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Welcome to the inaugural MADE Show in Portland, Oregon. We’ve gathered some of our favorite gravel bikes at the MADE Bike Show 2023, with bikes from builders like Argonaut, Framework Bicycles, Onguza, Seeker, Flux Customs, and others.
While this collection is still centered around drop bar bikes, this time it leans toward the ever-popular gravel and all-road scenes so prevalent here. The founder of custom carbon company McGovern Cycles launching a line of steel bikes through Seeker, with stock geometries ready to go two weeks from order times. Onguza comes from the mind of former pro cyclist Dan Craven, who brought world-class frame construction from his home in Namibia. Framework Bicycles brought one of the most technically impressive bikes I’ve seen in years in a sea of true standouts. And as you’d imagine, there are a whole lot more gravel bikes at the Made Bike show that caught my eye.
Be sure to check out our other favorite bikes at the MADE Bike Show coverage here.
Meet Seeker Bicycles, a new brand from the mind behind McGovern Cycles, Chris McGovern. He’s worked with custom carbon frames for years in addition to racing and building steel bikes on his own. The idea behind the Seeker gravel bike is to offer a quality, performance-oriented steel gravel bike without a long wait time. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
All Seeker bikes, at least at launch, will be offered in steel or titanium with a T47 bottom bracket, flat mount disc brakes, and standardized geometry ranging from 48 cm to 60 cm. The goal here is a two-week wait time from ordering, including your choice in a range of colors. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
While so much of Chris’s work over the years has been with carbon, you couldn’t tell based on how good these welds look. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
The brand originally came from Chris’ desire to make bags, which he elected to do under the Seeker name rather than his McGovern Cycles branding. With the brand recognition he found there, he launched a second bicycle building program under the same name. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Jonathan from Framework Cycles brought what I felt was one of the most technically impressive bikes to the show. Framework started as a bit of a COVID side project to take advantage of the aerospace-grade milling machines he and his wife have at their disposal. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Framework uses a parametric 3D model that allows them to easily set up how each of the joint areas will be milled to make a lug in the bike. The program itself, I’m told, allows making the frame to be fairly hands-off: put in your geometry details, let the program do all the calculations, and their mills take care of the rest. The result is five joints that are effectively ready to go right out of the mill. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Impressively, Framework has designed its own crankset, too. It uses a trilobe hollow design similar to Rotor’s lightweight cranksets. Framework also makes its own narrow-wide chainrings to match the cranksets, or chainring spiders should you want to use a 2x drivetrain. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Jonathan is making his own carbon fiber tubes as well, down to the individual filament strands. This is in contrast to a vast majority of carbon frames which purchase off-the-shelf tubing or sheets of carbon fiber to lay up themselves. Doing so gives Framework ultimate control over tube flex characteristics, shaping, and tubing strengths. The carbon really does look phenomenal. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Most cranksets today have some sort of bearing preload system to accommodate for tolerance differences between the crank’s spindle and the bottom bracket area. Tolerances are so good here that it’s deemed unnecessary, with an expanding internal collet that locks the crank arms in place. There’s none of the drag one might feel from a standard crank and oversized bottom bracket bearing and no play either. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Onguza Bicycles hand-builds their steel bikes out of Namibia. Founder Dan Craven sought to show off the talent and attention to detail Namibia has to make what they believe are world-class frames and bikes. This is Craven’s personal bike, a substitute for when others in Namibia might hop on a short-travel mountain bike. The build features a Sram XO AXS transmission with a direct-mount derailleur, Zipp 303 Firecrest wheels, and Ultradynamico Rosé Race 650b tires. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
There are a number of fun details around Dan’s personal gravel/road/Namibia bike, but one of my favorites is this hollow chainstay area. Doing so offers big tire clearance and room for road gearing, but it also looks fantastic. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
The Onguza name comes from an old Namibian word ‘okuti-onguza’ which means “the great expanse of desert out there,” or more broadly, “desert.” While this is a one-off frame in contrast to the stock frame styles Onguza offers, it carries the same design language: the double arch seat stay bridge and the funky cow spotting along the frame and stem tie it to the rest of the lineup. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
The head tube badge might be my favorite detail of the frame. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Haley Cycles believes titanium is the best material to make a bike frame out of, and they stuck to it here. This build features a Campagnolo Ekar drivetrain, Rolf Hyalite wheels, a Cannondale Lefty Oliver Carbon fork, and a bar, stem, and seatpost courtesy of Ritchey. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Haley Cycles founder Ming Tan went after a brushed titanium finish here, which you see best at the seat stays and chain stays. While the company is relatively new, all frames are made by the same folks who were at Dean Titanium, resulting in 30-plus years of experience with titanium.(Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
If you want people to make the joke, “where did half of your suspension fork go?” every time you go on a group ride, this is the fork for you. It’s Cannondale’s Lefty Oliver Carbon fork offering 30 mm of delightfully smooth suspension. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Tan believes that titanium is the optimal material with which to make a bicycle frame, and they double down on it by offering a lifetime guarantee on their frames. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Flux Customs has been around for a few years at this point, specializing in painting and finishing bicycle frames both in one-off and OEM applications. This isn’t just paint they did themselves, however; they’re showing off the first of their own frames. This one is set to be a fast and fun commuter. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
This Flux Customs rando bike features a Shimano GRX-XTR Di2 drivetrain, carbon wheels with Rene Herse Hatcher Pass 700c x 48 mm tires, painted Honjo fenders, and an FSA ICR internal cable routing system. (Image: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
As expected, the finishing is phenomenal on this particular bike. The carbon seat tube stands out in stark contrast to the bright purple finish, and the thin seat stays look phenomenal as well. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Flux Customs is based in Denver, Colorado. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Not a gravel bike, but I loved the road bike they showed off. The DT Swiss R411 rims received a hard anodized finish similar that resulted in this distinctive light bronze color. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Argonaut chose MADE to launch a pair of new production carbon frames. This one is the GR3 Supernaut gravel bike frameset. The build in front of Argonaut Ben Farver features an eThirteen carbon wheelset with a customized Shimano GRX Di2 1x drivetrain. Further, it uses Enve’s internal cable routing system and a new seat post designed by Argonaut. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
The GR3 Supernaut was shown off with just a matte clearcoat over raw carbon. While the frames are still made in Bend, Oregon to the same quality as their other frames, stock geometry means a lead time of just four weeks. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
Argonaut’s calling card is ride quality, and their material attention to detail is a large portion of how they get there. Rather than using latex bladders that most carbon frame manufacturers use to mold the tubes, Argonaut uses a set of silicone mandrels to form the tube sets. Doing so allows for higher-quality carbon pieces with the weaves you see here. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
All Supernaut bikes receive this small patch on the seat stay. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)
The carbon weave catches the light wonderfully. (Photo: Alvin Holbrook/VELO)