What Makes A Speedvagen A Speedvagen?
Speedvagen was started back in the 90’s by a guy named Sacha White under the title The Vanilla Workshop. Sacha was early on the scene as steel bikes were becoming more and more popular again out in Portland Oregon. First Sacha was making bikes for . . .Sacha. From there a few of his fellow cyclocross racers were ripping them, and then the line became too long to satisfy.
At this point Sacha White was dealt with every business owner's dream dilemma. How do I satisfy all the increased demand from customers? From there, Speedvagen was born as a way to produce a high quality product in a higher volume, although still pretty boutique at about 100 bikes per year.
The most interesting part of this is how Sacha has actually gone away from his roots a bit to try and continue to serve the customer better. For example, Speedvagen has a real human answer the phone. Somebody with some knowledge of their bicycles responds to customer emails, and there is a constant back and forth conversation going throughout the entire custom build process. This couldn’t happen as a one man band with strong demand and Sacha made the decision to pivot to try to serve just a few more customers while continuing to maintain a high quality standard. In his words ‘getting the small things right that make a business a pleasure to deal with’. Love this sentence.
‘getting the small things right that make a business a pleasure to deal with’
A few things on a Speedvagen that really stand out to me . . .
Speedvagen are incredibly design focused which make them feel like pieces of art. That said, the true intention of the company is for riders to ride the bikes, and a lot of the design inspiration comes from helping to fulfill this mission for years to come. Things like gussets that provide extra stability so that a frame won’t flex in a certain way to help prevent paint from chipping.
Berzerker Dropouts are a Speedvagen signature much like lugs were a framebuilders signature back in the lugged steel bike frame days.
The integrated seat mast on the bikes is another great example of Speedvagen attempting to provide a better way to give riders that flexibility of seat height adjustment without compromising wear and tear over time.
It’s safe to say that Speedvagens won’t be sitting in every person's garage at only 100 bikes per year. That said, for that person looking for something special it could be the perfect fit, literally, as the company builds the frames to fit each and every rider. If you’re looking for something unique and the ultimate in ride quality, a Speedvagen could be for you.