After making laurence’s first Saffron which is originated around an all road/gravel set up. He liked the feel of steel so much that he decided to commission us to make a bike to replace his Colnago C60. The idea behind this bike was to match the weight of the C60. The performance of this build needed to be similar to what he was riding before. We both felt that our Strive model would be the perfect match. The build ended up being the same weight as the C60. The performance is a difficult thing to measure. The strive is stiff in the places where it needs to be but importantly having compliance where the rider will benefit from it.

Laurence had a clear idea on components. The Etap Axs gives a very clean aesthetic. The stem, handlebar and for are all chosen for their lightness. The headset and BB choice was to make sure he could have the best quality bearings possible. We spec’d EE brakes which have an amazing stopping power for the weight – this is a dream component list.

Laurence first got in touch with us after seeing a saffron with this same paint design at the 2018 Rouleur show. The paint design on his first saffron paid some tribute to the pastel angular design but went for a more industrial brutalist look being executed in monochrome grays. Second time around Laurence ordered our ‘flagship’ frame model and its corresponding paint scheme. This paint scheme consists of loud angular blocks paired with a toned down colour palette. The muted colours go some way to balance the busy layout of the design. This is an incredibly time consuming design to paint, with each panel needing to be meticulously and symmetrically masked before airbrushing in the colour. The loud angular blocks are paired with a toned down colour palette and the result is our antidote to all the black on black on black paint jobs out there.

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