Category Archives: EWR Project - Page 3

EWR Project – Phase One…

Posted by on 11/08/2009 No comments

I wasn’t going to post live updates of this build, but figured it might be good to look at retrospectively

There’s some real history with this particular frame and it comes with a fantastic story but this will be revealed elsewhere once the build is finished.

This project is a rebuild of a 1994 Eastern Woods Research ‘Original Woods Bike’. EWR is a small company based in Pennsylvania USA who produced three bikes back in the day and then vanished. In the last couple of years they have started back up and now produce ‘modern’ versions of the Original Woods Bike in 26″ flavour as well as some exciting 29er’s and SS frames (www.ewrbikes.com).

This particular frame is from the ‘2nd Batch’ of OWB’s and was made by Bill Grove of Grove Innovations, it features water jet cut rear dropouts and some of the best mitred joints and pierced tubes you will see anywhere. The frame is plain old straight gauge 4130 Cromoly, no butting and weight saving here, this is just brute strength. Anyone who knows EWR’s also knows they are no nonsense, hard riding bikes with their roots in trials and BMX so this build needs to be functional and reliable as opposed to ‘aesthetics and tinsel’, after all it’s going to be hammered round the woods here in England, just what it was designed for. Ideally the build is going to be as Period Correct as it can be but there will be the odd substitution (for example, who would fit a pair of $400 dollar NOS red Shimano DX pedals then thrash it round a muddy forest?)

The only theme with this will be small touches of red here and there to match with the red decals. I’m not revealing the full build here as things may change but if you’ve seen any EWR’s then you’ll know roughly what to expect

Syncros Revolution Cranks (175mm) with Crank ‘O’ Matics, Shimano SG rings (26, 36, 46,) Shimano DX front mech, DMR V8 pedals in ‘Code Red’


Shimano DX rear mech, NOS Shimano DX quick release, Shimano LX 7sp hubs laced to Campag Mirox rims.

Magura HS33 Tomac Hydraulic Brakes, NOS Syncros Hardcore seatpost 425mm

Dig those fat tubes…



I’m already thinking about not using the Campy rims and switching to some Mavic 231CD’s laced to Shimano DX hubs, what do you think?

Here endeth the search…..eureka moment!!

Posted by on 04/08/2009 No comments

Sometimes the smallest things are the biggest pain in the ass and this is no exception. For reasons best kept to themselves (and not fully understood by this poster) EWR omitted a downtube cable stop on the Original Woods Bike and opted for this weird little widget instead to get a Bottom Pull front mech working as if it were a Top Pull .

Anyways, I didn’t have one and have been trawling the Net trying to find one for the last two months…..well I struck double lucky in that not only did I find one but it was THE widget that was originally attached to the yellow beast below and came as a Karma Present

This does mean I guess that something yellow, heavy and steel might now be unleashed on the world.

Pennsylvania Steel – Eastern Woods Research

Posted by on 10/07/2009 No comments

I have a big bunch of bike projects and I’m slow at building them, something I get ridiculed about at RetroBike .

To make things worse I recently picked up my ‘Dream Bike’ a 1994 Eastern Woods Research – Original Woods Bike.

The EWR has now pushed itself to the front of the queue and is consuming most of my spare time hunting down parts.

This is the bare frame…..watch this space for updates.