Surely one of the true tests of a marriage would be a tour on a tandem. Each partner would discover, if they hadn’t already, the very best and worst of each other, how reliant on each other they are and how to work together to move forward. Of course, there is always the option of cutting straight to the chase, losing the tandem and ordering a pair of matching tourers from Bryan Hollingsworth at Royal H Cycles.
Boston’s Royal H Cycles is five years old now, and Bryan’s portfolio is brimming with an array of varied builds, from track bikes, townies and time triallers to mixtes and mountain bikes. A tenure at Seven Cycles in their titanium and carbon fiber division instilled within Bryan an eye for exact tolerances, a mindfulness with which he now builds his own frames.
‘His’ bike was built with Henry James lugs, while ‘hers’, the gracious green mixte, is constructed with Long Shen lugs, “due to the fact,” says Bryan, “that they’re the only company making them anymore!” Just as marriage is a joint effort, so these two tourers were completed with a little help from a few of Bryan’s framebuilding fellows.
“The Velo Orange racks all had to be modified for the Paragon Slider dropouts and 650b wheels, but they’re made out of stainless steel, so when you have a welder friend ten feet away (Marty of Geekhouse Bikes), it’s significantly easier to add and move struts.” Mike Salvator of Seven Cycles also helped out with a custom machined brass pulley to change the brake cable direction.
Another mate of Bryan’s, and one of our favorite photographers, Eric ‘Ride Metal’ Baumann captured Bryan’s elegant work. Let’s hope the Royal H couple travel many happy miles together.
