Artists are brave people. Not all of us has the guts to display on white walls what goes on inside our imaginations. It’s an interesting exercise to visualise their images coming to life and moving — that’s what’s happening inside their heads.

It’s even more interesting when their creativity extends from the canvas and onto their bicycles, which helps to put into context the work of artist Jeremiah Kille with his good mate, Santa Cruz framebuilder John Caletti.

Jeremiah’s work is big, bright, full of contrast and always moving. He works in mixed media on large canvases and his subjects range from elephants to geometric studies to matadors. Some are eye-searing explosions of characters and typography and others are tight and painted between the lines.

At this point you should peruse his portfolio to get an idea of his style, then come back to Cycle EXIF and compare it with his new custom titanium frame by John. It was obviously studied and revered for some time before being adorned with well-placed stripes, chevrons and a light pastel palette.

Jeremiah has been a surfboard shaper in the past, and also a skater, and referenced the faded hues of vintage surf clothing for the paint scheme on his new frame. He’s worked with John before on Caletti branding and frame finish designs. He also races CX on Team Caletti.

The cyclocross team look like they have a lot of fun, as you’d expect from a bunch of creative Santa Cruz locals. The benefits of sponsoring a team is they can provide you with feedback about frame design, which is fed straight back into John’s work.

Caletti Cycles specialises in highly refined steel and titanium frames for both on — and off — road riding. John used US-sourced straight gauge tubing for the seat tube with an insert by Paragon Machine Works. The S-bend seat stays were shaped in house.

Dedacciai K-19 butted tubes were used for the top and down tubes, “with the down tube having a bold and beautiful bi-oval shape”, John tells us. “The chainstays are also from Dedacciai — oversize, ovalized and tapered” — the large size resulting in extra stiffness under pedalling forces.

Paragon also supplied the bottom bracket shell and brake bridge, while the finish was applied by Spectrum Powderworks. It’s a snappy bike, both in action and against a white wall. Special thanks to another SC local, Peter Thomsen, for the photos. Contact John at Caletti Cycles for more information.