A Conversation with Ali of Sabali Cycles

What Does Frame Building Mean To You?

To me, it’s a great creative expression. It’s a great way to get people onto the bikes that they really want to ride. It’s a great way to keep bikes out of the landfill, but, more than anything, it’s about bringing joy to someone who really wants a special bike.

Tell us a little bit about your work. How did you first get into frame building?

so I got into frame building a friend of mine took a class at UBI and he built a frame.  When he came back I spent two hours in his garage and he taught me how to braze and off I went with frame building.  I have a background in machining and I worked in aerospace. Once the pandemic came and that industry kind of started to shutter a little bit I saw it as an opportunity to kind of go all in on this thing.

Could you tell us a little bit about your work with older bikes?

A lot of people lately have really wanted new disc brake conversions, extra rack mounts, extra water bottle bosses – really a lot of things to convert older bikes into something more useful, something that they can do day trips, on maybe some overnighters. My favourite is doing the 650b conversions for people so they can run the fat tires and kind of take it a little bit more off the beaten path. I’ve done everything from full tube replacements to full front triangle replacements, drop outs, and chain stays. I mean anything to keep it out of the landfill, you know, I’m happy to help.

What terrain or style of riding do you think influences your frame building?

Being dead center in the city, riding on streets, on city streets, is a lot of it. I think there’s also the part that really wants to go off the beaten path because we’re in the middle of the city. So my frames tend to be a lot of road bikes, but also a lot of really ripping commuters – something that you knowyou can ride every day, ride it hard put it away wet, and trust that it’s not gonna fall apart on you.

What’s your favourite detail on your bikes?

If I had to choose, I always look at the seat stay cluster I mean I think that’s where where you have a lot of really irregular shapes meeting that have to look really nice together I always sleeve my seat tubes
for a little bit of extra reinforcement,  and I spend a lot of time in this area when I’m working on a bike. I also really like dropouts. I get them made locally here in Guelph. I always love the old Italian pantographing so I put a little bit of my own as an homage to that. I love that you’ve got three pieces all coming together that have no business being together, but when you work them in the right way they end up looking like they were meant to be. Making these pieces look like they belong together, that’s the challenge and the joy of working on those areas.