2016 NAHBS: The Celtic Triad 2, Magic Cycle Werks

Greg White, magician (I wonder how many times he has heard that one) behind the name Magic Cycle Werks began building bikes in Los Angeles before moving the operations to Bend, Oregon in 2015. From that home base, White makes four models of steel-framed bikes - the Vanish (road), Saxon CX, Cadeyrn (mtb), and the Esker AR (a kind of all-rounder, comfortable on the road, yet capable of handling those quick and sudden turns on to dirt and gravel side paths).

While in this day and age of precision engineering it may not be a requirement that a maker have a background in riding, I feel that those who do, possess a greater understanding of the various factors that go into making a quality bike. Some of those factors are quite intangible, only discovered after long hours, and miles in the saddle. Greg is a thirty + years cyclist and racer, whose palmares included a run of time with Italian team, Fuguzza Vidale. 

Check their website for all the information you might need, or like them on Facebook for all the latest talk out of Bend.

This project Esker AR has been built for pro racer, Ian Boswell (Team Sky):

The Cadeyrn - "Battle King" - I could swear White mentioned that this was a prototype, yet there is ordering information about it on the website, so I suppose I heard wrong. Either way it has most certainly made it onto my list of potential next bikes:

Not everyone gets, or wants, fancy lugs, but very little speaks to the tradition of an earlier time in the history of bicycle making quite like them. White went all out in detailing this build: