Simona's Handmade Bike for Touring & Randonnuering

Simona and I met on an early-season Après gravel ride back in 2023. Discussing different options for bike upgrades, I recognized her as exceptionally curious and kind. We bonded during the ride over a mutual dread of having to have a 'career.' I was wrapping up school and applying for jobs. She was dreaming of ditching her job. By year's end, while riding the Hopewell Furnace 200k Brevet together, she was describing her plans to leave her job in the rearview mirror as she pedaled across America.

Flash forward to today: Simona left that old job, spent a summer riding solo from Philadelphia to Seattle, and started an apprenticeship at the legendary Bilenky Cycle Works. She'll spend the upcoming summer riding across the USA - back and forth - leading tour groups for Adventure Cycling Association. Even better, she'll be riding cross country on a bike that she built herself with the support of the Philly Bike Expo x SRAM Inclusivity Scholarship for Framebuilders.

The Inclusivity Scholarship for Framebuilders was established in 2019 to elevate underrepresented communities of artisans and to foster a more welcoming culture across cycling. Nearly 20 framebuilders have now received complimentary raw materials, components, travel expenses, and booths to schowcase their creations on the Philly Bike Expo's grand stage.

Simona would tailor every frame tube, every dimension, and every component of her new bike to perfectly suit her needs over 6,000 miles of fully loaded riding this summer. Her goals were supported by scholarship partners like Columbus and Metal Guru (steel tubes), Paragon Machine Works (frame components), SRAM (drivetrain), Ritchey (handlebars, pedals, saddle), Velo Orange (brakes, stem), Velocity (wheels), and Schwalbe (tires).

Apprenticing with Stephen Bilenky gave Simona the skills and resources she would need to build her bike. Bilenky has been building bikes since 1983. His shop in Olney is a wonderland of raw materials, tools, machines, and bikes. Every twitch of the eye uncovers a new easter egg or a previously unimaginable quirk of cycling history. Among other gnarly projects like Junkyard Cross, Stephen and his daughter Bina founded the Philadelphia Bike Expo, which has grown to become one of the country's leading cycling trade shows.

Simona's bike features the industry's most beautiful and innovative new products, but she was also intent on giving new life to old parts that were already around. She rooted the depths of the Bilenky shop's deposits to revive tubes and components like the seat and chain stays, fork crown, and headset. She mined the lugs that would hold her frame's tubes together and refined their shapes, adding a personal touch. Casey Sussman from Mars Cycles gifted the dropouts. Even the copper colored paint was recycled from a project that long ago shifted in a different direction. This bike is extraordinary for its graceful fusion of the new and the old. Simple. Elegant. Efficient.

It's no coincidence that this bike embodies simplicity and efficiency. Cross country touring and randonneuring demand such traits. Rim brakes and 1x mechanical drivetrains can be easily serviced in remote areas. Dynamo lighting will illuminate the path ahead and generate confidence during the trip's darkest hours. Living off the bike and crossing vast distances require discipline, focus, and dedication - just like Simona's apprenticeship at Bilenky Cycle Works.

Simona embarked on her back-to-back cross country voyage on April 20. She's starting by leading a tour group of 14 cyclists with Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) on the TransAmerica Trail route from Yorktown, VA to Astoria, OR. She'll return in the fall by leading a different tour group on ACA's Southern Tier route from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL. The groups will ride about 60 miles each day and spend most nights camping. According to Simona:

Both routes are totally different from my previous cross country adventure, and I am excited to visit many new states. Traveling by bike is my favorite way of exploring new places, and I’m really lucky to get to do that as a job this summer.

Showing her bike at the Expo last month, Simona was able to share her build with many of the sponsors that made it possible. I caught her glowing after talking with a representative from Columbus, one of the sponsors that provided steel tubes for the frame. They were discussing Simona's family roots and Columbus steel's roots in the Piemonte region of northern Italy. When I followed up later while drafting this story, Simona provided the following:

My mom grew up down the road from alot of the bicycle manufacturing that happens in northern Italy. She tells stories of growing up in the 60s and 70s in the bike shop in her small town, and when she brought my father there years later, he shot some really beautiful 35mm of the shop and its owner Jacu [pictured above]. I got to connect with the rep from Columbus at the Expo, and talk to him about what it's like to live and work in the center of the bicycle industry - Dan you and I should go visit the factories when we go to PBP 2027.

I don't want to ride Paris-Brest-Paris in 2027, and she knows that. But if Simona keeps inspiring me like she has since I first met her on that early-season gravel ride back in 2023, I just might end up joining her.

Keep up with Simona's adventures on Instagram and on Strava.