Based in Dublin, Ireland, FiftyOne Bikes is a manufacturer of hand-built custom road & gravel bikes as well as factory-built bikes - with a twist. Every bike is made to exacting standards and designed to the especially textured understanding 51 have of the needs of each individual rider.
FiftyOne Bikes was founded in 2016 by former international rider Aidan Duff, in response to the disappearance from top-end race bike brands of the custom options that he had always enjoyed during his career.
"All of the frames I’ve had since I was a junior have been hand-built to my dimensions, and I could build the characteristics that I wanted into them. When I started to compare the experience and the finished product that I had back then to what is available now, and particularly the prices people are willing to pay for a stock Chinese-made frame, I thought, ‘There’s something wrong here that people are spending over €10k on a bike without having any input on how it should look or handle or fit.”
Aidan set out to combine bespoke building by hand with advanced carbon fibre to deliver the best of both worlds, and to finish it off with spectacularly individual paint. The gallery of completed builds now stands as testament to the concept, with their only commonality being their individuality. No two geometries or paint schemes are alike.
On entering the gravel sector in 2021, these values were applied to factory-made bikes in ways unprecedented in the bike industry. Front and rear adjustable geometry was introduced to enable the rider to find their ideal feeling and category-leading compatibility was built in for wheel, tyre, drivetrain and portage options. In short, it’s how a custom brand does factory building. Indeed, this ethos is now being applied to new ‘factory’ models like the SIKA.
FiftyOne, view the customer as an individual, not a collective. Their focus is on creating the best possible ride experience for you, knowing that this means different things to different riders.
Achieving this requires artisanal expertise in geometry and in the deployment of different carbon fibre grades. Moreover, it takes a special understanding of the rider as an individual and FiftyOne go to great lengths to learn what it is you really want from a bike. When these two knowledge sets are combined, the product is a bike that you hadn’t even dreamed would be so perfect for you.
The manifestation of this approach and these values obviously differs between the Factory and custom road bikes, but they exist in parallel.
Tailored geometry is the key to your personal confidence. The custom road bikes use bespoke geometry to suit how and where you ride; while the ASSASSIN gravel bikes feature adjustable geometry to achieve the same end, enabling you to find the feeling you want in your bike whether you’re racing, touring, exploring or shredding. In that sense, the custom side of the business has really guided how FiftyOne approach a factory-made bike.
Finish is key to a custom project - it is your stamp and is as unique as your geometry. A blank canvas can be intimidating unless you’re a graphic designer yourself and to pinpoint what style you really love, FiftyOne have developed a system that cuts through any difficulty you have in identifying or expressing it. The gallery of wildly unique FiftyOne customer bikes, is testament to the success of the method.
'Custom’ isn’t enough. FiftyOne make it personal.