American Classic

American Classic : TRUE home to the World's Lightest Pre-Built Clincher Wheelsets American Classic specializes in the manufacture and construction of world class, lightweight wheelsets. In addition to being lightweight, our wheelsets are strong and reliable and feature innovative hubsets that are simple to work with. Nowhere on our wheelsets will you find "unobtanium" spokes or strange spoking patterns. We also offer a fantastic range of lightweight components ranging from ISIS Bottom Brackets through to Ultralight Headsets.

Company Profile

Shook designed and built the first

large tube aluminum frame and raced it all over the country in 1974. During a retirement from the road racing scene, Bill got his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State University to further his ability to design bike parts. American Classic came along in 1981 because Bill firmly believed, "high quality components can be produced for a reasonable price without gouging the consumer." That remains the company's philosophy to this day. Shook still races road bikes when he's not engineering and adds with a smile, "someone has to test the products."

Bill Shook

is always modest when it comes to his accomplishments. He started racing as a boy and sprinted his way to the US National Team. Bill's love for bicycles goes further than riding. He muses, "I started designing components and frames because the stuff on the market in the 70's just wasn't as good as it could be. I knew how to make it better."

Media Comments

Charles Manantan of PezCycling News

says "One of the best features from most of the stuff designed by Bill Shook is that form follows function (meaning a bunch of bone head marketing types don't come up with a B.S. picture of something "cool looking" that engineers then have to build...)"