How long should a bike last?

If most bike companies had their way, the answer to that would be a year or two at most. Every September, without fail, the latest bike models are released into the world and cyclists are pushed to upgrade to what is often just a new splash of paint.

At Temple Cycles, we think differently. We don’t bring out a new model every year just for the sake of it, nor do we believe that you should cast your bike aside every time a tweak is introduced. Instead, we believe that our bikes can truly be a bike for life.

But what does that really mean? It comes down to three key details, all of which add up to a bike that can last a lifetime.

Keep it custom

In general, bikes come boxed straight from the factory as one of thousands of identical models, which are designed to suit a hypothetical ‘average’ rider and therefore make for a pretty impersonal experience.

Temple Cycles is based in Bristol, where we handbuild all our bikes to order. That means you can make a bike that is truly yours, one which will be unique to you. We offer a range of colours as well as finishing touches, such as Brooks leather saddles that shape to your form over the years. All our bikes come with mounting points for racks and mudguards too, meaning you can adapt your bike over the years to be anything from a city cruiser to a touring bike. When you’re part of the design process, it’s easy to see why you’d want to hang onto your bike for a long time.

 

Steel = real

There was once a time when every bike was made from steel, from the most basic shopping bike to the very best professional racing machines. Today, most bike companies plump for aluminium, simply because it’s a cheaper material to buy and easier to work with. That’s where the benefits stop, however, as aluminium has nothing like the comfort or longevity of steel. A well-made steel bike can last for decades. Even if it were to be damaged somehow, a steel bike can be repaired in a way no aluminium bike ever could.

Every Temple Cycles bike is built from Reynolds 525 chromoly steel, a high-quality steel alloy from the legendary British company. We chose this steel in part because of its similar properties to the classic Reynolds 531 alloy that was the gold standard of
Iightweight bike building for over eighty years. This combination of steel’s imitable properties and unbeatable Reynolds quality means that every Temple is designed to last.

 

Finishing touches

This steel is protected with a tough powder coated finish, which is baked in an oversized oven to produce an extremely hard wearing paint job that just happens to look great too.

Before this step, all our bikes are given a rust resisting treatment known a e-coat, a step very few bike companies choose to do simply because it adds manufacturing cost. We feel this invisible yet important extra stage in the production process helps to protect the bike from the elements and produces a finish that can happily last forty years between resprays.

And that, in short, is how you make a bike for life. Interested in your own lifetime of riding? Check out the Temple Cycles range here.