Jake Rusby

Rusby cycles’ founder has just headed west from london to bristol. His home has changed but the talent’s remained

- James Witts

A PLASTIC BAG GOT STUCK IN MY REAR DERAILLEUR and bent just about everything on the back of my bike. I was pretty pissed off and searched for someone to repair the damage. I visited Oak Cycles workshop in London, which inspired me to do the repair myself and combine two things I loved – cycling and ‘making’. That inspired me further to become a framebuilder. I still haven’t fixed that dropout.

BEFORE THAT I STUDIED SCULPTURE AT ART COLLEGE, had a few jobs, and then installed artwork in galleries and grand houses in London. Experiencing this side of the art world killed my love of sculpting.

THERE WEREN’T MANY FRAMEBUILDING COURSES AROUND and I had little money, so I was mostly self-taught, using a few basic books, crappy YouTube videos and lots of experimenting. This was okay to a point but I learnt a lot more when I shared a workshop with Ryan [McCaig] at Oak Cycles and Matthew [Sowter] from Saffron Frameworks.