We have just spoken with the founders – Benjamin and Charlotte - of this small Spanish brand that combines experience, intelligence and fun, bringing you unique bikes that may just be the future - made by real humans!
VÄSTERÅS 2021-12-18. For XL Biking: Ebbe Silva & Kat Donohue.
Hardtail MTBs and Gravel bikes are awesome! Every major brand has been revamping and redesigning their hardtail segment to meet the needs of riders - well, almost all riders! SUBA Cycles offer these mean machines from ready specs and (here comes the magic) true custom designs! A unique bike tailored to your needs and riding style; no guesswork added. Their design and experience could be the key to unlocking your full riding potential and a box full of smiles on the trails, roads and byways. Welcome to our interview with them!
What does SUBA mean? Tell us more about your brand and what you do.
We are cycling people who ride our bikes in every possible situation from racing to bike packing, casual rides, grocery shopping, social rides, family rides with a trailer attached to the bikes, you name it!
We are also professionals who design hand-built steel MTB and Gravel Bikes created and engineered by ourselves. We offer fully customisable geometry for our hardtail and gravel frames in steel. Hand built steel frames give you the reliability, durability, compliance and simplicity you need as a rider. Our relationship with customers is very important and special for us. When you order your bike from us you will be dealing with the actual, real human who designed and built it.
The surrounding landscapes have shaped the name SUBA, contraction of “SUBE y BAJA” meaning “what goes up must come down”, and so on. Challenging single tracks going up (the Pyrenees are our backyard) and technical downhills, sometimes all the way to the sea. That is how we love riding our bikes, that is what we live for. And, that's where we do everything, in the beautiful Northern part of Spain (Cataluña) or "at home". We are a family project so communication, administration, designing, building and riding happens right here.
Why should larger riders like us, and others, be interested in SUBA bikes? Any examples?
We can design and produce bikes for very specific sizes and weight categories, from XS to XL. It’s one of the big advantages of the steel frames: they can be fully customisable to meet anyone's needs. We use adequate tubes and reinforcements where they're needed.
When you order from us, we will spend a fair amount of time going over your specific project with you (via phone, video calls) and give you a virtual tour of the workshop. Then we will go over technical details, intended use of the bike and so forth. The same OD (outside diameter) of a steel tube can offer up to 3 different wall thicknesses to best suit your needs.
(C): Take Benjamin's bikes for example. He has a background in trail riding and having collaborated for years with renown frame builders, he wanted something very specific and non-compromising, far from mass-market requirements. He also loves to ride his gravel bike with a single wheeled trailer with our baby, so he made the frame to be stronger for this specific use, designing a new swingarm to accommodate a larger wheel with a longer shock stroke.
(B): Charlotte's bike is another example. Being a lighter rider, we made her SUBA HT 140 with lighter tubes than that for a rider of 80+ Kg.
(C): So, yeah, ask us about a custom MTB steel frame with 120 to 170 fork travel, sliding dropouts, crazy low bottom bracket or slacker than slack steering angle. Benjamin has been through some pretty wild designs and field tests and loves to share his thoughts on hardtail bikes! For instance, Reynolds Technologies is the only tube maker who provides quality product to build frames with a comfortable reach of 520mm within sleeve, there are oversized tubes available, we design all our CNC parts (dropouts, yoke, head tubes) and source them locally for a fast, very responsive and reliable service.
We have also developed a fast and comfortable gravel rig too, named the "AllRoad" with innovative power charging solutions and clean cable routing for example.
We have riders weighing 130-150 kg, what do you recommend?
(C): Custom sizing is our core business. Benjamin has previously overseen Quality Control elsewhere, as well as Customer Service for a major Adventure Trip Organiser and is a Mechanic Instructor, so we’re very happy listening to special requests and finding the optimal solution to achieve your goals. For example, we are only using T47 bottom bracket shells for their greater tube to tube contact surfaces and bearing longevity; we can design a frame with the adequate OD44.2mm downtube and OD38 top tube sections, reinforcing seat stays using 22mm tubes with thicker walls, always from the Reynolds catalogue.
Impressive! So, are these your main bike models?
We offer MTB hardtail frames for Trail (120-130mm), All Mountain (140-150mm) and Enduro (150-160-170mm). We also offer the adventure bikes: gravel and all road, most of them with 29" or 700 wheels which we believe are more suitable to handle rocky surface but downsizing to 650b for S and XS frames. (Bikes and full specs here)
You also offer a gear box solution that could be the future of enduro riding. Please explain.
Our partner Effigear offers a local solution, readily available, built in Europe by a reliable team focused on customer support. The mechanism is simply fantastic to use. Perfectly adequate for a gravity-oriented bike or a hassle free, long hauler bike - exactly the range of frames SUBA is offering.
Some of the main advantages of this solution are:
Minimal maintenance - Drain the oil once a year, fill up again, and off you go!
Instant gear changes - You can even change gears under load.
5 years warranty - Are you game yet?
Get in touch and we will happily go over even more exciting details! A new time is here! We've been testing and using gear boxes for more than 10 years, so we have hands-on expertise and know how to integrate it into our designs and frames for your best performance."
Any exciting plans for the near future?
We are currently in the making of a carbon lug to steel All Mountain frames to replace the TT and the ST in order to have a snappier feeling, with custom hand layered carbon from a Spanish maker. There is a method of vinyl wrapping that could see the light in order to offer a fully shiny chromed front triangle (we want to keep our paint scheme of 1/3 front and 2/3 in the back but painted wrapped/sprayed). There is also a full suspension frame being thought upon. We hope this one will hit the bike park track for the summer, if time allows.
Hot spots for riding MTB and gravel in your area of spain?
Cataluña is full of amazing spots to ride, Gravel or MTB! We have some bike parks open all year long, and very interesting spots for Enduro (with lifts if necessary). The gravel scene in the Girona area is very famous. It is surrounded by mountains and not far from the Costa Brava, where you have some of the nicest beaches of Cataluña. Some big events such as the Badlands tour also happens every year.
The Sevilla area down South is fantastic for its food and flatter lands. We also love le Cerdaña for the sunniest season of the year, riding in the Pyrenees is just magic! You can't go wrong on planning a trip to SP. The biking community is very cooperative to share their routes and Spanish people are simply nice, I mean very nice people!
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XL Biking. SUBA Cyles
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