Email
bantambicycles @gmail.com
Phone
(971) 373-3354
I started Bantam Bicycle Works in 2012, after moving from Philadelphia, PA to Portland, OR. I have over 20 years of experience fabricating, repairing, and modifying bicycle frames of all sorts.
I got my start in framebuilding when I built a bicycle frame in the living room of a large Victorian rowhouse in West Philadelphia. With a couple of files, a hacksaw, a plumbing torch I found in the closet of my house, and $300 worth of materials bought off the internet, I managed to cobble together a bicycle frame. It took a month of working eight hours a day (and a bunch of extremely tolerant housemates), but I ended up with a very functional bicycle.
The real upshot of all this, though, was that that experience landed me a job at the very prestigious Bilenky Cycle Works in North Philly. I worked under master framebuilders Stephen Bilenky and Simon Firth for six and a half years. I learned a lot of things. Most of them about how to make stuff out of metal, namely bicycle frames. I learned fillet brazing, milling and machining, lugged construction, frame geometry and fitting, TIG welding, and finish work. By the time I left for greener pastures, I was head framebuilder (Simon had gone on to other things, Stevie B. was mostly involved in running the biz), and Bilenky Cycle Works had racked up quite a few awards (at NAHBS and the Cirque du Cyclism) and excellent magazine reviews for bikes I had worked on.
In 2011, I packed up my bags and headed for the west coast to Portland, Ore. After a short stint at UBI’s Portland campus teaching framebuilding, I acquired a shop space and got back to work building frames and honing my craft. These days you’ll find me cutting metal and firing up torches most days of the week, working to get people on the bikes of their dreams.
I don’t specialize in a single type of bicycle, and I can definitely say I have made nearly every type of bike at this point in my career. My work tends more to commuting, touring, bikepacking, randonneuring, and allroad bikes than other types. But I have had plenty of experience working on cross bikes, cargo bikes, MTBs, track, etc… What ever type of bike you may be interested in, I would be happy to talk to you about it.
I look forward to hearing from you.
- Bob Kamzelski, framebuilder and owner of Bantam Bicycle Works
About bantam bicycle works.
Our design Philosophy.
This is where I'm supposed to tell you that we make the absolute best bicycle frames. That you should totally buy one from us because it will be the best made finished designed looking riding lightest sexiest fastest bicycle ever. But I'm not going to do that. Really, I cannot promise you all that.
What I can promise you is that we will make you the best bicycle that we possibly can. It will not break or fail from regular usage. It will fit you properly. It will handle well for it's designed purpose. It will be at least somewhat aesthetically pleasing, maybe even beautiful. It will take any of the components and accessories it was meant to, without much hassle. It will be well made. And, if you take care of it it will last you a lifetime*.
Bantam Bicycle Works does not specialize in any particular type of bicycle frame. Most of my personal riding tends toward touring and commuting, but I've done just about every kind of cycling there is. We will make, and have made, bicycles dedicated to any discipline. Road, cross, touring, commuting, rando, cargo, tandems, mountain, track, etc... Whatever you can dream up, we can make it happen.
If we had a design philosophy, it would be that bicycles are best when they are made to fill one main function. When you try and make one bike do too many things it ends up not doing any of them very well. You will be way happier with your bicycle if it does just the one thing it was designed for, and it does it amazingly.
For photos of current builds please check out our Instagram, and for full photosets, our Flickr.
*Everything will eventually break. But we will do our best to make sure that your frameset will last you for as long as possible. As such, our framesets come with a 5 year warranty for the original owner, protecting against failure due to normal usage.