![]() We established a better groundwork for our shop by supporting the people around us, and this effort informed our choices, making our products smarter and better suited for the kind of riders we are here in the PNW. We spent whatever time we had aside from the frame project focusing on how to build other peoples’ bikes, testing out new components, and, as our top priority, we put more effort into helping to build up the local cycling community by hosting group rides, campouts, and events featuring local makers. Those years leading up to 2019 were very informative for us things really started to change, as the whole bike industry was seemingly headed in the same direction we were. We were fortunate enough to have those small-batch runs as a good rubric for how to get our favorite characteristics in the bike without compromising quality and still remaining within budget. There were so many hurdles leading up to that bike – finishing choices, sourcing components, adapting to changing standards, etc., that we really had to decide how or if we wanted to compromise on certain steps in the process. This brought us to our first production run in 2019, the Titanium GOAT. The initial runs weren’t perfect and, being a little shop with limited resources, we slowly kept making changes and doing small runs, modifying frames to meet the needs of individual customers rather than producing a stock design, and this meant two orders a year of maybe six frames, tops. Our first prototypes were a mix of 4130 and Ti frames, and we attempted to build something around disc brakes that felt quicker on streets than a hardtail, more versatile than a cyclocross bike on singletrack, and capable of being loaded up. Transitioning from in-city riding to singletrack in the nearby Cascades, we quickly found that the challenges we faced were how to fit the fattest, most forgiving tire and whether we could set up stronger brakes than standard cyclocross canti-posts would afford. Seattle is a hilly and wet place that makes for great field testing. The first iteration came from experimenting with older bikes designed for 27″ and 26″ wheels, setting up different brake configurations and drivetrains. This was before the term “gravel bike” was in circulation, but for all intents and purposess it was just that: an ideal gravel bike. ![]() ![]() We called it the GOAT-Good On All Terrain-because, like most people riding gravel bikes now, we used it virtually anywhere we could. The first GOAT frame was an early concept for us, designed during the years when we were an appointment-only shop on the second story of a slightly dilapidated building, behind a locked door, up two flights of stairs, sharing spaces with a bunch of artists. It’s a business I started with my business partner, Brandon, eight years ago. Words and photos by Jason Marqusee ( and Brandon Waterman ( a small business in Capitol Hill, Seattle, with a cafe and full-service bicycle shop. We reached out to co-owner Jason Marqusee to learn more about the evolution of their latest gravel bike, the Goat V2. Seattle-based Good Weather Bicycle & Cafe specializes in custom bike builds and weekend breakfast tacos. ![]()
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