Custom Bike manufacturers in Ontario/Canada?

[Meridian]

Does anyone know of how many custom bike makers there are in Ontario or Canada. I'm aware of True North in Waterloo and just stumbled on one called Winterborne out of Guelph. Does anyone have any experience with either and what the quality of the products are? Cheers.

 

[Alpha]

Does anyone know of how many custom bike makers there are in Ontario or Canada. I'm aware of True North in Waterloo and just stumbled on one called Winterborne out of Guelph. Does anyone have any experience with either and what the quality of the products are? Cheers.

True North is in Kitchener. If you know the Kitchener area, the shop is in the Bridgeport area. They make anything from aluminum to carbon frames. Their work is top quality. I have not personally ridden a True North but I have seen a few and they are very nice bikes. If you want to see aTrue North, call the shop before going. I believe he builds the bikes at a different location and is not always in the store.
Also, George Vetter, a custom bike maker between Guelph and Cambridge. I do not know much about Vetter but he does put together a nice bike for very good cost. George has been in business a long time starting in Europe many years ago. I'm not sure on his hours but he is open all day Saturdays.
Hope thet helps. Let me know if you want anymore info and I will give you directions.

 

[Meridian]

Alpha,

Yeah i guess TN is in Kitchener, went to school for too long in Waterloo hence the assumption. But i've definately heard good things about TN's.

In terms of this Vetter character, i've definately never heard of him. I'm going to assume he's pretty low profile. Does he just sell out of his own shop? Know anyone with one? As well where is his shop exactly.

Cheers.

 

[Alpha]

Alpha,

Yeah i guess TN is in Kitchener, went to school for too long in Waterloo hence the assumption. But i've definately heard good things about TN's.

In terms of this Vetter character, i've definately never heard of him. I'm going to assume he's pretty low profile. Does he just sell out of his own shop? Know anyone with one? As well where is his shop exactly.

Cheers.

Vetter is a low profile shop. He does a good business out his small shop. I was going to have him build a bike, but on the way there I stopped at another bike shop in Guelph. Test rode a Trek for 1/2 hr, went back to the store and bought the bike. The bike Vetter was going to build for me was a 7005 aluminum frame, carbon fork and Shimano 105 components for $1300.
His store is located just off highway 24 between Guelph and Cambridge on Whitelaw Road.
He only sells out of his shop but also carries Fuji, Raleigh and Marinoni. His custom bikes are built using Italian made frames. Phone # is 1-519-824-5829.

 

[wasted weasel]

there is a shop in toronto that does quite a bit of custom steel/alum frame work, I think they'll build a frame from the ground up if you want but they don't advertise it. I'm sure if you walked in with fitting specs on paper it'd be possible.
http://www.biseagal.ca/welcome.htm

Vetter is a low profile shop. He does a good business out his small shop. I was going to have him build a bike, but on the way there I stopped at another bike shop in Guelph. Test rode a Trek for 1/2 hr, went back to the store and bought the bike. The bike Vetter was going to build for me was a 7005 aluminum frame, carbon fork and Shimano 105 components for $1300.
His store is located just off highway 24 between Guelph and Cambridge on Whitelaw Road.
He only sells out of his shop but also carries Fuji, Raleigh and Marinoni. His custom bikes are built using Italian made frames. Phone # is 1-519-824-5829.

 

[Bikeophile]

I met the guys from Winterborne at the Bike show last weekend. Their stuff was actually REALLY nice. Their show bikes had a lot of nice detail in the lugs and the paint jobs were beautiful.

The True North guys are amazing too. I am not sure if they STILL do, but they were building Cervelo's TEAM bikes for them.

RUBY CYCLES is another custom frame builder, and they are located in Toronto. They are very small, but they do a fantastic job too. We are actually going to be carrying Ruby Track bikes on our website this summer (they are in the shop now). All Steel!

Glacier Bikes is another Canadian company. These guys are a fairly new company, and they are doing only carbon bikes. I believe these guys import their frames, but they had a lot of design input with the manufacturer. They are only planning on making 100-200 bikes per year...So they may be tough to get.

For custom modifications to steel bikes (like adding track dropouts etc). Mike Barry is one of the best around. He owns Bike Specialties in Toronto. He's done some work for me, and it was second to none.

Well thats all I know. Hope that helped.

 

[Meridian]

Awesome guys. Didn't realize there were so many different bike designers around. Appears that some are more smaller than others. Interesting fact though on True North and the Cervelo aspect. Gives me a lot to think about in terms of who to go with. Interestingly i was actually at the bike show last week, damn i must have overlooked Winterborne when i was elbowing people to get out of my way If anyone else knows of others, keep em coming.

 

[Bikeophile]

Awesome guys. Didn't realize there were so many different bike designers around. Appears that some are more smaller than others. Interesting fact though on True North and the Cervelo aspect. Gives me a lot to think about in terms of who to go with. Interestingly i was actually at the bike show last week, damn i must have overlooked Winterborne when i was elbowing people to get out of my way If anyone else knows of others, keep em coming.

When I mentioned Mike Barry in my post above, I should have mentioned that he has a line of bikes "MARIPOSA" which are beautiful. He has been doing this for decades.

Also there is JESTER bikes in Welland. All custom frames.

Marinoni is in QUE but worth mentioning. They do custom and standard road/track frames

Forte Bikes in BC is amazing too. They recently changed their name to NAKED bikes. Really nice custom work.

 

[overthehillmedi]

I'm thinking of getting a touring bike made and see that Forte/Naked manufactures such an animal and I am wondering what people have to say about Forte trames and bikes.They are realatively close to home and would be easy to work wiyh as to set-up and sizing but their product is unknown to me so I would like some input on them. Thks.