Hampsten Cycles

Process

Contact
If you are interested in a frame or whole/partial bike – or simply want to get more information – please call 206-524-6010 or email steve@hampsten.com. If I’m not here I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible. If you are in or are visiting Seattle I’ll be happy to meet you in person and give a tour of our vast factory.

Wait times
I try to keep wait times to a minimum and to keep our customers in the loop regarding their place in the queue. Build order and wait times are shown on my blog, Fermaguiana, over on the right side under “Status.” Most frames are built in order of sale, although some complicated or prototype builds may happen sooner or slower than originally anticipated.

Deposits
For interested customers I’m happy to render one or two preliminary drawings in BikeCAD so you can see how your proposed frame will look from my perspective. I’m also happy to give a detailed price quote for your new bike. After two drawings have been made, however, I require a commitment in the form of a deposit to continue any further design work. Once you have made your deposit, the price quoted is set. Deposits are listed here and clicking the “Add to Cart” button will take you to our PayPal page.

I do ask for a fairly substantial deposit, which serves several purposes: it keeps both parties focused on the build, it tends to weed out less-serious customers, and it provides capital to offset the costs of producing your new frame or bicycle.

Cancellation
We realize that sometimes an order will get cancelled. In most cases I reserve the right to withhold up to $250 from your deposit as compensation for time spent on emails and phone calls and for drawings rendered. This is not intended to be punitive, but simply as a guarantee that I will be paid a reasonable wage for my time and efforts. In the case where a deposit has been made but little or no time has been invested a full refund is likely.

Once we have started cutting tubes for your new frame, a refund for the deposit is no longer possible. We will refund a portion of a deposit paid on a whole bike order.

Fitting
This my least favorite can of worms. Some customers fit their new bikes just great and we don’t have to make any changes. But still some bikes need a little tweaking to be comfortable, and some are simply in need of a good professional fit to enjoy their new bicycle. While we don’t have huge amounts of faith in the bike fit industry as a whole, we realize fitters need to pay the rent too and some of them are quite good at what they do.

The best scenario is when Andy or I can see you on your bike and tweak it as needed; second best is when you are happy with your current fit and few changes will be made. Beyond these scenarios, fitting can be tricky and may involve seeing a professional fitter.

Paint and decals
We like single-color paint schemes here at HampCo, maybe with a stripe or panel worked in, particularly on Tournesol – but we like simplicity most of all. We do several Team 7-Eleven paint schemes each year, usually Huffy-style but occasionally the Eddy Merckx version. We have plenty of good ideas – and opinions – on color here or you can send us the PPG color code of that ‘62 Galaxie 500 you’re trying to match as paint codes are available at most automotive paint shops.

Decals are listed lower on this page, we have most or all of them in stock, and we don’t make custom decals.

Build
We are happy to build you a whole bike from scratch, or we can do a partial build, or wheels only – whatever works for you. But we avoid working with used parts if possible.

Every frame is checked and prepped after receiving it back from paint or finishing and, if you request it, we can apply Framesavr anti-rust goo. We assemble all whole bikes in-house and I personally pack each frame or bike for shipping.

Delivery
If you’ve ordered a frame and fork it will arrive in a custom frame box with scads of (mostly) recyclable material. If you’re getting a whole build with wheels it will arrive in an Air Caddy box for easy packing and quick assembly. If you’ve ordered a frame with partial build and no wheels it’s a big pain in the butt but we’ll still get it to you.

Details

Build kit pricing – $575
Our HampCo standard build kit is shown here and includes Chris King headset, Deda Zero100 bars, Fizik Aliante saddle/seatpost/tape, King cages, Thomson stem; pedals not included in price above. Substitutions are fine and will be priced accordingly.

Parts kit (8 pieces) pricing as of February 2012

Campagnolo
Super Record – $2550
Record – $2225
Chorus – $1675
Athena – $1350

Shimano
Dura Ace Di2 – inquire
Dura Ace – $2050
Ultegra Di2 – inquire
Ultegra – $1075

SRAM (2011)
Red (Black) – $2250
Force – $1025
Rival – $800
Apex – $625

Wheels:
HampCo hand-built wheels using Mavic Open Pro or DT Swiss 465 rims and spokes:

• DT Swiss 240s hubs – $875
• Dura Ace hubs – $825
• Chris King hubs – $925
• Pre-built wheels available as quoted

Colors and Paint:
A good resource for color choice is the Co-Motion color page or the Independent Fabrication color page, pdf download.

We use primarily PPG automotive paints so samples and chips are available worldwide. We can also strip, refurbish, and repaint your older Hampsten frame and fork, usually starting at $500 – please inquire. This price includes alignment check, application of Framesavr, fork inspection for visible damage; shipping is usually extra. Paint on titanium frames starts at $350.

Decals:
Our standard decals are designed by famed typographer Paul Barnes – the font is called “Andy Hampsten” – and feature a re-drawn boar and brand-new down tube graphic. In solid colors we have:

▪ Black
▪ Cream
▪ White

With solid color fill and contrasting outline we have:
▪ Yellow with red outline
▪ Blue with dark blue outline
▪ Red with black outline
▪ White with red outline
▪ White with black outline

New for 2012 is our script logo, designed by Rich Roat and the folks at House Industries:
▪ white with matching boars
▪ black with matching boars
▪ pale green with matching boars

Smilin’ Andy on the seat tube, as always, or a boar by request.

Tournesol decals are:
▪ Cream/yellow with red fill
▪ Cream/yellow with blue fill

Our preference, and our usual recommendation with both Hampsten and Tournesol, is for single-color paint schemes with minimal decals. We feature a boar on the head tube, “Hampsten” on the down tube, and Smilin’ Andy (or a boar) on the seat tube. Tournesol frames have sunflowers on the head and seat tubes, “Tournesol” on the down tube. Tres simple, less is more, etc.