When I spoke to Wilson Hale and Stephen Wood at this year’s Philly Bike Expo, they were excited. With a desire to expand a small, one-off frame building operation into a much larger entity, they were both cautiously optimistic while brimming with the possibility of what could be. The two are friends who live in Richmond, each with their own ties to the bike industry. Stephen started Swood Cycles some years earlier and is perhaps best known for the Twisted T-Bar, a small rack and bag support. Wilson started as a mechanic and shop employee for 10 years and then became a demo driver turned sales representative for Kona. Together, they form Haute bikes: their new joint venture with big ambitions.

When I pulled up to their Richmond, Virginia, facility in early June, I encountered a work in progress. I was in town for the Mountain Cat 100, a trail support and stewardship-focused race that, according to the folk at Haute, contained all of the essential Richmond bike culture.

“I mean, it has everything, man. It’s really great,” Wilson said excitedly.

He was racing the 200k Mountain Cat XL on a custom Ti cross-racing frame he’d built called the Haute Streak. In keeping with the rest of their offerings, it was a play on words. They have the Haute Sauce, Haute Dog, and now the Streak, all intended to invoke some “hot” oriented pun.

“So, how do you say it? Is it hot or how-t?” I asked.

“Well,” Wilson started, glancing at Stephen, “We like to keep it open-ended.” They laughed. “It’s whatever people want it to be, and we think that works and bleeds into the thinking behind the bikes. Ride and pronounce it however you want.”

With Stephen’s quieter, more reserved demeanor, most of my conversing as the hours at Haute Bikes HQ went on was with Wilson. He was loud and energetic, but not in an over-the-top, obnoxious fashion. He clearly had loads of industry experience and had been around bikes his entire life.

“I dropped out of college to be a mechanic, funnily enough.” He said. “I just wasn’t inspired by what I was learning at school, and bikes seemed to challenge me more. I wanted to lean into that, so I did.”

Just barely overlapping at a local bike shop in Newport News, Virginia, Stephen and Wilson knew of each other for some time, as the scene in Richmond is pretty close-knit. Eventually, they gained a mutual appreciation for each other’s skill sets, and Haute Bikes was born from their shared desire to do more than just build bikes. In Philly, Wilson mentioned that they had much bigger goals than just their current frames and completes.

Currently producing around 100 frames per year, Haute focuses on customizable production frames that allow customers more freedom without requiring a significant investment of their own time and money. For $200 USD more than the listed retail price, customers can adjust stack, reach, and a few other fit numbers. In Stephen and Wilson’s eyes, it’s a much more affordable way to get a meaningfully custom fit without breaking the bank. And while they’re happy with the products they currently offer, they mentioned wanting to expand their capabilities at the Richmond Bicycle Factory, their collaborative venture with a local machinist friend, to become a one-stop shop for Richmond and East Coast bike builders.

Save for the services they’re looking to offer in the future, Wilson says the division of labor is generally as follows. “Stephen is the inestimable welding talent. He really knows what he’s doing in that department, and I fully believe in his ability to create something great. On a day-to-day basis, we rotate a lot of the Haute-oriented duties, but I tend to lend my talents to other, more basic framebuilding tasks as well as marketing and admin duties.”

It’s a young, scrappy operation that has recently secured a big contract to build for a US-made bike company. When I asked Wilson and Stephen about their motives and outlook on framebuilding, they said, “We’re not precious about this. We want to make a living making frames. If that’s through contract work via people who want a high-quality, US-made frame at a solid price, great. We get to express our desires through Haute, but we also want to build toward something larger. We believe in making things ourselves, and we want to offer as much of that process as we can.”

In the short time I spent chatting about their future plans and the race, Wilson had handily convinced me to switch my entry from the 100-miler to the 200k. Emily, the race organizer, was less convinced, as the 200k was an even bigger, burlier undertaking that required more trail knowledge. However, Wilson’s infectious passion for bikes and the Richmond scene got me going.

