Full stainless steel road bike

There is something nice about an (almost) completely metal bike – this build has a little carbon at the crank, levers, derailleur and saddle, but is otherwise metallic, with a stainless steel frame, fork and stem.

The frame has an integrated seatmast with a custom cap for fine tuning saddle height. There are direct mount bosses under the chainstay for the rear brake, with the cable routed internally through the downtube. Seatstays and chainstays are custom shaped, along with the ovalised toptube, whilst the headtube features external machining. The bespoke stem has matching spacers machined to match to allow for a little handlebar height adjustment.

Hed Ardennes wheels offer a great braking surface – rim brakes are not dead yet! Shifting duties are taken care of by Sram Red AXS.

The fully brushed finish has beadblasted logos, and the final complete weight as shown is 16.7lbs.

I took it on a quick ride yesterday, a short 18 mile loop I’ve done a million times, straight up into the hills behind my house and back down the fast, varied descent back home. I’m sure I’ll have more to say when I get some real miles, but let me say, I already freakin’ LOVE this bike. So many great qualities, I don’t know where to start.  

It feels alive with just the right sort of road buzz/feel to tell you what the pavement is and what your tires are doing.  Out of the saddle, it feels as stiff as (but more lively than) my carbon bikes, but doesn’t want to pull all to-and-fro, left/right like they tend to.  The geometry is a bit different than what my body knows from my carbon bike (and the position is very slightly different too), so it will take a few more rides for me to fully get the feel of the bike, but already I feel confident and stable on the various fast corners I’ve descended, but not so locked into the line I commit to, like, say, on my older classic steel bike.  On one very fast, badly paved corner of the descent, I noticed the bike doesn’t just bounce around skipping about like other rides.

Overall, the bike just feels right. Thanks a lot for your lovely work on this, Rob. This is a great ride.

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