To me, a natural part of discovering the art of bicycle frame fabrication is learning to appreciate the ornate styling of vintage and classical frame designs. As a young teenager, I would spot frames with lugs that were cut into interesting shapes, they would be lug-lined during the paint process to make the shapes pop. Since starting out as a framebuilder, the seed had always been planted in my mind to have a go at hand-cutting some bilaminate or lug components. The opportunity eventually presented itself when a local chap named Nigel approached my booth at the 2025 Bespoked UK show in Manchester. Push came to shove and the outcome was the first classically styled Medusa Deka Frameset -- a truly bonnie bike if I do say so myself, and the first Deka frameset without a carbon fork, in fact, it is stainless steel, with the blades left unpainted. The main triangle is made from Reynolds 931 stainless, and also has a Reynolds 953 raw stainless chainstay, it is raised like the other Deka frames I've built. It seemed that Nigel's mind's eye was particularly well trained in specifying an aesthetic that would turn heads, the combination of bare stainless steel and a natural colour pallet produced a very tasteful looking bike. When I look at the bike I think of a rugged northern landscape, accented by heather, represented by the purple downtube lettering and lug lining, and the sprig of heather painted on the chainstay yoke.
The bike not only looks beautiful, but rides like a dream too. Even knowing that it is technically too big for me, I found it to be incredibly comfortable while on test rides, and not in the least but sluggish. The natural spring that comes with the thin wall stainless tubing makes for a feeling akin to floating along in a railway carriage, but the nimble nature of the frame makes any expectation of stately handling disappear into the wind.
The finished bike blends together the modern and the classic to create a modern bike built from old lessons; stainless frame tubing mixes time proven ride characteristics with modern ionoxidable durability. A modernT47 bottom bracket shell supports a classic crankset from renowned brand, Middleburn. A cutting-edge Vecnum Freequence suspension stem bolts to a Nitto moustache handlebar with a retro small-diameter clamp size. Bar-end friction shifters bring time-proven reliability to modern components -- the right shift actuating a Shimano GRX 12 speed rear derailleur and the left shifter rigged up as a dropper post lever.
Photo credit:
Adam Gasson
