Dean owner John Siegrist puts the final touches on a new superlight titanium road frame. Siegrist welds every Dean frame himself.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean Titanium Bicycles has occupied the same space just east of Boulder for 25 years.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
A dirty lathe is a well-used lathe.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Experimental titanium tubes sit on a shelf in the workshop.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean machines its own small parts in-house.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean's rigid mountain bike forks feature titanium legs bonded into aluminum crowns made by White Brothers.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
This aluminum crown and titanium steerer will soon be a completed road fork.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
This Bridgeport mill sees a lot of service.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Yet another lathe sits on another side of the room.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
These miniscule aluminum swinglinks will soon find themselves integrated into a new full-suspension frame.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
These little marks are used in the bending process to get an even arc.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Bits of titanium scraps sit in the catch basin of one of the lathes at Dean Titanium Bicycles.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean even drilled out the dropouts on this road frame in an effort to shave every last gram.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Boxes of titanium tubing occupy a small storage room.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
The proud crew of Dean Titanium Bicycles.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
A yellow screen protects other workers from the intense flash of the welding torch.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Titanium tubes are cut on this band saw.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean uses this tube bender to create more intricately curved frames.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Decals are applied by hand and heated with a hair dryer to ensure good adhesion.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
This custom titanium and carbon fiber Isogrid town bike was ordered but unfortunately abandoned before final payment was received. Anyone interested?(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean Bicycles will show off this ultralight titanium frame at this year's NAHBS. Claimed weight is just 1kg (2.2lb).(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Rather than purchase an off-the-shelf fit bike, Dean simply built its own.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean built its fit bike much like a standard bike but with a number of telescoping sections as needed.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
It was still touch and go whether this bike would be completed for NAHBS when we stopped by Dean' workshop on Wednesday before the show. If it gets done, though, it'll be quite the looker.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Drawing up a frame in CAD is one thing. Actually producing it is another entirely.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
This frame will eventually be a short-travel mountain bike with a belt drive and Rohloff rear hub.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
The concentric main pivot allows belt drive and full-suspension to play well together.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
This monstercross rig was going through the final stages of build just days before the show.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Dean produces its own titanium and titanium-and-carbon forks, too.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
This road fork features Exogrid legs and an aluminum crown that's machined in-house.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Paint is farmed out to Spectrum Powderworks in Colorado Springs.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
An Exogrid frame sits on the alignment table for final inspection.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Welds like this aren't learned overnight.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Each frame has its own checklist.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
These days, the "Titanium" part of Dean Titanium Bicycles' formal company name is largely superfluous. Owner and welder John Siegrist has worked with the material for nearly a quarter-century now and his modest workshop has occupied the same space just east of Boulder, Colorado for more than two decades. We paid Siegrist and his crew a visit just before this year's North American Handmade Bicycle Show.
Like many industry veterans, Siegrist got his start in the industry as a racer. He eventually decided he wanted to build frames for a living and sold his race bike – a titanium Litespeed, ironically – to buy a TIG welder and mill. Business has ebbed and flowed since then but Siegrist has never looked back.
Dean currently ships about 125 frames per year and Siegrist welds every one of them, including road, hardtail and full-suspension mountain, randonneur, touring, time trial, track, coupler, and just about anything else one could imagine. Most are 100 percent titanium but Dean is also among few builders to dabble in Vyatek's innovative Exogrid and Isogrid co-molded titanium-and-carbon fiber tubing, most of which is sent overseas.
"Every other bike that goes to another country is an Exogrid frame," Dean operations manager Rich Gardunia told BikeRadar. "In the United States, it's about one out of five."
Dean's workshop is packed wall-to-wall with heavy machinery, including two band saws, two lathes, two mills, a couple of tubing benders, and several jigs in addition to the requisite welding station, alignment table, and final build area. Dean didn't bother to dress things up for our photo shoot, either, leaving everything in its natural, well-used state – just as it should be.
We stopped by the Dean workshop just two days before the start of NAHBS and there was still much to be done. According to Gardunia, Dean plans to bring about nine or 10 bikes to the show and, as of late Wednesday morning, only half of them were finished – and some were still being welded.
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Assuming everything gets completed – and somehow, builders always manage to do so for NAHBS – Dean should have some beautiful machines on display. One will be Gardunia's personal townie with twin down tubes and top tubes – all with graceful arcs from end to end – and another will be an ultralight titanium road bike with a frame that supposedly weighs just 1kg (2.2lb).
Check out Dean's website for more details or check back on BikeRadar over the next few days for coverage of the company's booth at NAHBS. Or better yet, show up in person and check everything out firsthand. This year's NAHBS will run February 22-24 at the Denver Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.
In the meantime, look through the big photo gallery of Dean's facility at the above right.
This ultralight (1kg/2.2lb) titanium frame will be shown at NAHBS
