Chad’s Above Category road bike

Above Category is a high-end bike shop in Sausalito, California. They focus on bespoke builds, working with a selection of builders and frame suppliers. Chad is the owner, and he approached me to have a custom steel frame built for himself. The design brief was for a classic-riding rim-brake road bike, with an integrated seatmast and matching custom fork and stem.

I quizzed Chad about his riding preferences, and his experience with the many other bikes he has owned, so I could design the geometry and make tubing choices to create a frame to match his needs. He opted for external cable routing for the gear cables, with a headtube mounted barrel adjuster for the front derailleur, and internal routing for the rear brake through the toptube. An extra set of bottle bosses was included on the seatmast for longer rides.

The paint was applied by Velocolor, and Chad built the frame up with Campagnolo Super Record. You can read the AC journal entry about the bike here.

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