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Fine Bikes recently launched in Raleigh—and it’s simply off the chain.
“It’s like riding a bicycle.” … Find Charles Thompson fabricating, welding, brazing and painting road, gravel and mountain bikes built to communicate coolness and elicit a higher-quality ride via Fine Bikes, now available at Oak City Cycling. The Raleighite initially pedaled into bike maintenance as a passion project that quickly blossomed into more thanks to a mixture of mechanic experience and an extensive background riding bikes “as hard as possible.”
“I grew up around bikes,” shares Thompson. “My mom and brother worked at a bike shop when I was in my early teens, and it was a shared interest in our household.” However, after a BMX-related concussion at age 15, the biking enthusiast walked away from the sport—that is, until he moved to Raleigh during his mid-20s and returned to biking as a means of transit.
“That snowballed, and I found myself working at a bike shop part-time—and, eventually, I committed to full-time,” he explains. In 2016, he left that shop to make his way to DTR’s Oak City Cycling, with Fine Bikes marking OCC’s first-ever brand launch.
After taking a frame class with Steve Garn of Brew Bikes in 2020, Thompson slowly developed his process by making bikes for himself, his partner and his co-workers—all while garnering increased interest from the community.
“Due to getting asked many times over, I got my legal and insurance [stuff] sorted out, and I made a bike for my first ‘real’ customer earlier this year,” says Thompson. “I’m still working at OCC, and, through the shop, we are able to offer custom frames, paint and high-quality builds for those who are seeking more out of their bike.”
There’s no question that Raleigh’s bike culture is booming—and this local cycle biz only serves to further showcase the ever-burgeoning cycle culture, whether you’re zooming around the city or taking your two wheels off-road. Let’s get spoked! @fine_bikes
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