About Gellie Custom

Gellie Custom - handmade steel bike frames crafted one at a time, blending expertise in framebuilding, manufacturing and hard-core riding.

I'm about making the best frame or bicycle for a customer's needs by selecting the right frame-tubes and fitting the design to the rider; the enormous range of steel frame-tubes available lets me tailor the frame's ride-feel and characteristics. I don't use 'standard' frame tube sets.

The frames I make are for riding: frames that are primarily all about how they ride. Frames I'd love to use myself and tell people about. I like the saying adopted by another well known USA-based framebuilder, 'perfection is imperfection': my frames are hand-made after all.

I build those tubes into frames with simple, clean lines with a balanced look that's the result of looking at thousands of frames. Read more about how I operate and how to order in the Process section. Steel is real and I'm about sharing the love of lightweight steel bike frames.

I combine Australian-champion level cycling on frames that I made myself, with car-industry Professional Engineering experience. I've ridden and raced bikes since '82, built frames since '88, and rode my frames to become Aussie Downhill Mountainbike Champion in '88, runner-up '89 and Champion again in '91.

A downhiller in the Aussie Team at the '92 Worlds in Italy, I placed 15th. Not too shabby I reckon given I dropped the bike on one corner! Defending my downhill title against John Tomac later that year at the '92 Oz Nationals Downhill, I crashed with a mechanical failure (not my work!) and finished on a stretcher.

I modified my first frame with a local framebuilder and went on to build more frames for myself and others - mountainbike, road, rear-suspension MTB, mountainbike-tandem and road-tandem frames.

I went on to work with the last bicycle manufacturer in Australia, then to GM-Holden, Ford & Toyota as a professional mechanical engineer, troubleshooting engine and car manufacturing. That experience changed my approach to my work and I now pursue my passion and make lightweight steel bike frames to order.

Cheers,

Ewen Gellie