A couple years ago Honey Bikes teamed up with Hup United to create a Limited Edition Cyclocross bike – a pure US race bike. We worked with Chip Baker and Hup founder Zac Daab on that project. That bike was a huge success and a lot of fun. We’ve been talking with Chip about doing another limited edition bike with Hup – and this is it! Actually, this is one of three; the other two bikes are a mountain bike and a winter trainer.
Project: Hup Cyclocross Race 2.0
Project Directive:
- Steel frame and carbon fork tipping the scales in the realm of aluminum and carbon – even lighter than the last one – while maintaining the classic Honey durability and warranty
- Disc specific – low mount frame and Enve carbon fork
- A frame geometry designed for tight New England cross courses while still being a blast to ride on some of the upcoming endurance cross races. April is right around the corner.
- Only offer a handful of bikes for a very limited time
- Design colorways that make this bike stand out – in a good way
- Represent Hup United!
I think we can accomplish all of these ideas. Oh, and we’re introducing the bike at a special Hup event in January. About 5-weeks away.
Okay, now it’s two weeks away. We’ve got the prototype frame in production.
Photos below the fold.
Project timeline in reverse:
January 11 | Lots of good design elements have come together on this bike. disc fork; tapered fork steerer; about 5 ounces lighter than the 1.0 Hup frame. Kit is a mix of SRAM Rival/Red. Great wheel. Paint scheme coming together; very different from what Honey has done before. That’s Hup for you! I want to ride this bike when it’s done – maybe before it’s done.
January 10 | Cutting metal today. Lots of details that are new and different. Some new tube butting; oversized seat tube, 44 mm head tube, superlight seatstays. More and more. Mike S. knocking it out of the park.
January 7 | Colorways underway. Three bikes on which to work so three distinct colorway to develop. I’m excited about all three; very different from the 2010 bike.
January 5 | We’re working on three bikes at once. For the cross bike we’ve settled on tubeset. Deciding on what size to build. Debating parts pick: SRAM for light weight or Shimano for some of the cool factor? What about Campy? We’re working on a separate Campy cross project so that’s already tied up. We decided we’re going to offer a non-disc version of the bike, too.
January 3, 2012 | The project is officially on. We have only a couple weeks to get this completed. We’re working on tubeset design, dropout and disc system – in order to minimize weight while maintaining braking performance. Colorways in play.
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