Biker Groves
Frame-building may not be Mark Groves’ day job, but his handmade bikes are exceptional from start to finish
Every now and then we get a letter from a reader. A fair few question our occasional coverage of e-bikes, which have been variously described as ‘abominations’, ‘ bête noires’ and ‘violations of the velocipede’ (never let it be said Cyclist readers have anything less than extensive vocabularies), but every now and again something more intriguing comes along. So it was with an email from a gentleman by the name of Mark Groves, subject line ‘Me and my bike’ and containing these words:
‘I started frame-building in 2013. I have attached some of my builds but it’s probably best to go through Instagram for more content, @grovescycles.’
We did as instructed and there, from elaborate pannier racks to gorgeous head badges made up of four brazed-together parts, it was apparent Mr Groves is something of a talent. We decided we should pay him a visit, but at the same time it left us wondering, why hadn’t we heard of him before?
Part of the furniture
‘My main business is with my brother making interior design fittings and bespoke furniture,’ says Groves from his workshop in Essex. ‘We started that business 32 years ago and we make one-off lamps, tables, chairs, barstools, chandeliers, all things like that.
‘But I’ve always ridden bikes ever since I was a kid in the 1970s. My friends and I used to buy up crappy old bikes and rip off all the gears, the brakes and the mudguards and just bomb round fields on them. Then around 2009 I was looking to get a new bike and I saw one of Ricky Feather’s first ones. I thought hang on, I could do what they’re doing. I have the skills and the tools.’
It was still a steep curve, from working out where to source tubes to learning the hard way how high a brake bridge should be – ‘I did the classic thing of not assembling the bike until after it was painted and the calliper didn’t reach’ – but a lifetime working with his hands gave Groves a solid foundation.
‘Now bikes are a proper business for me but I don’t make enough of them to warrant dropping the other side of my work – maybe six or seven a year. I like it that way though. I like that relationship with each client and the discussion and the story that goes into a frame.
‘I had this lovely guy, he was 84 and he said, “I’ve ridden all my life, I’ve had Bates, Hetchins, all that, but this is probably the last bike I’ll own so I want it sprayed up with death all over it.” So I made the frame and he got it painted up with all these airbrushed skulls everywhere. It came out amazing.’
He estimates that a bike takes more than a month, and that’s without things getting really complicated. When one customer asked for a ‘classic tourer’, Groves came up with his own racks from scratch and custom dynamo lights.
‘I just said to the guy, “What about having a light switch on top of the top cap?” And he said, “Ah, that sounds amazing!” Then I thought, how am I going to do that? You have to have a bolt in the top cap to set the headset so where’s the button going to go?
Then I made a steerer bung three inches down that you can access with a really long Allen key, and on top of that is the switch and all the dynamo wiring.’
The result is most pleasing, a brushed steel button inlaid on top of a copper-coloured stem. The design is meticulously executed and, like Groves’ furniture, very much a one-off.
Reinventing two wheels
Mark Groves’ personal bike is this one, a Columbus-tubed steel racer. In contrast to some of his other builds it looks relatively simple, but closer examination reveals some unique touches. The custom rear dropouts have replaceable stainless steel plates to prevent paint from getting chipped; similarly, you won’t find the cable entry/exit points in any parts catalogue.
‘I tried to do something a bit unique. I use a nickel tube – which doesn’t rust if water runs down it – as a cable guide inside the frame and normally you just silver braze the ends and file it back to a nice shape. But I was looking at it and thought I’d do something different.’
Like a lot of builders now Groves uses a large T47 bottom bracket, as much for the space it offers to route cables as for its threaded reliability, but has arrived at a more classic design for his integrated ‘fastback’ seat clamp.
‘I was thinking, what else can I do instead of having a squared-off seat tube with an aluminium clamp on top? I thought I could braze on the binder, and if I put it a bit lower I could angle the seat tube. Then as I was building it I thought, what if the bolt actually went through the seatstays? Like with all these things you think you’ve invented it, but I Googled it and saw other people had done it before.
‘It’s quite nervewracking,’ he adds. ‘You’ve built the frame then the last thing you do is put it in the mill and drill a hole through it for the bolt. If you’re even slightly out of line the drill’s coming out in the wrong place and you’ll have to replace the seatstays.’
But then that would appear to be Groves Cycles in a nutshell. Technically challenging, meticulously detailed and elegantly executed.
‘My friends and I used to buy up crappy old bikes and rip off all the gears, brakes and the mudguards and just bomb round fields’