Handmade Bicycle Show AU 2021
Part 1: Curve Cycling
Of all of the brands displaying their wares at this year’s Handmade Bicycle Show AU (HBSA), there were few more established within the gravel and bikepacking market than Melbourne’s Curve Cycling.
Curve brought 3 bikes to the show, with the GMX+ for the off-road bikepacking market, the prototype Big Kev - an updated design of the company’s most popular model - and the concept Titanosaur to push the boundaries of what bikepacking rigs can be.
In between gawking at the many, many cool bikes at the show, we had a chance to chat to Kate ‘Cake’ Fowler, Curve’s Fulfilment and Project Manager, about the three shiny titanium bikes on display at the Curve stand.
Curve Titanosaur
If you grew up with a fascination for dinosaurs (as I did), you’ll know that the titanosaurs were a collection of sauropod dinosaurs that are possibly the largest land animals ever to have existed, with species such as Argentinosaurus projected to have been between 30-40 metres long, weighing 50-100 tons. In short, they were the biggest monsters that the Earth is ever likely to see. Look at the wheels on Curve’s Titanosaur gravel bike and it’s easy to see where the inspiration came from.
Those wheels are seriously huge - 36 inches in total. According to Fowler, the rims and tyres were quite a hassle to find, and had to be sourced from a company that makes offroad unicycles.
She also noted that while the wheel size is great once it’s up to speed and when you’re descending on rough roads, the 36 inch wheels require more effort from the rider to overcome the rotational mass of the wheels to get them started, and more oomph from the brakes when you need to slow them down.
Obviously any bike designed for long-distance travel in such remote areas should have plenty of water carrying capacity, and the Titanosaur is no exception - there’s about 5 litres of water stored in this picture alone.
On-board storage is provided by Curve’s Rocket Pooch storage system.
Shifting is taken care of by a SRAM system, including an XX1 carbon crankset, an Eagle cassette and a Red AXS wireless electronic shifters.
The chainstays had to be extended in length in order to accommodate the enormous wheels, so extra links also had to be added to the chain in order to get the whole system up and running.
The Titanosaur has such large wheels to help iron out intense corrugations on remote desert roads in the Australian outback, and has been extensively tested by Curve employee and ultra-endurance legend Jesse Carlsson. Although the wheels are enormous (and some very tall individuals have ridden custom bikes with 36 inch wheels in the past), Carlsson is more modest in height, at around 6 feet tall.
Although the Titanosaur is a remarkable looking bike, don’t expect to see them all over your local trails in a hurry. ‘Maybe we’ll put a few into production at some point’ Fowler said.
Curve GMX
The GMX is Curve’s titanium gravel bikepacking rig, with this model nicknamed the Karoo, named after the semi-desert region of South Africa where many previous GMXs have been ridden. Fowler described it as ‘a cross between a cross-country mountain bike and a bikepacking bike.’
This model sees a few updates over the previous GMX, with the addition of a T47 threaded bottom bracket for creak-free riding, Boost spacing on the front (110mm x 15mm) and rear (148mm x 12mm) hubs, and an option to run a 100mm suspension fork or a suspension-adjusted rigid fork.
With 29er mountain bike wheels with 2.25 inch tyres. the option to run a 100mm suspension fork, and bucketloads of mounting points, the GMX is at home when the going gets rough.
The GMX displayed at HBSA sported a new matte black finish that is promised to be hard-wearing, while the welding prowess common to all Curve’s frames was also on display.
It’s entirely unsurprising to see Curve’s ultra-wide Walmer bars fitted to the GMX (this bar measured 55cm across), with a suite of matchy-matchy Skingrowsback bags setting off the whole ensemble.
If you’re not sure of the vibes this bike gives off, the open ABLOC beer can in the handlebar bag is a good indication.
Curve Big Kev
The titanium Big Kev is an updated version of Curve’s most popular model, the GXR, a.k.a. ‘Kevin.’
There are a few updates to the newer model, including increased frame clearance to allow a tyre size of up to 29 x 2.1 inches and a new fork with increased clearance.
Yep, that’s a Big Kev all right. I’m excited!
The groupset on the Big Kev is from Italian makers Ingrid, and looks very schmick up close.
This drivetrain was fresh off the boat - so fresh that the Big Kev was still being assembled on the morning before the show!
The Ingrid rear derailleur can handle 11-, 12- and 13-speed drivetrains, meaning that it’ll handle just about any pre-existing shifter from the current generation of MTB gear, from an 11-speed Shimano SLX, to a 12-speed SRAM GX Eagle, all the way to the recently announced 13-speed Campagnolo Ekar!
‘It’s just kind of something new and different that we want to have on display, given that we’re doing a lot of builds with SRAM AXS builds now’ said Fowler.
As with most Curve builds, shiny titanium and plenty of storage options are par for the course. These cages are Arundel’s stainless steel models.
Note: All images in this article were taken by @thatbikenerd.