THE BUILDER
Meet Brad Bingham
Learning the craft from the bottom up, it’s been a long journey for Brad Bingham in the bicycle frame building industry. An inherent interest in bikes and design led to the creation of his first bicycle frame in 1996. He was 19 years old when it all began in the garage of his home in Newberg, Oregon. With a desire to learn the art of making titanium bikes, he enrolled at The United Bicycle Institute where he learned about the use of titanium.
Brad moved to Steamboat Springs CO in 1997, where he spent 15 years working at Moots Cycles and 5 years at Kent Eriksen Cycles. Many people don’t know that Kent Eriksen founded Moots in 1981. Brad worked along side Kent at Moots for a number of years until Kent moved on and created Kent Eriksen Cycles in 2006. Brad’s career led him back to Kent again in 2012 at Eriksen Cycles. In over 25 years Brad has acquired top notch experience working with the best in the industry. Bingham Built was born in 2017 when Kent retired and Brad took over Eriksen Cycles.
Brad’s passion for bicycles extends far beyond the design, welding, and build process. He is an avid cyclist and competes in many races across multiple disciplines. He enjoys the camaraderie and spirit of all types of cycling events, competitive or not. At 46 years young, he races at the elite level in mountain biking, and is a regular at many local Colorado bike races. He also enjoys non-race style events like Gran Fondos, social rides, ultra-endurance rides, and group rides. Bikepacking and touring is also a hobby since there are so many different routes and options in and around our home of Steamboat Springs, CO. The joy and sense of well-being brought on by designing, creating, and riding bicycles has become a way of life for Brad and he won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
Intentional Practice
We can say for certain Brad has spent more than 10,000 hours of deliberate and intentional practice building titanium bikes. Some people say 10,000 hours is the mark to hit for mastering a skill. If you ask him, he’ll say he hasn’t mastered building bikes, welding, or any part of the process. He’ll say there’s always room for improvement. Putting intentional practice and training into a skill doesn’t necessarily make it easier, it just makes things done in the past easier and opens the door for more ways to improve in the future.
Things change in the bike industry all the time, not limited to the ever-evolving component technology, rider styles and preferences change as trends come and go, and we learn more about how geometry affects efficiency and fun factor. Building custom bikes with this evolution in mind requires constant learning, adaptation, and listening to past, present and future Bingham Built clients and all cyclists in general. Brad’s entire process from beginning to end is more nuanced than you’d expect. It’s both an art and a science and he’s always raising the bar for himself.
