Chapman Cycles

Home
United States
Cranston, RI
Chapman Cycles

Directions Website

Custom bicycles hand built in Rhode Island. http://www.chapmancycles.com/about/

10/24/2026

Last year, the very talented Thomas at gifted me these beautiful dropouts that he designed. I’ve been waiting for the right project to use them and it finally came along. These are a combination of laser cut steel and stainless.

There’s a lot of prep work that goes into a dropout style like this. I was a bit nervous about melting the silver brazing alloy when using bronze to join the dropouts to the frame and fork but it turns out a dummy axle is the perfect heat sink. I’ll be doing a bunch of lining on this one next week!

10/04/2026

Building a lugged steel bicycle frame. This one is getting handmade brakes, quill stem, rack, and lowriders too! Many steps are omitted here but you can kind of get the general idea of what goes on. The old Prugnat French lugs have been heavily modified. That part was time consuming and omitted. A lot of preparation goes in to the frame before the torch is lit. Enjoy!

09/24/2026

Some additional detail shots of Noah’s bike. The head tube color is white with a 10% purple/clear basecoat mix over that. 11-speed Shimano GRX drivetrain with an 11-40 cassette on the rear and a 46-30 on the front. Capacity is no problem with a cage that long! This was the first drop bar bike that I have ever built with v-brakes. Finding a decent long pull lever was not easy. I ended up modifying these short pull TRP levers in the end.

09/23/2026

Noah’s 700c randonneur has been a long time in the making. There are lots of other projects happening at the shop but it doesn’t excuse me for taking so long with this one. I think it came out great but most importantly I hope Noah likes it! Hi-res photos of this one are on Flickr and more detailed shots are coming here soon.

09/18/2026

In my world I frequently encounter the battle and balance between black and silver components. People who want to ride a more modern drivetrain from readily available components tend to have to concede to having black as the only option. Sometimes the battle gets real like when you have a pair of Dura Ace 11 speed bar end shifters that look like a sore thumb on a bike with mostly silver components. I had to do a similar modification to the GRX rear derailleur. Those silver GRX derailleurs are really not available anymore. Pictures of this one will be coming soon! Finally!

08/20/2026

I had lot of fun with the paint on this ornately lugged frame. The head tube is a lighter shade of the main metallic purple that was mixed with a clear base and sprayed over white. Lug lining is a funny thing in the bicycle world. It has a long history and it is seen as antiquated because, well, lugs are seen as antiquated. I still have a soft spot in my heart for it. The Silca pump was machined and painted to match. Looking forward to building this one up once the rack and stem are back from the plater!

Unrelated but I wish all my bike world friends the best of luck at MADE this weekend in Portland, OR. If you’re anywhere near there (I am 3000 miles away unfortunately), I highly recommend checking it out!

07/28/2026

In order to get the bars in the correct position without having too much stem exposed I like to add a little bit of extra material to the top of the head lug. Finally getting primer on this one today!

07/17/2026

Brazing a pretty ornate (by my standards) seat cluster for Noah. Hopefully these 3+ minutes can be a little meditative escape from reality…maybe not the loud grinding parts.

05/07/2026

Modifying the PBP twin plate style fork crown casting to match the Long Shen 303 series lug set. The LC303 crown is beautiful but doesn’t have the width that I needed. Builders do not have to match the lugs to the crown but it’s really nice when they compliment each other. The fork on a bicycle is not a component but part of the frameset so they should look like they’re from the same family.

04/02/2026

Some additional shots of this fixed gear single speed that I shared yesterday. The recurring conversations about how fixed gears are the essence of the bicycle are not lost on me. Much less to go wrong means much less that can consume your mind when riding. This one was indeed a joy to test ride. Makes me wish my Circle A Cycles fixed gear with 28mm tires had a little more real estate!

Address

Cranston, RI
02905

Website

http://www.chapmancycles.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Chapman Cycles posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.