Dean Titanium Bicycles is based out of Boulder, Colorado. They focus primarily on making titanium frames for road, mountain, and other bicycling disciplines. John Siegrist is the head of the operation performing all of the welding himself. We got a chance to meet up with John at the 2013 North American Bicycle Show to find out some more information about Dean and check out some of their mountain bikes on display.
Interview with John Siegrist – Dean Cycles
What type of mountain bikes to you typically build for your customers?
“We mainly build cross country mountain bikes.”
What type of material do you most often use for construction?
“We do build some steel but mostly titanium frames. We use all USA made tubing, USA made fitings. Typically 3/2.5 titanium. The frames are built using a two pass welding process. First the “root” weld is made and then a finishing cap pass is made with 6/4 titanium rod.”
Do you have stock geometry or are most frames custom?
“For mountain bikes we are are 50/50 stock sizing vs custom.”
Do you do wet paint or powdercoat?
“If we do paint we use Powdercoat – Spectrum Powderworks.”
How did you get started building bikes?
“I came to Colorado in 1981 to race. Worked with Bill Stevenson. Got into bike building through him. After got out of CU started building bikes and grew from there.”
First sweet childhood bike?
“My first race bike built by Bill Stevenson.”
Favorite trail?
“Winter Park singletrack”
SRAM or Shimano?
“Back and forth between the two.”
Burrito or taco?
“Burrito.”
