody6768]

That was an awkward tour of a company that once was the hotbed of badass around the 2010s.

[@GravelCyclist]

Awkward? How so?

[@chriswoody6768]

@@GravelCyclist Sacha was an innovator whereas Bradford seems to be the curator of a museum of which he knows little of its history.

[@elonrubin710]

I disagree. I think this was a tour of the facility and not a history lesson. There is another video on YT of Jenn giving a tour and a history recap. So why make the same video? instead give folks a tour of the facility and the process. I own two Speedvagens, they are truly amazing bikes and I found this pretty neat to see.

[@GravelCyclist]

@@elonrubin710 Thanks Elon, nice to know viewers appreciate the effort that goes into these videos, along with the staff appearing in the videos who took time out of their day.

[@playmoreguitar5393]

Everytime I see that BS limited GRX groupset I get offended.