Max contacted us after being hit by a pizza delivery guy and going through his window while riding in Copenhagen. The impact mangled his current touring bike which he asked us to have a look at to see if we could fix it for him. We both decided it would be best to get him fitted on a new Saffron. The brief was initially just to replace his current setup, a custom built Villiers Velo touring frame which he had made for him a couple of years back.

We went down the process of getting him on a touring frame. The brief started to change overtime as he had been riding his dad’s Enigma excel, a fast endurance/race bike. The original idea was for Max to be touring as well as on occasion to be able to smash it while doing laps with his group of mates. However as time went on he decided it was time to throw his leg over a bike for a specific task to achieve maximum efficiency opposed to have a “do it all” bike . We were glad to hear this, as while it is fine getting one bike for multiple types of riding, you end up not getting the full potential for a single type of riding.

Max settled on a bike specifically for longer fast club rides. We changed from a lugged construction with skinny tubes and slack geometry to a fillet brazed construction with oversized tubes. The tube size gives Max the stiffness he would need for this type of riding, and because of the natural elongation of steel it gives him a good level of comfort.

Alongside the frame, the groupset and wheels were a massive step up for what he had been riding over last couple of years. Some may disagree but you can’t go wrong with a well set up mechanical Campagnolo Chorus groupset now can you!

The paint scheme took bit of time to come to, but I suppose all good things take time! The inspiration was the water you find in the Caribbean on a calm sunny day. Cole Coating was the man to interpret this into a beautiful mottled fade of blue, silver and green.

The bikes maiden voyage was the Dunwich Dynamo.

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