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Check out the Project D, the coolest bike you’ll see this week

With twin top tubes and seat tubes, this carbon fibre and steel road bike turned heads – and won awards – at last weekend’s Bespoked Handmade Bicycle Show

We bring you some stunning bikes in the road.cc Bike at Bedtime slot and this Project D – which doesn’t really have a model name – is an absolute beauty, coming with twin top tubes and seat tubes, flattened chainstays and… well, just look at it. Made from carbon fibre and steel, this is one gorgeous machine.

Project D is the work of Dominik Dominiak – cool name! – based in Lodz, Poland. He was exhibiting at the Bespoked Handmade Bicycle Show in Dresden, Germany, over the weekend, where he wrapped up the award for Best New Builder and the Mike Burrows Award for Innovation. Project D was the only builder to win two awards.

> Check out 10 stunning bikes from Bespoked Handmade Bicycle Show 

“Overall, I wanted to create a comfortable riding experience – a modern steel bike with all the latest interfaces and capabilities,” says Dominik. “I have tried a couple of new high-end carbon bikes and disliked them – too rigid and I felt sore after one hour of riding – so I kept coming back to my old steel road bikes. This bike was born out of a desire to ride comfortably for longer.”

The frameset doesn’t have a name, as such. Dominik simply refers to it as ‘Dropbar’ because it can be tuned to both road bike and gravel riding – so that’s kind of the name, by default.

2023 Bespoked Project D 2 (Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)
(Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)

It is made from several different materials. The bottom of the frame is silver-brazed stainless steel. The down tube is Columbus XCr [stainless seamless steel], and the head tube, chainstays and dropouts are 3D-printed 17-4 stainless steel. The top of the frame – the seatstays, top tubes and seat tubes – are carbon fibre tubes.

The fork is 3D-printed from stainless steel in three parts: the crown and steerer are one part, and the two legs are produced separately.

Dominik says, “The idea behind using different materials is this: the bottom steel ‘backbone’ is great at [dealing with] high-frequency, jarring vibrations, and the top skeleton where the rider sits is responsible for taking on low-frequency vibrations.

“The ‘lightbulb’ idea behind tube splitting was that a single tube bends the same way in each direction, but take the same amount of material and split it into two tubes, and you introduce new degrees of design freedom.”

“Twin tubes add compliance in specific areas and directions. Twin top tubes help up and down head tube movement but the slight angle between them helps prevent head tube twisting and the noodly feel when cornering.

2023 Bespoked Project D 3 (Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)
(Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)

“Twin seat tubes help the seat swing back and forth a little but also enable a bit of sideways twist, which helps comfort.”

The 3D-printed chainstays are variable in both profile and wall thickness; take a look at how flat they are in the middle. The idea is to encourage a little up/down flex.

The head tube is 1.5in top and bottom (the external diameter is around 58mm) to enable internal cable routing, while the bottom bracket is threaded BSA. It has a bulge that enables the chainstays and down tube to be attached a little lower than would otherwise be possible, and still get in three cables without going to a T47 BB standard.

The wheels use 12 mm thru axles (12x100mm front and 12x142mm rear).

Dominik’s background is in biotechnology and environmental engineering, and the mechanical engineering is entirely self-taught. He still has a day job. The design process for the bike you see here started in January and he began building around May/June.

“I have been designing bikes for over 15 years but I actively took on building around five years ago,” says Dominik. “So far, everything I’ve built has been a one-off, but I plan to make more of the bikes I presented at Bespoked. Now that I have most things figured out, I would need around three months to make another one, fitting around my job and family.”

2023 Bespoked Project D 1 (Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)
(Rory Hitchens/Greenleaves Cycling)

A Project D Dropbar (frame, fork, headset, seat hardware, axles and paint) would cost you about €5,000–€5,500 (£4,350–£4775), depending on the paint job.

If you’re wondering about the Star Wars figures sitting in front of the bike in the main picture, by the way, they’re there because, as mentioned above, Project D won two awards at Bespoked. The winner of each category received a one-of-a-kind handmade Star Wars-themed sculpture as part of their prize. Why Star Wars? Why not?

Project D is contactable via Instagram under project_d_bicycles

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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11 comments

Avatar
ubercurmudgeon | 1 year ago
1 like

Think of all the energy bars you could wedge into those gaps! You could do a sportive ride, and sell them to other riders as you pass by. A one-man, mobile feed station.

Avatar
Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
2 likes

Might have been a lightbulb moment for Dominik but hardly a new idea to split the tubes, e.g. Viva have been doing it for years - 2009 singlespeed Duro example:

Avatar
Sredlums replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
0 likes

Many brands over the years have had split top tubes. I've never seen a split seat tube however, and I've seen a lot of wild bikes and designs pass by.

Avatar
rct replied to Sredlums | 1 year ago
0 likes

Been plenty over the years, maybe not in that orientation though.

 

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Sredlums | 1 year ago
1 like

Rondinella (despite the Italian name actually built by Vic Edwards in Romford), 1982.

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
0 likes

C.A.C.E.G track bike, sorry don't know the year, built with a spilt seat tube to allow for shorter wheelbase.

Avatar
Sriracha replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
0 likes

C'mon, it's crying out for one of those split saddles!

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Xenophon2 | 1 year ago
2 likes

Looks interesting, makes absolutely no sense from an engineering standpoint.  I'll pass.

Avatar
espressodan | 1 year ago
2 likes

Interesting design concerns, but this bike makes no sense to me from an efficiency, aerodynamic, maintenance or materials compatibility perspective.

I get the vibe of a 1980's raleigh shopping bike design cue squeezed into a road bike form factor.

Avatar
Miller | 1 year ago
1 like

Striking design. Seems lacking in the seat height adjustment department but I suppose that's what custom is for, lol.

Avatar
AidanR | 1 year ago
3 likes

I want

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