Rahi’s Above Category road bike

Rahi is small of stature, at 5’0″ and 80lbs. She approached Above Category to see about having a custom bike commissioned – they worked with her to determine the best fit, and then suggested that I might be a good choice as her builder. I do enjoy building for small, light riders who are typically very under-served by production bikes.
The design goal was to use 700C wheels if we could make them work without compromise, to have the right amount of flex for Rahi’s size and weight, and to make the bike weight as low as possible.
Rim brakes were chosen for their low weight and simplicity, using the Cane Creek EE brake in direct mount format to allow for 32mm tires. This required a custom steel fork to match the frame, with all tubing specifications carefully decided upon to match the design.
The small size of the frame meant that there was not much room for the rear brake at the seatstays. A wishbone arrangement positioned the brake too low so that there wasn’t space for the arm of the brake. So instead, this frame features a miniature ‘fastback’ style seatstay that moved the brake up just enough to have the required clearance.
After I supplied the frame, fork and stem, Above Category did a great job of selecting very light components to complete the build, with parts from Ingrid, Campagnolo, Darimo and Bjorn. Resulting in a final weight of 14.8lbs. AC’s write up on the bike can be found here.
is that a dyneema seatclamp? on the saddle rails
Correct – Darimo’s Loop seatpost.