Built to Ride
Bend Magazine September-October 2025 Issue
Built to Ride
By Daniel O’Neil for Bend Magazine
Custom bikes are a growing industry
Downhill, cross-country, touring, road, gravel—the high desert offers every option a cyclist could ask for. It follows, then, that the area is also home to a core group of custom bike builders who are pushing bicycle engineering and production past any preconceived boundaries, while also maintaining the spirit of elation and freedom that cycling can provide.
An Argonaut bike is built specifically for its rider.
photo by Mighty Creature
In the United States, about 20 million bikes are sold each year, generating a market revenue of $8 billion. Some 98% of these bikes are manufactured in Asia. This may seem like an unfair headwind for Central Oregon’s bike companies, but instead they use it to their advantage by providing a custom bike build experience.
As Central Oregon’s trail systems expand and more cyclists move to the area, the pack of custom bike companies is gaining speed. Their market, from local to international cyclists, is starting to take notice.
PURSUING PERFECTION
Argonaut Cycles designs and builds some of the world’s most customized road and gravel bikes, which start at $16,000. Founded by Ben Farver in 2007, today Argonaut rolls out 200 high-end bikes a year, all made by hand starting with raw sheets of carbon fiber. Design, product testing and fabrication all happen in Central Oregon.
For cyclists who have spent enough time in the saddle to become one with their bike, customization offers an opportunity to exploit the benefits of different bike-frame geometries and flex patterns. Rather than ride a bike designed for a predetermined style of riding, and a particular weight and height range, a custom bike fine tunes performance. places offer such a surreal yet delightful expanse of climates, altitudes, and, it turns out, attitudes.
For the love of it
Due to steeper prices, and the challenges of reaching a niche market, custom bike building is a small but strong segment in Central Oregon. Without the deeper financial resources of major bike brands, custom builders rely on commitment and stoke instead.
Bend-grown 21-year-old Ethan Eggert founded Arid Cycles after high school. Arid’s full-suspension mountain bike frames are modular, allowing for a rider to select customized options when building the frame. Still in the prototype phase, Eggert plans to open pre-orders this fall. He’s proud to have stayed in Bend to pursue his project. “The market for high-end is there, and it still has room to grow,” Eggert said. “We’re in a good place because we have what people are looking for that they can’t find at the other brands.”
Besides the technical merits, working with a custom builder offers real-life value, allowing rider and builder to develop a relationship like that between surfer and shaper. “You’re supporting someone who’s passionate about what they’re making,” said Max Keegan, who custom welds about three to five bike frames a year as part of his project, Mostly Forever. Frames sell for between $1,900 and $2,500. “It’s sort of the farm-to-table deal, a closer circle. I get the materials, I make a bike frame, and I give it to you—versus a bike frame made overseas, shipped to a distribution center and then shipped to a bike shop.”
Ethan Eggert founder of Arid Cycles
Arid Cycles custom frame
Cyclists from Bend and beyond are becoming aware of the incomparable custom-build options taking off in Central Oregon. “For those riders who have been on the other top-shelf bikes, there’s a growing segment of folks who are looking for something different, cooler and more progressive that separates their riding and puts it on the next level of what’s possible,” Argonaut’s Rudisill said. As far as cycling in Central Oregon goes, from its extensive trail options and routes to its emerging custom builds, nothing is impossible.
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Access for all
Geoff Babb, founder of AdvenChair
photo by Cody Reux
Rich in innovation and collaboration, Central Oregon does not limit itself. When Geoff Babb suffered a paralyzing stroke in 2005, he refused to give up his passion for trails. In response, Babb pursued an off-road wheelchair that could explore places like the Grand Canyon. Babb tested his first AdvenChair in 2016, and today his volunteer-run nonprofit provides all-access wheelchairs for people from age 6 to 96 who previously couldn’t get to places such as Smith Rock in a standard wheelchair.
An AdvenChair costs around $12,000, but Babb works with outdoor schools and tour operators in the United States and beyond to make the chairs themselves more accessible. “We’re allowing a whole range of people to be outside enjoying nature,” Babb said.
Each AdvenChair is made by hand
photo by Eleanor Moseman
Central Oregon’s strong sense of community and entrepreneurship provided the ideal environment for AdvenChair to get rolling. “Really important locally is just being in Central Oregon where there are so many small businesses, so many startups,” said Babb. “I really benefited from being in this incubator, in this small, very supportive group of companies.”