It started, as great and wacky projects seem to with an appeal on the internet, in this case on a bike forum…

We are also looking for someone who is very capable of putting together a website. For the right person we are willing to do some trading on a custom frame.

To be honest I’d never considered owning a custom bike (way outside my price range), but the idea was appealing. What I gave them was a nicely designed, basic site featuring four basic navigation items, with sum sub-pages. The design was based on the existing look and feel, and featured the photography of Glen Simmons.

A key point in the construction of the site was making sure that the owners would be able to make updates to content and photos. The site was built on a blog engine, taking advantage of pre-existing search engine optimization as well as keeping the content editable by the non-tech-savy. Flickr was incorporated as a photo gallery utility.

The project was highly successful and helped launch True Fabrication with a number of custom orders, as well as giving them a publicity piece for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland.