At All Terra Customs, Ab’s work isn’t just about bikes, it’s about stories. Starting life as a refugee, he discovered freedom on two wheels. Today, Ab keeps the spirit of 26-inch steel MTBs alive, blending sustainability and craftsmanship into every custom build.
Hi Ab! Thanks for taking the time to chat today. Let’s start with your story, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your journey with bicycles began? I know you used to be a bike messenger; how did that experience shape your relationship with bikes?
Sure thing! I have the idea my story’s rather unique, but I’m not the one to decide on that:)
So I’m a refugee kid that fled the country me and my parents lived in in 1991 bc of the gulf war. My parents (Iraqi) and I (3 years old) left Kuwait and started a new life in the Netherlands. Being +40 yr old (rigid) muslims my parents experienced a pretty big culture shock and didnt know what to do with their young kids being exposed to such different lifestyle values. My parents tried to ‘protect’ us from these influences and kept me and my sisters home. We did go to public schools but that was it. I grew up watching television and learned a lot about alternative lifestyle’s and tech thru MTV and discovery channel. For some reason especially bike related subcultures like freestyle bmx and welding stuff drew my attention! So I collected money working throughout the summer in my uncle’s barbershop and I bought myself a brand new super low-end 100% hi-tensile steel GT bmx bike! I was 14 years old back then and my parents let me ride it anytime I wanted! Tho I remember when I asked my mum if I could buy a BMX she said something like ‘if you really love me don’t do it!’ haha.. I LOVED riding bmx and took my bike (and shovel) every day to the local dirt-trail. I experienced this immense freedom and got to develop myself as a free spirited young bike enthusiast with lots of likeminded friends. We were all broke so we had to fix our bikes when they broke down. I learned building wheels at the age of 15, thanks Sheldon Brown:D and became the local bike-tech for my friends as far as you can be with the minimum amount of tools that were in hand..
As time passed by fixed gear bikes and messenger lifestyle became a newfound interest of mine that got introduced to me thru the older bmx-ers I knew and I started building fixies from old road-bikes for myself, for others etc.. Soon came alleycats and good parties.. In Utrecht the only messenger company back then (2009-ish) didnt hire, I applied multiple times.. So I finished my studies and got a bachelor degree in optometry.. (I don’t realy know why I chose optometry ha ha.) Another newfound interest in that time that got to me from older bmx-ers was motorcycles and motorcycle maintenance.. Old japanese air cooled motorcycles, steel frames, turned to fun machines: Cafe Racers and the likes! Earning a good pay as an optometrist I bought myself an apartment with a big shed/small garage in the backyard, I started doing custom motorcycles and got myself some tools for it. A tig welder, a lifting table, some small machining tools etc. I also had a short but passionate run as a photographer as a side hustle in the music industry back then.
After 7 years of working as an optometrist in different settings I knew it was not for me and I had to change pace bc I was getting pretty darn depressed with my 9 to 5..
I quit my dayjob and applied (again) at the messenger company, this time they did hire and I was a happy man! I made some pretty rad and adventurous new friends that took me mountainbikeing/bikepacking on old steel mtb’s. A renewed love for bikes appeared in this bigger and warmer form taking complete control of me.
I havent touched a single motorcycle ever since and being a courier with a tig welder it was a natural step to tinker about home-made cargo-hauling solutions! My bestie in that time is a guy called Thomas, he rode this purple steel GT Timberline and asked me if I could weld on some discbrake mounts on it. I said nahh I can’t, he said yeahh you can! So I did! And then I did the same for a bike I built for myself, A black GT Tequesta I found on the dutch craigslist, and then I did some conversions and frame-repairs for some colleagues, and then some customers and then I made some racks and then a cargo fork, and then an omnium-style conversion, All Terra Customs was airborn! Very happy with my photography skills I got to capture everything and its aesthetics.
Building bikes isn’t just about functionality; it’s about creating something unique and personal that reflects the rider’s story.”
Transitioning from being a bike messenger to becoming a full-time mechanic and builder must have been an incredible journey. What inspired you to take that step and start All Terra Customs?
So I started All Terra Customs during my time as a bike messenger. The cargo bikes that were in hand at the job were these bullits built up for tall dutch people and they had these way to heavy plastic cargo boxes that you had to haul around for 100 km’s a day. I needed a smaller bike being 1,68 meters and wanted to build it myself. For the longest period of time I worked as a courier I had a 90’s 26er (GT Timberline) with a customized bmx fork where I elongated the blades to make up for the difference in wheel size mounting a 20 inch front wheel. Combined with a self made rack and a big foldable crate on top I did all the cargo runs on this bike. 70 pax catering? No problem! With some dispatchers (..one actually) there was this always so tiring discussion whether I would be capable of doing this cargorun or not. It got to the point I was so tired of the discussion I made myself a serious and capable cargobike jig and built myself an omnium-style cargobike from a scrap GT timberline that got saved from the trash bin. This bike was light, fast and made all cargoruns easy and not so challenging anymore.. Slowly and surely I got bored of the work as a messenger but the bike I’ve built got lots of attention! Before I knew it I had a first order in, and then another one.. And then I got so tired of the messenger work, and maybe more important the company I worked for, it was time for me to quit.
Next to the new product I’ll release soon, the semi-custom cargofork, the fact than I’m able to be in contact with my customers that contact me thru instagram 7 days a week, all wake hours, really made it possible to have a full build queue for the coming 4 months in only a couple of weeks of being ‘unemployed’! So I’m a happy fulltime builder now and building customs will always stay challenging bc of the millions of possibility’s yall want:D
Like me, you have a special passion for steel 26er MTBs. What is it about these bikes that makes them so special to you?
As a millennial I’m somewhat conversative if it comes to tech haha. Being born and raised in an analog time that changed to a digital world I’m forever nostalgic. 26er mountainbikes are the embodiment of this nostalgia:) also coming from steel bmx bikes, aluminium never felt good/safe..
Many riders believe newer standards are the only way forward, but enthusiasts like us see immense value in 26ers. In your opinion, what is their greatest advantage, particularly for urban riding, commuting, and adventures?
Next to the fact 26 inch wheels in a big sized frame give you some serious comfort and endurance advantages (over 28 inch tourbikes) I think it’s the simplicity of how cassettes-on-a-driver and a quick release system works and how widely available and cheap everything is! Now when me and my friends go on bikepacking adventures the bikes are pretty mixed between modern/classic and it’s always the newer/modern gear that fails and takes the longest to fix.. again, this sounds pretty conservative, but I’ve seen it happen so much! I’d say singlespeed hike-a-biking with an easy-to-weld-if-cracked old steel mtb is the quickest and cheapest way to have the most fun!
Sustainability is becoming a key topic in cycling, and refurbishing old bikes is a fantastic example of this. How important is sustainability to you, and how does it influence your work at All Terra Customs?
I pretty much live sustainability on a daily base, so very important! Most things (also tooling) I own are used and I’m ±95% vegan and cook a variety of meals using as less as possible packaging materials and the such. Me and most of my friends are political and environmental activists. Being a zero emmision bike messenger was also a good way to contribute in such a way. I have had placed 6 big solar panels (by my mtb-adventourist-ex-messenger-now-doing-solar-panels friend) last year that give me all the electricity I need for my household and machinery:) I also try to use as much of the original tubing when converting a bike to a cargobike. The rest goes to the local metal recycling company where I bring the metals separated (steel/aluminum). Its fun to show up there on a bicycle haha.
I’ve seen your custom racks and forks, they’re amazing! How did you get into fabricating these components, and what do you enjoy most about creating something unique for each bike?
Thanks a lot! It was the forever tinkering about a better (and more comfortable) solution to bring something from a to b as a courier that got me building these parts! Also what the market has to offer just doesnt quite make up for the expectation I had with those. Being cargoforks with only one geometry, making them not suitable for all bikes, and the availability of those.. Also the specialized pizza racks I used to mount a lot failed on me and my customers all the time and never directly fitted on forks and I still had to make some custom part to mount them haha. I enjoy making unique bikes and always found the ‘market racks’ too one-in-a-dozen to really compliment the bikes.. So I’d rather spend some hours designing and creating something unique that fits perfectly and does not fail.
Let’s talk about tall bikes. I saw the one you and Olive created, it’s such a cool project! Can you share the story behind that adventure?
Thanks again!! Well I learned quick enough that I’ve been inspiring people all over. A lot of my followers on my instagram account seem to be very enthusiastic and chat with me all the time. One of them being Olivia, an aspiring young german bike builder, raised in the states and recently moved back to Germany. We started chatting over a bike that got stolen from me, to find out we felt a very special connection and started talking life, a lot! I invited her over and we wanted some sort of bike-related project to do. ..a tallbike was born! That week was one of my most happy ones!! We’re talking about a possible future apprenticeship now:)
Riding a tall bike must be an extraordinary experience. What’s it like to ride one through the streets of Utrecht? And how was your experience participating in the 24 Hours Cycling Race?
Haha it totally is an extraordinary experience! It feels like it should be illegal to ride, but there are lots of things like this I enjoy:):) I think its because I was raised with all these unnecessary rules to find out for myself they don’t do any harm if broken. It’s a thing in my brain that wont pass over and that’s ok. I’m the worst in traffic rules tho, very frustrating haha.. The 24 hours cycling race was quite the experience, you get a lot of attention riding a tallbike! In a mostly progressive city as Utrecht it’s lots of smiles and laughter, but leaving the metropole things can get quite ugly. I’ve seen people looking pissed off and swearing and/or totally lose their shit. Not all the time, but it happened more than once. Then it’s also a bike you don’t want to get on/off too much so I kept a slowish pace but didnt stop that often. I did catch up on most of the participants all day long till I stopped late at night bc I was done for it. All the attention and the hard work against the heavy coastside winds got the best of me. I did have a really good time tho! Would do it again on this bike:)
Utrecht has a rich cycling culture. How does the city inspire your work? Are there specific aspects of Dutch cycling culture that influence your creations?
Hmm, hard question.. I think this city has been not keen on cars driving thru and that’s only intensifying! So I think cargobike-sollutions are the future and probably the reason I’m so keen on focussing on that. During my messenger work I learned a simple construction as a cargofork on an old bike make it possible to move 5 (!) full crates of beer thru the city, to everyones disbelieve! There should be a cargobike lobby working to change the city’s state of mind more and more you know? I hope I can be/am a contribution to this city’s future cycling culture<3
Among all your projects, do you have a favorite one that holds a special place in your heart?
ooh.. I think all these projects have a special place in my heart.. the tallbike, my first cargobuild, the soon to be enrolled semi-custom forks… I love them all and they all contribute to my life in their own unique way!
The cycling world is always evolving, but some things remain timeless. What do you think the future holds for 26” MTBs, and how do you see them fitting into modern cycling culture?
I think wheel size will or should be more a factor that changes with someone’s length rather than the type of bike.. So +sized 26 inch mtb’s for shawty’s like myself are a great modern fit! I’ll soon build my first MTB frame with radical geometry and + sized 26 inch wheels, can’t wait to take that creation to the alps.. It will be simple and made for easy repairs and the most fun!
Lastly, what message would you like to share with people passionate about cycling or curious about restoring old bicycles?
Don’t believe the industry hype and buy/exchange/share and enjoy locally! <3<3<3
