I don't remember how I came upon it but last spring I stumbled across a stem that I had never seen before from a company that I had never heard of. I eventually found my way to their site and to my surprise there was a whole line of products that were geared towards the trails. That company was Shape Bicycles, and over the past few months I've had the pleasure of chatting back and forth with its creator Sylvain Taro. Sylvain is an awesome dude with a passion for design and a strong belief in French manufacturing. All of the parts made by Shape Bicycles are both designed and manufactured in France. While so many companies these days have gone the Taiwan route for production Sylvain has chosen to keep his manufacturing as close to home as possible. The result is a line of parts that give a nod to the old school with beautiful machining and simpler designs. I really wanted to find out more about both Sylvain and Shape so I went ahead and bounced some questions back and forth with him. Over the course of the last few weeks not only did the following interview come about but also the decision to bring Shape Bicycles to the US via the new Can You Dig It Web Store. Check out the interview below and then go have a look at some of Shape's offerings in the store.  (more...)