Hampsten Cycles
Builder Profile

Builder Statement

Hampsten Cycles, LLC, founded in 1999 by Andy and Steve Hampsten, who design and collaborate with a few of the best framebuilders in America. We bring you our unique line of custom road frames and whole bikes and we do it with the highest possible level of personal service.  Andy and Steve are available to guide you through the process of fitting the bike, selecting a frame and components, and adjusting your position on the bike. We guarantee a beautifully designed, perfectly built Hampsten Cycles bicycle or frame, tailored to your exact needs and delivered to your door.

Andy and Steve Hampsten

 
Image courtesy of La Jolla Velo
About Andy

Andy Hampsten, a former professional cyclist, is a pioneering legend in American cycling history. His list of career accomplishments as a pro cyclist is long and impressive including being the only American cyclist ever to win the Giro d’Italia. The epic ride through the snow on the Gavia Pass that won him the race in 1988 embodied the spirit of cycling for many Italians, who adopted him as “il nostro Andy”, “our Andy”. Andy still owns a small farm in the coastal hills of southwest Tuscany where he cultivates grapes and olives and sells his olive oil under the brand name EVOCo (Extra Virgin Olive Oil Company) but he spends most of the year in his home in Boulder, Colorado.

Andy, having nothing he’d rather do than share the best riding, food and wine in the world with fun people, founded Cinghiale Cycling Tours. He hoped to lure cyclists from all over the United States and the world to come over and play in his favorite sandbox and it worked. Ten years and many satisfying tours later, and despite a tricky-looking name, Cinghiale (wild boar in Italian) Tours has a following of loyal addicts who can’t get enough of Tuscany, and who appreciate the intimate experience of the country offered by Andy and his crew. Andy's intimate knowledge of cycling combined with his frequent travel between his home in Tuscany and Boulder, gives him a unique perspective on the needs of the cyclist who travels with a bike. 
Click to see Andy's personal bike

Andy Hampsten's career highlights on Wikipedia


An article in the Daily Peloton about Andy Hampsten - An American Pioneer

Andy Hampsten Interview by schmalz on nyvelocity.com

About Steve

 Steve Hampsten, Andy’s older brother, has been a cycling enthusiast since his North Dakota days when he and “little Andy” discovered 25-mile rides as a way to dodge pulling weeds in the family garden. Steve likes nothing better than to talk about all things bicycle-related, unless it’s skipping work to go for a ride, followed by a heavy snack. Steve started working in bike shops in 1975 and continued for ten years, followed by a hiatus to pursue high-end cooking. 1996 found Steve working in welding, blacksmithing, metal fabrication, and, later, bicycle construction at Match Bicycle Company.

An Interview With Steve Hampsten, Part I and II by Padraig of Red Kite Prayer


 
Image courtesy of Red Kit Prayer
Design

At Hampsten Cycles, our ideas about how a bike should fit and ride have been strongly influenced by Andy’s many years of racing and riding. During Andy’s 22-year racing career he worked closely with coaches Eddy B, Paul Koechli, Eddy Merckx, and Dr. Max Testa, who all helped refine his riding technique and position.

Our bicycle and frame designs reflect many of our past influences and present-day experiences, as well as a long-abiding love of riding bicycles. While both looking back at the past and ahead to the future, our designs focus on joining the best materials using both classic and modern construction techniques, but always with a traditional outlook.

Frame Fit

A properly fitted bicycle is centered on the stem, which we think of in terms of sizes: small (100-105mm, for frames in the 50-54cm range), medium (110-120mm, for 54.5-57cm range), and large (120-130mm, for 57.5cm and up range). A bicycle built around the proper stem length – giving correct reach – will have optimal weight distribution and handling characteristics. We believe that the cure for a poorly fitting bicycle is not a longer/shorter stem but rather a well-built frame using the correct length stem. Your saddle height and the drop to your handlebars are always taken into consideration when suggesting seat tube and head tube length. We use BikeCAD as a drawing tool and we are not shy about making fit and size recommendations.
Our custom frames are built using the following guidelines:

Shop Photos

 

Brazing and welding details

 

 

Travelissimo

Wherever you go, the Travelissimo can go with you in style. This bicycle fits in a specially-designed rolling hard sided suitcase with minimal weight increase and incredible convenience when traveling. By utilizing S and S Machine's™ super-strong Bicycle Torque Couplings, we’re able to construct a two-piece steel, 953, or titanium frame that doesn't incur airline size surcharges but gives up none of the feel of your favorite bicycle.

 


Travelissimo (steel) Click here to see a larger image


Travelissimo Ti Click here for a larger image and more details

Our standard Travelissimo is a short-wheelbase/short-reach caliper sport bike designed to take up to a 29mm tire, typically designed to have a touch more stability than its race-bred Gran Paradiso brethren. Classic or Strada Bianca models may also be built with the coupler option for true go-anywhere/anytime capabilities.

  • Travelissimo - Welded and painted steel frame using our own Reynolds/True Temper tubing blend. Includes an Edge fork.

  • Travelissimo Ti - Perfectly fabricated using 3/2.5 straight-gauge titanium. Includes an Edge fork.

  • Click this link to see a Strada Bianca Travelissimo 

Andy's personal bike:

Most of the time, Andy Hampsten rides his .S&S Coupled Strada Bianca ti Travelissimo road bike
Steve Hampton wrote, "Every year I offer him a new bike, every year he turns me down. He loves that thing... "

"Two of Andy’s big contributions to the company have been the Strada Bianca and what we now call our Travelissimo—our S & S-coupled travel bike. They are two of our biggest sellers and it’s a bonus that they’re bikes Andy rides himself and feels passionate about." *

*Quoted from An Interview With Steve Hampsten, Part I by Padraig of Red Kite Prayer


Andy Hampsten's personal S&S Strada Bianca Travelissimo Ti road bike

that packs in a 26x26x10" hard sided travel case
Click here to learn more about this bike


Cable splitter allows this cable to easily separate at the S&S Coupling for easy packing.


Products and services available utilizing BTCs.

We sell frames and complete bicycles.

Standard frames

Custom frames

Retrofitting services

Construction methods

Frame materials

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Contact Information:

Hampsten Cycles, LLC
4200 NE 105
Seattle, WA 98125 |

Phone: 206.524.6010
e-mail



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