CJ is from Tunbridge Wells in Kent previously known as ‘The Garden of Eden’ for its lush scenery of orchards, hidden corners, village traditions and wildlife variety. He wanted the bike to be his gentleman’s Sunday’s best as it is one of many in his stable of bikes. He had a clear vision for the aesthetic, functionality and balance.
For the frame we used Columbus XCR, fillet brazed with 33 percent silver. We went for a slightly relaxed geometry by putting in a 47 mm rake into the fork with a head tube angle of 72 degrees. The bottom bracket was dropped to 74mm for stability. As the bike is for day touring, it was built around 32mm tyres for comfort and to handle tar and tow path surfaces. We went with disc brakes with a steel fork. It is not usually the braking configuring for steel forks because of the leverage within the fork blade, but as this bike is designed to be a gentleman’s Sunday best and not an out and out racing bike we were able to do this.
The fork, rack and stem were made inhouse by us to have complete control over the length, size and aesthetic of the rack. The rack is made from 4130 carbon steel and made to fit the diameter of the Carradice canvas bag. The rack, bottle cages, stem and fork are ceramic powder coated with a textured black finish as the fork and the stem are brazed with bronze to give a stronger finish on a high failure area. A SON dynamo hub is built into the wheel. The cable for the light dynamo goes through the fork and into the rack which also has an integrated light mount for the Supernova dynamo light.
CJ’s bike was designed for a clean aesthetic with integrated features where everything was routed internally with no superfluous bolts and fittings.
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The brake callipers have been paired with the Campagnolo Record Groupset made by Magura as we could not use a flat mount brake due to the selected iso mounted dropouts
The seat post and bottle cages made by NITTO.
Saddle by Selle Anotomica
We used 32mm tubeless Panaracer gravel kings.⠀
The handlebar tape and the spoke holder sheath, which doubles up as a chain stay protector, is made by Grafton Saddler where she matched the colour of the spoke sheath and bar tape to match the saddle colour
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I was going to use the bottle holders as the first image but if this one is more interesting technically I can move the bottle holder to the rack
CJ wanted a minimalist aesthetic contrast of silver and black to show the craftsmanship of the frame build so we left the frame in a raw state. Even though it looks like quite a classic frame It’s got many modern aspects like thru axles, disc brakes and slightly oversized tubing.
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The entire frame is left exposed for a raw finish. A translucent adhesive primer covers the frame for protection. The entire frame is first polished, then brushed with the Saffron logo on the downtube left high polished through a masking process.
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We loved the platform of finishing as it gave us a chance to demonstrate the craftsmanship that lies beneath our painted frames.
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“I think its fair to say that Saffron absolutely nailed the brief. I could not be happier with the bike. The craftsmanship and attention to detail are peerless” CJ
