My Story

Growing up, I never really fit on a bike. Not in the way most people just pick one off the wall and ride away. For me, every bike was a compromise — smaller frames, longer stems, shorter cranks — hours spent in bike shops and online forums trying to make something work that was never designed for me. I spent a lot of money chasing that fit, and honestly, I never quite got there.

That frustration became curiosity. In 2011, I started designing my own frames and having them made to spec. For the first time, I had a bike that genuinely fit my body — not a bike I’d adjusted my body to ride. The difference was immediate and profound. No more hot spots, no more back pain, no more feeling like I was fighting the bike instead of riding it.

But the more I looked around, the more I realised I wasn’t alone. You don’t have to be an outlier to be failed by standard sizing. Plenty of riders sit just outside the anthropometric range that the bike industry designs for — a little too tall, a little too short, longer arms, shorter legs, narrower shoulders. The industry produces bikes for an imaginary average person, and then sells them to everyone else.

And geometry is only part of it. Even when someone finds a frame that fits them reasonably well, it might not have the right wheel size for the way they ride, or the handling characteristics they’re after. A gravel rider who wants road-quick handling. A road rider who wants the option of wider tyres. The industry forces you to choose a category, when what you actually want is a bike built around you.

That’s what Heiden Cycle Works is about. One frame architecture, built to adapt — geometry dialled for your body, tyre clearance for the riding you want to do, handling tuned to the way you like to ride.