One of my favorite frame builders, by far, has to be Bryan Hollingsworth, aka Royal H Cycles.
This variation of what I would call a timeless ‘all-road’ is so sick. The fade paint job really caught my eye, but the detail on the seat-tube, where the fade is a hard line meeting a Royal H logo. Hot damn. So good. The beautiful thing about this bike is that it could be your daily, your commuter, your touring bike, your gravel bike, your winter bike, and your single-track-shortcut-on-the-way-home bike. Not only is it beautiful, but it’s built to be whatever you need, and it doesn’t boast about it.
Bryan has been a staple of the Boston cycling community for a long time now, sharing work space, knowledge, and I’m sure plenty of hours together with other good friend, Marty Walsh of Geekhouse Bikes. Bryan is one of those people that is so genuine, and so earnest with what he loves and cares about, that it’s absolutely fulfilling to spend time with him. I’ve known Bryan for a long time now, since living in Boston, Philly, and now NYC. And it’s always a pleasure catching up. It’s like no time has passed at all.
Outside of Bryan being a real, quality human being, let’s not forget that he builds some of the most beautiful and classy bicycles you could ever imagine coming out of the Boston area. His bikes are everything you’d want out of a bike that you’d want to have forever. Yeah, he’s one of those builders.
Granted Bryan’s built bikes all over the spectrum, but our personal favorites are his absolutely beautiful and timeless road bikes, touring, rando, and townie builds. His lugs are a real work of art as well. He has a couple builds with filet brazed head tubes with a mix of lugs, and uggghhhh, they’re good. Timeless is a word I really find myself using a lot with Bryan’s bikes. And it’s so fitting. Hopefully I can get him to build me a commuter I can keep in my stable for the rest of my life.
Love ya Bry!! Hopefully see you soon!!
