Remember your first proper bicycle? That first ride, going further and faster then you ever had before? Remember the sense of freedom and adventure that it gave you? Like you could go anywhere and do anything?
Developed and tested on the Col D’Izoard, just down the road from our workshop. This is a custom steel road bike designed for going fast.
Clearing your head in the mountains in winter is relatively easy. Look out the window and go for a quick lap. It’s astonishing how the environment you’re in (when it’s that extraordinary) supports your well being.
I am no longer up a mountain full time and whilst life is pretty good at the moment, I still want to be able to clear your head of all the normal day-to-day stuff every now and again.
During the Giro I promised some content about Simon Yates and our take on the effort ahead of him in Stage 19 on the Friday but, by the time I’d got my thoughts together stage 18 had finished and he was showing signs of losing his momentum. We’re not, with our first Finestre concept based road bike nearly ready to go.
Montgenevre was - is - the perfect spot from which to develop ideas, test stuff and ride (alot). It’s also an essential jetty into Italy with easy reach to all my contacts and suppliers.
So why did we need Brighton as well? Simply put, the business needed a UK base.
When someone comes to us for a bike they’ve usually got their own ideas and a dream in their mind and massive expectations. It’s my job to meet and exceed those expectations, on every level. This ain’t the high street after all.
I’ve had a busy few weeks, with customers going off to Majorca, the Alps (to ride the Etape) and most recently at least four bikes I’ve looked after took part in Ride London in the terrible weather yesterday. So, thought it was time to reflect on what we’ve done so far.
Nick Saunders is a Elite Ironman who works alongside Ben Bright, GB Olympic Coach at Triathlon Performance Solutions. Nick and I run a pro-camp out of Briancon in the Southern Alps. I’ve just come back from our third successful camp. Find out what we got up to here.
I have a number of influences some for their work, others for their character. For me Will Alsop, who sadly died last weekend, has been and will continue to be an inspiring influence on me and my work for both his ideas and his extraordinary personality.
There’s been a few new car-bike brand collaborations recently, as companies try to get more involved in the bike market. We’ve put together a little collection of five of the world’s most expensive and in some cases, less, er, sensible, bikes. Including one which uses real butterfly wings, by Damien Hirst. Our’s is slightly more vegan friendly, using only M.C.Escher’s Butterflies.
I spent the best part of two years driving up and down the A4 and E70 in Northern Italy visiting, talking to and trying to understand the partners required to make bikes to the standard I’d dreamt of. I visited a roll call of Italian craftspeople, some of the best factories and workshops in Northern Italy.
It’s our second anniversary since the launch of the Izoard RR. I was going to write a potentially more indulgent post about marking that moment when I got some bad news from a customer who’s riding mountains out in France. Andrew’s going to be just fine thank goodness, but the timing got me to thinking and I think the resultant post now probably better reflects the true nature of how doing stuff like we do works in real life. Get well soon, Andrew.