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Video: Vanhulsteijn produce gold leaf bikes for Sotheby's

Dutch brand creates beautiful and very shiny limited edition bikes from stainless steel, lacquered gold leaf

Dutch designer Herman van Hulsteijn has created nine Vanhulsteijn bicycles covered in gold leaf and Japanese urushi lacquer exclusively for Sotheby’s. There’s an extraordinary amount of work involved and the results are stunning.

Vanhulsteijn’s stainless steel bikes are extraordinary to start with, the frames featuring distinctively curved tubes. Herman van Hulsteijn originally designed the bike as a head turner for himself, but built a batch in 2009 for other people who had seen it and wanted one. A small team now handcraft the bikes in Arnhem, in the Netherands. You can buy the standard models online

For the Sotherby’s bikes, Vanhulsteijn joined up with two Russian craftsmen who specialise in Japanese lacquer techniques called urushi. They add several layers of gold leaf to the frame and then put lacquer over the top. It’s an intricate process but the effect is amazing and each of the nine bikes looks slightly different.

As well as the frame, Herman van Hulsteijn designed the parts like the brake levers and pedals himself. Every part that isn’t lacquered has been highly polished by hand while the saddle and handlebar have a ray-skin finish.

Each bike is given Vanhulsteijn logos and numbered. Even that is unusual, Vanhulsteijn employing the Maki-e technique whereby different grain sizes of gold dust are sprinkled in urushi lacquer.

Vanhulsteijn explain, “Urushi is the sap of the urushi or lacquer tree (rhus vernicifera). It is a member of the sumac family (anacardiaceae) and native to China, Korea, Japan and the eastern Himalayas. The sap of this tree contains a resin (urushiol) which, when exposed to moisture and air, polymerizes and becomes a very hard, durable, plastic-like substance. Urushi is in fact a natural plastic.

“The process of applying the lacquer is long and labour intensive: independent of the size of the surface it takes on average six months to carry out the finishing. In some cases 60 layers are applied and polished by hand. Depending on the kind of lacquer the time it takes a single layer to dry can take from two hours up to three months. Due to its fascinating characteristics which are both sustainable and esthetically beautiful, urushi is still used for a wide variety of purposes.”

Here’s Vanhulsteijn’s video covering the project...

The urushi bicycle project - VANHULSTEIJN X SOTHEBY'S from Vanhulsteijn bicycles on Vimeo.

For more information email info@anhulsteijn.com or go to the Vanhulsteijn website.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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9 comments

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PhilRuss | 10 years ago
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[[[[[[[ Not so likely to get nicked....but where would the bottle fit?
P.R.

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karlowen | 10 years ago
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They are hideous, Form over function and the form looks terrible anyway.

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farrell replied to karlowen | 10 years ago
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karlowen wrote:

They are hideous, Form over function and the form looks terrible anyway.

In what sense? Did you not find that they're very comfortable bikes to ride?

Avatar
farrell | 10 years ago
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I love Van Hulsteijn bikes, I'd be straight over to him/them for a new bike if I came into some money.

Probably wouldn't go for the gold leaf version though.

And I would dearly love to know what exquisite whip GearGrinderBeard rolls out on if he considers Van Hulsteijns 'turds'.

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GoingRoundInCycles | 10 years ago
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My wife bought me a urushi lacquered fountain pen for my fortieth birthday. Family, guests, Ben, the Lord of the Schnauzers and that pen are the only things that I would stop to rescue if the house was on fire. The craftsmanship has to be seen to be believed.

I shudder to think how much that bike will go for but I guess if you have to ask the price ...  105

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Yorky-M | 10 years ago
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Fantastic.

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geargrinderbeard | 10 years ago
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"Every part that isn’t lacquered has been highly polished by hand"

Who says you can't polish a turd...

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rix | 10 years ago
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Beautiful, but unpractical... leaning it against lamp post will do untold damage to this precious peace of art.  1

P.S. Ray skin for saddle... is like sandpaper for toilet paper  4

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jason.timothy.jones | 10 years ago
0 likes

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