Six-Eleven Bicycle Co.

I’m behind on blog posts… hope you haven’t noticed

Just about every journal entry we write could start with ...“it’s been a little crazy around here recently”. I guess that’s the nature of running your own business, though.

We had a fantastic open house on Saturday, March 24th. It had been a really rainy morning, but during the afternoon the skies cleared long enough for us to throw some brats on the grill and fling open the shop doors for a much needed breath of fresh air. We had a great turnout, with folks rolling in steadily from 3:00 until 6:00. Aaron and I got the chance to chat with a few folks, both some of the regulars and some visitors from out of town. We had members of the Greensboro Velo Club drive up for a visit, a graduating senior from Hampden Sydney who stopped by, and Kevin and Dana drove down from Northern VA to hang out with us and spend a night in our lovely hometown. We also had clients Bob and Beckie swing through from West VA, and of course, Patrick B. from North Carolina drove up to pick up his award winning CX bike!

This is a photo of Dick Howard (now an award winning painter!) giving a great toast at the open house. Have I mentioned lately how lucky we are to be surrounded by such great folks here in the Roanoke Valley?

We were at the shop late that night doing a fit for Kevin, and on Sunday we took a much needed day off to finally cut our grass. Yes, we had waited far too long.

The following weekend we had the chance to drive a bike down to Charleston, SC for a photo shoot. We needed to be down there Friday afternoon, so we woke up early Friday morning to make the 6 hour drive. It turns out the the Cooper River Bridge Run was taking place in Charleston on Saturday, so there wasn’t hotel room available for miles and traffic was a mess. But after lots of driving, almost running out of gas in standstill traffic, and BBQ, we finally made it to he photo shoot in beautiful historic Charleston. We were blow away with Charleston’s charm and character. And lucky for us, it was 83 degrees while we were there!

The following day we drove to this bike owner’s wedding in Chapel Hill: 
. We got the chance to see some old friends and catch up, and the wedding was spectacular too!

Last week and this week we’ve been busy playing catchup, getting RT’s bike back from paint and built up to ship out (hopefully tomorrow!), finishing up JP’s build to ship (hopefully tomorrow!), getting LW’s bike ready to ship to paint, and getting the main triangle on CB’s lugged stainless bike ready to braze. We’re moving right along!

The NAHBS merchandise (Tshirts, patches) will be up on the webstore soon, so keep an eye out!

Regular blog updates are coming again soon.

Show Bike Photos Are Up!

Check out the “Recent Works” page for photos of the 2012 show bikes!

Come to our open house! This Saturday, 3:00 - 6:00

Been looking for an excuse to swing by the shop? Have no idea what it is we actually do down here? Want to see this year’s NAHBS bikes before we ship them off? Like beer and hamburgers?

Come by the shop on Saturday for a super relaxed open house! Go for a ride and come by for a recovery snack, courtesy of Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. We want to thank you all for your support this past year, and what better way to say we love you than with an open grill and beer? Last year we hosted an open house on a week night, but this year we wanted to open it up to kids, families, and anyone who could make it out this way on a weekend.

We’ll be here with the doors open and the grill hot from 3:00 - 6:00 this coming Saturday, March 24. We’ll have Tshirts on sale for $15, so get the new ones before we put them up on the website!

No need to RSVP, and we’ll be here rain or shine. If you have any questions, give us a call at 540-929-0611.

See you Saturday!

Wired coverage of NAHBS featuring Six-Eleven

I went to a meeting last night and had a local shop owner say “Hey, did you see your bike up on Wired?”.  Thanks for letting me down, Google Alerts.

Turns out that Wired put up an online article yesterday about the “Spin Doctors” and their handmade bikes. Flip through, and you’ll find Six-Eleven in the good company of Shamrock, Don Walker, and 9 others. The article features Wired’s 12 favorites from the show.

Spin
Doctors Convene to Roll Out Their Most Stunning Handmade Bikes
By Chuck Squatriglia

Roanoke Times article says “Dykstra Cleans Up”

I think it would have been better if the headline had read “Dykstra Cleans Up Surprisingly Well for a Dude Who Works 14 Hour Days In a Basement”, but instead it said “Dykstra Cleans Up Again At Sacramento Bicycle Show”. Guess the former was too long to fit on a proper newspaper article.

We’re extremely happy with the very positive feedback we’ve received from the show this year! Thanks to all who came out, and photos are being posted soon! In the meantime, here’s the always awesome Mark Taylor’s article that was published today in the Roanoke Times:

Dykstra cleans up at Sacramento bicycle show
By Mark Taylor | The Roanoke Times

Aaron Dykstra continued his winning ways at the most recent edition of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show.

At the show this past weekend in Sacramento, Calif., Dykstra took first place in the Cyclocross category, tying for the award with well-known maker Moots.
“I’m really blown away,” said Dykstra, founder of the Six-Eleven Bicycle Co.

Dykstra won the show’s Track Bike category last year and was the rookie of the year in his first appearance, in 2010.

This year’s winning bike was built mainly with Columbus MAX steel tubing and featured Dykstra’s favored fillet brazing technique.
Dykstra built the bike for racer Patrick Beeson.

“It was going to be a show bike from the start,” said Dykstra, who builds the frames and then outfits them with components based on the rider’s specifications. “But it’s going to be a race bike, so I didn’t want to do anything too over the top.”

Among the unique -touches are some exposed brass details, such as a chainstay protector onto which Dykstra etched Beeson’s name using an old pantograph machine he found on Craigslist.
Also drawing praise was the bike’s unique paint scheme.

The base is a cream color that appears wet. Atop the protective clear coat over the base color, the frame is decorated with hundreds of tiny dots that give the appearance of mud splatters.

The dots, which are in four different shades of brown, were the work of Salem mountain biker and cycling advocate Dick Howard, whom Dykstra said spent three weeks painstakingly painting each dot with the head of a spoke.
Six-Eleven, named after the famous Norfolk and Western Class J steam locomotive, had three bikes in its booth at the show. Dykstra also was asked by famous British company Brooks if it could use one of his bikes in its booth to display touring panniers.

Since his first win, Dykstra has seen growing demand for his frames, which cost $2,075 to $2,275 each.

Before the show, Dykstra listed the waiting period for his frames as 10 months. This week that had to change.
Due to orders received at the show, including from some customers in Japan, the wait is now up to a year.