FIRST LOOK: BRIDGE BIKE WORKS SURVEYOR

It kind of all began at last year’s Sea Otter Classic when Blacksmith Bike Shop owner Mike Yakubowicz approached and said he had something to show me, something that I couldn’t talk about at the time.  I’ve known Mike for a few years from our annual meet-ups at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and have to say that there are few people who are as totally entrenched in the tech and product details of road bikes as Mike.

In short, Mike is a tried and true bike geek. And now, in addition to the high-end bike shop he’s run for over a decade in Toronto, he and his partners are embarking on new bike project of massive proportions.  When he spoke of coming out with his own bike last fall, the story morphed into a full-scale bike brand and factory build effort initially focused on a single all-road bike dubbed the Surveyor.

Bridge Bike Works is the name of the new brand and most impressively, the bike is not just some open mold model popped out of a factory in Taiwan. No, quite the contrary. The frames are made in a new, purpose-built factory in Toronto where according to Mike, “The first question we asked ourselves was if we could build it here, build it better and build it for a price that people can afford – especially for a domestic made frame.” With that goal in mind, the Bridge team went to work.

According to Mike, the next question the team asked themselves was, what kind of bike do we want to build? “I don’t think there’s such a thing as a ‘perfect’ bike,” said Mike, “but what we were after was a really good all-’rounder to be the one bike you could ride for a few years. We know there are a lot of good bikes out there, our goal was to do our own thing and approach things differently.”

The 900-gram frame will be available in five sizes and five colors (plus a ready to paint option at a $200 discount) for around $5000. Complete bikes (with both Shimano and SRAM components) will also be available starting at $8000.  Given that the Surveyor was designed as a modern “all-road” bike, it has tire clearance for up to 40mm tires (still with a 417mm chainstay length). And yet, as modern as the bike is, it’s worth noting that it doesn’t rely on any silly integrated cockpit components or seatpost binder. We like that!  As with the frame, the fork is also a proprietary design and it can be had with one of two different rakes.

BRIDGE BIKE WORKS

Press Release

We are building a product that has the attention to detail and hand-built nature of boutique brands with the dedicated professional engineering, design and production of the big brands. Doing this meant we needed to assemble an amazing team. And, create a facility to make it happen.

We know your bike from the inside-out.

Our framesets are built with premium pre-impregnated (pre-preg) carbon fiber. Our proprietary layup schedule optimizes strength, weight and comfort and our carbon fork has two unique rakes to maintain ride characteristics across all 5 sizes.

We custom form our own latex bladders to produce consistent quality parts and every pre-preg ply is precisely CNC cut on our Autometrix cutting table to maximize material usage and provide repetitive consistency. We wrap these plies around the bladder and insert the raw part into a tool that we mill in-house using our HAAS CNC. The tool with the raw part is then placed in our 50-ton heated press for precision curing.

This process can yield some of the highest quality hollow carbon fiber parts. The parts are then bonded with aerospace-grade epoxy and then prepped for paint.

What does in-house mean to us?  Our Toronto base is a purpose-built, 8,200 sq. ft. advanced composites production facility. We engineer from the ground up. We cut our own tooling. We design our laminate schedule. We hand-lay our carbon fiber. We finish and paint all bikes. And we assemble and ship. All from our Toronto facility.

WHAT ABOUT THE SURVEYOR?

From asphalt, to rugged roads, to gravel, Surveyor has you covered. Designed for optimum performance with 28-40 mm tires, we’ve engineered and hand-built a bike to handle the entire spectrum of your all-road needs. Surveyor was created with the goal of creating a modern classic: mating thoroughly modern technology and thinking to a classic silhouette and timeless features, making Surveyor a unique choice for the distinguished rider.

Images of complete bike builds are for reference only. BRIDGE has secured the parts that we have on offer. Parts availability is still constrained in 2022. If your build is time sensitive we encourage you to order as soon as possible.
Shipments are expected to begin in July/August ’22 and will be based on a first-in-first-out basis. If you need any help with selections, don’t hesitate to reach out via our livechat, email or phone. Framesets come with: Frame, Fork, Headset, Thru-Axles, Seatpost Collar & Front Derailleur Clamp.

BRIDGE TECH DETAILS

COMFORT
It’s (almost) all about the seat-tube! We started with a sloped top tube (8-10 degrees) which allows for more seatpost exposure and thus more compliance. After much engineering and analysis we chose to use a round seat-tube for a 27.2 seatpost: it is lighter, more durable, but more than anything, it is MORE COMFORTABLE.

AERO
Why be slower if you don’t have to? We don’t give up comfort for our aerodynamics, especially since frontal aero is the key.
* Fully internal cable routing
* Wider fork stance for aerodynamics with bigger tires
* D shaped downtube
* Proprietary fork for ideal fork-to-frame transition
* Stack and reach within 5% of most race bikes

STIFF
The downtube is around 60mm in diameter, creating monstrous power transfer. Up front, the proprietary fork with tapered steerer was designed to rail without beating you up. Plus, there are near limitless cockpit combinations that you can choose based on your preferences.

LIGHT
At ~900 grams (no fork or paint) it is close to best in class for the all-road category. Because the Surveyor is handmade to incredibly high standards and quality controlled at every step – achieving light weights without sacrificing durability is a reality.

VERSATILE
BIG. TIRES. RULE. We promise. For most riding, from neglected Canadian roads to light gravel and dirt, a 30-35 mm tire is pretty much perfect. So we kept it simple, we designed a race bike that will take massive tires. Up to 38 mm… officially. Wink.

For more: Bridge Bike Works