“It’s everything you’d want to see in the Richmond area in a day—what more can you really ask for? The community here is pretty incredible. We’ve got crits, mountain biking, a decent amount of gravel… It’s incredibly receptive to community involvement, and we’re proud to take part in all the infrastructure and moves towards cycling that’s happening here.”

Looking at his race rig made me feel more at ease about my own. Though a single-speed fat tire gravel bike rocking a 36 x 18 gear ratio would be slightly too steep for the worst parts of Mountain Cat, Wilson endeavored an even more aggressive setup. From the horse’s mouth:

“The drivetrain on this thing is a bit of a blend, as it uses an 11-speed derailleur and shifters with a 12-speed cassette and chain. The Ratio kits for modifying SRAM drivetrain parts have worked really well. This setup gives me the ‘feel’ of SRAM mechanical shifting from 10 years ago, with the range and nicer parts of the modern 12-speed groups, and no battery headaches.

The frame is by far my favorite bike I’ve ever owned, and it’s only the second titanium frame that Stephen and I’ve made. It uses double-butted, grade 9 titanium tubes from a supplier in mainland China, which allows us to use the tubing profiles we want to test without the pricetag of brand-name tubes. The seat and chainstays are formed in-house, allowing us to exert complete control over the swoopy shapes and tight clearances required. I’ve put roughly 6,000 miles on this bike since we showcased it at the Philly Bike Expo in 2024, including a season of Tuesday night road races and a full season of racing with the Haute Factory Racing cyclocross team last year. It’s done the Mountain Cat XL twice now, winning it both years, with 2024 being a single speed.

The Haute Streak is designed to be excellent at fast riding and racing. Tight wheelbase, relatively steep angles, and a lower front end. Mountain Cat demands capability and resilience, and while a mountain bike might offer more comfort, I knew that the priority had to be speed on the connecting segments between singletrack.”

• Frame: Haute Streak—Size Marge
• Fork: Enve AR
• Crankset: Garbaruk Gravel with 46t Aero direct mount chainring
• Derailleur: SRAM X1 with Ratio cable fin for road levers
• Shifter: Sram Red22 Mechanical with Ratio 12s Ratchet and alloy cable pulley
• Cassette: SRAM Force XPLR 10-44 12sp
• Bottom Bracket: ???
• Rims: Light Bike AR565 Carbon 56.5mm deep 21mm internal width, hooked
• Hubs: Industry9 Solix SL 24h, built by me with sapim CX-ray spokes
• Tires: Vittoria Terreno Wet 700×38 (40mm actual) very worn with tannus armor lite inserts
• Headset: Cane Creek 40
• Handlebar: Ritchey Venturemax Classic 40cm
• Stem: Custom Ti Stem
• Saddle: WTB Gravelier Ti
• Seatpost: HautePost 27.2 Ti
• Brake Calipers: TRP Spyre SLC

After piloting my bike through the 109 miles of the regular length Mountain Cat course, it’s hard to believe Wilson did so on a much less materially capable bike. While he attributed his ability to do so to his local trail knowledge and familiarity with much of what the XL had to offer, some of the more talented mountain bikers I spoke to said it was among the most challenging trails they’d ever ridden. To do so on such a road-oriented rig with fitness that some equated to “coming off the couch” is a testament to Wilson’s capacity as a bike rider. Seemingly fueled by the simple goal of defending his crown as Mountain Cat XL champion, it’s among the most impressive achievements I’ve witnessed on a bike.

Though they’re still young and have a while to go before their operation reaches a level on par with some of the other US-made frame-building operations that are popping up recently, Haute Bikes seems to be imbued with the same kind of spunk that drives Wilson. With some larger contract work that must remain under wraps for the time being, Haute Bikes has the potential to be more than just a play on hot dog puns and picture-perfect welds. Through the combined efforts of Wilson and Stephen, you wonder if the next framebuilding powerhouse is sitting, working away in the industrial district of Richmond, Virginia.

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...