Founded by James Barnham (engineer and cycling geek)
“From as far back as I can remember, I’ve been on bikes. We grew up without a car and the family cycled everywhere. That love of freedom you get when cycling has never left me. My interest in cycling became more and more technical and I spent 10 years in London cycle shops, from sales to professional mechanic to managing two stores. Since building my first wheels in 1992 I developed a real interest in the art of building wheels which led to me start up LondonSpokes.”
Cycling Interests
Mountain Biking
Mountain Biking in the UK really started to take off in the late 1980s. James bought his first mountain bike in 1988, a Ridgeback 702LX – a very capable machine of its time with only a handful of brands making quality mountain bikes and Ridgeback was up there.
Over the years James has owned too many bikes, trikes and tandems to count, yet at the time of writing owns six.
Recumbents
James has always been fascinated in the aerodynamic advantage that recumbents offer and in 1994 he purchased his first, a Kingcycle which was collected from Miles Kingsbury at his engineering workshop in High Wycombe (+ a friendly tour of the amazing developments he was working on).
Since then he has owned and modified two Burrows AVD Windcheetah models. More details will be added on this site about the engineering modifications soon.
Background: Late release Windcheetah Hypersport with carbon fibre fairing
Fixed Wheel
The simplicity of a Fixed Wheel bike is incredible. The bike is stripped of all inessential components – there is nothing more you could remove. Riding a fixed wheel bike feels sharp, connected, thrilling and totally silent. Lovely!
