In December 2017 Isen Workshop announced and “launched” their All Season Road frameset. If you’ve not heard of Isen Workshop, well that’s because it’s a new venture between Caren Hartley of Hartley Cycles and Matt McDonough of Talbot Frameworks, to create a new brand of hand-built bikes based in London. The pair first conceived the Idea in 2016 and it’s now operational, with a mission is to create beautiful production bikes, hand-made from start to finish in the UK, in a range of sizes to fit all riders.
The Isen Workshop All Season Road, is the launch model and is pitched as a high performance, lightweight steel bike, designed for long distance rides on mixed terrain. Each frame is hand painted in a multi-colour “candy” fade.
It’s not quite new, just new to the open market as Isen sold out a first batch in 2017 largely via the LFGSS forum (there is a 77 page thread on the journey, including customer builds here).
The company is now taking orders for the second batch of All Season Road framesets, with production limited to 30. If you’re quick you might get the discounted price of £1,500 versus the retail of £1,750.
The All Season Road is a frameset that might well appeal to a lot of riders (myself included). In many ways it’s bang on trend: Endurance road geometry, big tyre clearances, 700c or 650b wheel compatibility, hand made, hand painted, it uses a custom blend of steels, with the increasingly popular Columbus Futura fork. The geometry looks well considered too. Isen tell me that frame weight is around 1800gms for a 55cm size and the fork weighs around 450 gms.
I think it looks like a really interesting bike and will keep reading the LFGSS thread to hopefully enjoy more of the finished builds.
If you’d like more information, visit the website here but here are the key details (via Isen Workshop):
– Made-to-order production frames in production sizes: 47cm to 59cm.
– Frameset designed with a focus on versatility, allowing riders to tailor wheel and tyre sizes depending on distance and terrain: the larger frame sizes accommodate both 650B and 700c wheelsets, while smaller frame sizes take both 650c and 26” wheelsets. The Isen All Season Road builds well into a fast road machine or a mile munching endurance bike.
– Custom blend of steel tubing, specifically selected from the best of Reynolds, Columbus and Dedacciai to provide lateral stiffness and vertical compliance.
Frameset Specifications (also via Isen):
- The latest Columbus Futura fork. Tapered carbon steerer, 1 1/8 – 1 1/4 on frame sizes: 53cm, 55cm, 57cm, 59cm, and 1 1/8 – 1 1/2 on frame sizes 47cm, 49cm, and 51cm.
- Includes a legendary Chris King Inset headset.
- Compatible with electronic and mechanical groupsets.
- Maximum tyre clearance 700c x 35c or 650B x 40c on frame sizes: 53cm, 55cm, 57cm, 59cm. On frame sizes 47cm, 49cm, and 51cm, the maximum tyre clearance is 650c x 35c or 26′′ x 1.6′′.
- Flat mount disc and rear mudguard mounts on all frames. Fork mudguard mounts on frames sizes: 53cm, 55cm, 57cm, 59cm. On frame sizes: 47cm, 49cm, and 51cm, there are no mudguard mounts on forks, but there is space for a clip-on guard.
- 12mm thru axle fork / 9mm QR rear.
- Internal cable routing on frame for brake, electronic shifting, and dynamo.
- Rear rack mounts.
- 2 bottle bosses on all frame sizes.
