Greg wanted to make the move to a handmade bike from his Colnago. His new bike was to be used all year round, but without the relaxed handling some winter bikes have. With a clear brief like that we designed a full Columbus XCR frame with a large 38mm down tube to keep the frame stiff and responsive. The Custom machined stainless steel head tube supports a Kinesis Tracer fork, which allows for 28c tyres with mudguards, but without an excessively long axle/crown measurement and large 1.5″ bottom bearing means the steering will stay as sharp as possible. Disc brakes and mudguards were a must, but we tried to keep their aesthetic impact to a minimum – helped by Shimano’s smaller flat-mount standard calipers and full internal routing for the rear brake hose. We employed the new threaded T47 standard for the bottom bracket allowing us to run the brake hose through the shell, with the cups coming from Rideworks. For long days in the saddle comfort is essential, for that reason we included an integrated shim to take the seatpost size to 27.2mm, giving ample flex to take the shocks from the road.
Greg was won over by the looks of a 60’s MG at a classic car show, with it’s mix of chrome, British racing Green and tan leather. Polishing the rear stays means we can leave them exposed to mimic the chrome and Busyman in Australia crafted Greg a custom saddle and bartape combo to finish the look.
