Calfee Bicycles

A couple of friends and I toured Calfee yesterday and I left there thinking that this local company not only has one of the greatest handmade bicycle frames of all time but they played a huge role in European cycling history. The obvious advantage Calfee has over other carbon frame builders is that they are performance driven not trend driven. Mike Moore (Steel Wüleur) and Craig Calfee were able to take time out of their busy day and share some of the many racing stories (Lemond's first Calfee @ Paris Nice) and give us a complete factory tour. Mike's attention to detail relating to the frames was mind boggling. I have so much respect for this company due to the fact that they stay true to building the best frame regardless as to what flavor of the month, year, decade the cycling industry at large is chasing. We saw some "interesting" carbon frames that made there way to Calfee for repair and one of them advertised a "wavy gravy system" or something. It was so ironic to see all the mainstream carbon frames lined up for surgery by Calfee techs and meanwhile other Calfee builders were laying up custom Calfee frames (25 year warranty) by hand as if it was no big deal. If I had to come up with one phrase for Calfee to describe how they relate to the contemporary cycling industry it would be this "We do what you do, but you don't do what we do". In the spirit of heroes and scenery, Calfee gets the Steel Wül approval.