NAHBS 2012: SyCip Bikes’ Cross Dresser Cyclocross Bike, Jeremy SyCip Interview

Clifford Lee of Cyclocross Magazine caught up with Jeremy SyCip of SyCip Bikes at NAHBS 2012 in Sacramento for a quick interview. Jeremy has building bikes since 1992 after apprenticing with Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster, and certainly has picked up the art of welding quickly, building his own brand into a well-recognized NorCal name. Sadoff certainly isn’t surprised by SyCip’s success, and had nothing but accolades for his former protégé, even going as far as to say Jeremy is the “new master” due to his creativity.

Originally SyCip Bikes was run by the two SyCip brothers, Jeremy and Jay, and with an early Paul Sadoff influence, it’s not surprising that the company has produced quite a number of cyclocross bikes over the years, and like Rock Lobster, has sponsored a NorCal-based cyclocross team, making his Cross Dresser cyclocross bikes relatively common on the NorCal circuit. A discerning eye might even notice a few SyCip-built Forza cyclocross bikes from the defunct Reno-based Galeoto Speed Research (GSR) bike company still out there.

Jeremy SyCip has always been the welder, and since his brother Jay left to run the Cielo division at Chris King Precision Cycles, Jeremy has run SyCip as a one-person operation, which makes him busier than ever before with new tasks beyond being the torch bearer.  However he continues to put out beautiful, innovative bikes with whimsical details such as dimes as seat stay caps.

His show bike was a steel Cross Dresser cyclocross bike, with polished stainless steel chainstays, a distinctive wishbone seat stay junction that allows a clean, centered rear brake cable routing, custom SyCip-branded drop outs, matching SyCip bar tape, and a standard 68mm bottom bracket shell and straight head tube for a 1-1/8″ steerer.

He typically builds his cyclocross bikes with what he calls road bottom bracket drop of 7.0, but noted that some Hup United customers wanted an ultra-low-for-cross 7.8  cm drop.  He likes internal cable routing and electronic shifting, and uses Di2 on one of his personal bikes, although his show bike featured Shimano’s CX70 and Ultegra cyclocross components and top tube cable routing.

NAHBS 2012 may have come and gone, but we’ve got a ton of profiles of handmade cyclocross bikes and builders from NAHBS still to come. View our recent NAHBS 2012 cyclocross coverage.

Interview with Jeremy SyCip of SyCip Bikes:

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Photo Gallery of SyCip Bikes’ Cross Dresser Cyclocross Bike from NAHBS 2012: