October 10–12, 2008, Portland, Oregon
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BUILDER PROFILE: Steve Hampsten
Steve calls it “a life gloriously mis-spent with bicycles.” But the more I learn about Steve Hampsten, the more I realize that there is more to this than just bikes.
The story started in North Dakota in the early seventies with two brothers starting to race just before the big bike boom. One went on to suffer and achieve glory in Europe; this is a story that you probably already know. But the other brother, the one we are going to talk about today, has spent a lot of time around heat and around metal, and bringing those two together in the pursuit of a complete, yet fresh, design.
Bike builders and designers learn their lessons from a number of places: they see what other people are doing, they experiment, they practice. But in the end, its a lifetime of experiences that define their approach and their aesthetic. Steve Hampsten has done more than spend years in a bike shop; he has built bikes, worked as a blacksmith, done industrial manufacturing, has taught karate, and is an expert in classic French cuisine. And when you boil all that down, Hampsten Cycles is about the pursuit of design and developing something that is both classic and modern.
Steve Hampsten’s cycling education coincided with his cooking education. Having worked in French and Italian restaurant kitchens for almost 20 years, Steve sought to “make food that tastes like it was made by someone’s grandmother”. It wasn’t the flavor of the moment; it was building on the classic cuisine and letting the rich history of the tradition come through. It is this same approach that guides his bike designs today.
Most custom builders work with the same ingredient: steel. Steve on the other hand has a range of materials that he works with. Hampsten Cycles builds the design around the person, and then coordinates with some of the best builders around the country in each material for the fabrication. The goal: building on the classic themes of great bike designs while making them modern, personal, and complete down to the font of the logo on the down tube.
The story that describes this design process in action involves Steve’s brother Andy who wanted a bike for riding hitting the pavement and the gravel roads around Tuscany. Steve tried a number of approaches to determine the right design basing it on the experience of riding in new places with rough roads. It took a couple of iterations to get it right, but solving the problem of the gravel road opened the bike up to other uses. The result is the Strada Bianca, which you can see along with the designer during Oregon Manifest weekend.
