Cycles Manivelle was founded in Strasbourg by two French engineers, Thomas Kieber and Silvin Kutsch, with a focus on strong traditional craftsmanship imbued with their own creative sensibilities. The duo are united in a shared love for cycle-touring, and putting their professional backgrounds to use in pursuit of frame building made complete sense. 

On the Cycles Manivelle website, the pair describe their own convictions as frequently being in opposition to those of the wider cycling industry – and through the products Manivelle makes (full custom bike builds but also racks and accessories) they express their vision for what cycling can and should be. 

Amid the excitement of Bespoked 2025, Silvin was good enough to answer some questions from Brooks about the company’s ethos, its goals, its frustrations and the moments that feel like “a big smile within the soul.”

Why Bespoked?

Because the frame building scene we follow all year on our smartphones is in the building! We love to chat more casually with our frame building mates, feeling the real substance of this sweet community is great. And Bespoked is a good deadline to push us bringing new projects to life!

What’s the first frame you ever built and where is it today?

The first frame we built was done in our former engineering school. We made it out of junk rectangular tubes, a MIG welder, no jig. But with CNC and laser-cut parts already. He is hanging in the workshop like a proud and dusty statue 🙂

Why bikes? And more importantly, why frame building?

We’ve started with bikes due to a common reason; we were two cyclo-tourists and our engineering background was giving us tools to go in that direction. We’re staying with frame building because it became so important to live this dialogue between designing and making in the same space, developing and living a concrete knowledge. I’m practicing frame building in a responsive way, whether it is the relationship with the customers or the requirements of the job.

When you’re designing a frame, are you thinking as an engineer, designer, or artist?

I hope I manage to be an engineer, a designer and a craftsman in one brain when I’m designing a frame. Engineering is more ad hoc, when thinking about new CNC dropouts, a special frame in need of simulation, or when explaining to customer what steel is about more deeply.

Then, for me the real challenge is to find ideas in each project that unlock fun new challenges for my craft, and to deliver bikes that have been made with empathy for the personality and the needs of the customer (which is more about design).

What’s a moment you nearly gave up on a project?

When Caddie, former manufacturer of our basket, closed its doors last year. It was a heartbreaker losing important professional relationships with kind humans, and seeing the French industrial landscape collapsing down so quickly. It was hard to get back in the saddle (a Brooks, of course), finding a new partner and a new approach.

Whose Instagram/TikTok do you follow that feeds inspiration?

I try to look at other fields than the bike world. For example, I love looking at photographer Thibaut Grevet’s work or at production of people from Zaventem Ateliers. But I’m not too much on socials. Spending more time to upload content than consume it. I hope it’s not too much the definition of a spammer!

What does it feel like seeing your bikes being ridden in the wild?

It feels like a big smile in the entire soul! It’s a grounding feeling, and it reaches the stars when the person riding the bike is a close one. I think the trust put in my hands touches me a lot, it gives me adrenaline that turn into high happiness after delivery.

If we catch you here again next year, what do you hope you’ll be showing?

We will be working hard on the textile field in the upcoming year. We hope to present exciting projects in that category next year! And of course, a custom bike carrying the evolution of our frame building work, years after years 🙂

Finally, tell us about the bike you brought to Bespoked.

This is the Manivelle N°65. We do 10 bikes a year, each one being fully custom, from the first drawing to the final touches. The N°65 has been made for Quentin, who was looking for a solid touring bike for an upcoming European tour, that would also become his regular commuter bike.

He loves taking care of his bikes, and was also avid to go for a build that is consistent, maintenance-free, with modern solution as the internal gearbox, yet easy to understand from an outside perspective. We work for example on a contrast between drive side and left side. The drive side is minimal without any cable showing, the non-drive side is the ‘backstage’ with all the cables going external.

The lines of the bike have their origins in the bike we did for Concours de Machine 2021, with the seat stays extending their paths to the front of the frame. Apart from aesthetic, this will give some extra torsional rigidity when the bike will be fully loaded on the front and on the back.

Racks were also a major point on the project, and the Manivelle N°65 will be delivered with this full randonneur front rack (removable lowriders) and two rear racks: a minimalist one that is visible on these photos (for drybag and bottle cages on the side), and a solid rack for rear panniers.

Finally, a cool little detail that the photos do not show: the bike can be built around a classic 1x transmission, with a custom BSA adaptor and inserts on the right chain stay ready to get cable guide. Just in case.

• Brooks extends a special thanks to John Watson of the Radavist for the images used in this article.