TONY'S NO. 22 LITTLE WING SINGLE SPEED

This week’s bike of the week is Tony’s No. 22 Little Wing, custom built to be the ultimate commuter bike.

Often at Signature, we’re guilty of focussing on only the highest end of performance, bikes that will shave seconds off their owner’s PBs with ultra-light components made for conquering the Tourmalet. But in reality, for many of us, the bikes we use everyday have other priorities; practicality, longevity, ease of maintenance.

That’s what this bike, a No. 22 Little Wing built for Tony, represents. This is a commuter bike, for use cycling to and from work every day, and every decision made in the building of this bike was to best fulfil this purpose.

Tony is a great client of ours, having acquired a few custom bikes from us over the past 20 years. He loves cycling and enjoys many different types of riding, from road to gravel and mountain biking. He’s also an active club member of the NYCC, often leading rides and welcoming new members into the New York cycling scene.

As Tony is located in NYC, cycle commuting can be an ideal choice, avoiding the rush and crowds of the subway. The bike would be for use during winter time, so he was looking for a wider gauge tire, as winters in the East Coast can be brutal. He also wanted to keep it simple for the shorter journeys and ease of maintenance, and go for a fixed gear bike: one gear to rule them all.

With so many wonderful partners here at Signature, picking the right manufacturer would be a challenge. Tony was looking for something ultra durable that would sustain the abuse of riding in the snow, rain and salt on the roads in the winter. A titanium frame made the most sense. Inspired by their latest release this year at Sea Otter, the No. 22 Little Wing had everything that Tony was looking for in a bike: clean, sleek, with a durable design and disc brakes.

Making this bike 1x compatible is a complex task, having to use an eccentric bottom bracket in order to get the proper tension into the chain. To achieve this, No. 22 worked with Squid Bikes to develop a bottom bracket. The model also takes advantage of titanium 3D printing, using the method to fabricate their dropouts and headset.

We worked with some other great partners to finish the bike, pairing ONYX gold hubs with ENVE G23 carbon rims, for an extremely smooth and quiet ride. The crankset comes directly from Ingrid Bike, an Italian brand that specializes in the manufacturing of CNC alloy components, making some true beautiful cranksets, matching the look and spirit of the frame perfectly.

Keeping with the gold and bronze theme, Tony opted for the Midnight Bronze Ceratoke and Gold Anodised finish on the frame, a finish that No. 22 specializes in, producing some of the best looking anodised titanium frames on the market.

Every inch of this bike is built to be the best possible machine for commuting in NYC. We can’t wait to hear more from Tony on how this bike stands up to winter in New York (we think it’ll pass with flying colours!), and hope the stunning, durable and simple bike gives Tony many years of happy city riding.