CX 001, the first frame borne from the torch of Vigo Cycles’ Troy Selvaratnam, drew upon the flamboyance of the French New Wave. CX 002 takes a different direction, although there’s a brief Francophile connection: its graphics pay homage to the former French colonies of Indochine.
Troy was commissioned to build CX 002 by Nicholas Simon, a mate from college who went on to forge a career as a film and TV producer in Vietnam as one of the founders of Indochina Productions. “Nicholas,” Troy tells us, “raced as a junior in Wisconsin (including the US Nationals held in Milwaukee back in the 80s), wanted to get back into racing and requested a dedicated race cross bike — hence, no bottle cage mounts — that he could put through the motions in the Northeast cross circuit.”
“He deliberately chose as many US-made components as possible for the build. The only directions on the look was that it should be all business, black and bear Indochina’s logo and the flags of the countries where the company operates — Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.”
“I built the bike under the tutelage of Toby Stanton of Hot Tubes at his shop in Shirley, MA. We used Columbus Life and Zona tubes, Llewellyn rear dropouts (kudos to Mike Zanconato for lending them to us) and a cast bottom bracket shell.”
“The frame is a mixture of TIG welding and brazing. Toby and I conceived the paint scheme together, but the the stellar execution was all him. Prior to the bike being built up, I received word that Indochina Productions expanded into four new markets and a request that their flags be on the bike as well. So the flags of Myanmar, Philippines, Maldives and Sri Lanka went on the ENVE cross fork.”
“My plan is to make just three more bikes this year, renting shop space while still looking for a place of my own. I’m still working on the Vigo Cycles website, but inquiries can be sent to me at troysel (at) earthlink (dot) net.
Special thanks to Troy for the story and Ian Rutter of Haute Capture.