If you’ve ever seen a beautiful head tube badge that’s just the icing on the top of a perfect bicycle restoration you’ll know how sad it is to see a classic frame that’s without such crowning glory. Head tube badges are just one of those things that are so easily misplaced as time goes by. So if you have a frame that’s missing a special badge, or you have a custom build and you’re dreaming of how rad it would look with a your own monogramed custom head tube badge – the news is good!

 

Julian at Griffin Engraving and I just finished a little experiment to see whether, if we combined our skills, we could produce custom engraved and hand finished boutique head tube badges. We trialled the LixBMX logo as a custom design and the old Crossrider badge as a test to see if we could recreate something close to the original pressed badge with modern methods. The results and feedback have been fantastic!

 

Here’s a little sneak peak into the process…

 

How the badges looked freshly machined in raw aluminium…

 

 

 

Hand cut with a piercing saw (aka ‘jeweller’s saw’)…

 

 

 

Sanded lightly, buffed and coloured, ready to be cut out by hand…

 

 

 

Cut out and ready for shaping and finishing by hand…

 

 

 

Finished and fitted….