Introducing Baum

All of us at Above Category are extremely proud to present the latest addition to our shop, Baum Bicycles. Baum is a  custom frame building out of Geelong, Australia which was started by Darren Baum in 1996 and has become the standard bearer of custom bikes in Australia and now worldwide since.

I saw my first Baum five or six years ago and was pretty blown away but didn’t give it much more thought than that. Then maybe a year or two later saw another and then another year passed and the name Baum was becoming imprinted in my head. Then maybe four or five months ago I ran across another picture and this time decided that I had to find out more. At first, I didn’t know if it was something we’d be able to represent at Above Category or not. I didn’t know anything at all about the company, was it just one guys building a handful of frames a year or a larger company doing many more. In fact, I thought it was a German company based on the name.

So, I made a note of Baum and vowed to find out more. I read everything I could get my hands on which was not much, but everything I did find was absolutely positive which was a good sign. Then I read and re-read the Baum website and finally looked at all the bikes in the gallery. That is what did it for me and I decided that even if I couldn’t carry the bikes at the shop I was going to buy a Baum for myself!  Long story short, I sent an email to the guys in Australia and told them that I’d love to talk about bringing the bikes to the U.S and getting one myself. Luckily for all of us they were thinking the same thing and off we went.

Of course I had to base my opinion on more than just looks so we ordered up two frames, one in steel, the Ristretto and one in Titanium, the Corretto. We’ve since built them both up and I have close to a thousand miles on the Ristretto and just one ride on the Corretto which is absolutely enough to say that these are two of the nicest bikes I’ve ever ridden. The whole process, from ordering to receiving the bikes was the best we’ve had. The fit and finish is out of this world and every detail came out perfect. We’ll go into more detail on the bikes very soon, for now we just wanted to introduce the brand and say that if anyone out there has been looking for that next bike, give us a call and we’ll tell you why Baum deserves a good long look!