- ANA’S GORGEOUS BELLS AND WHISTLES STAINLESS STEEL 650B TOURER -

Ana came to me with the initial idea of having an old French-style randonneur bike. As time went on, more and more ideas came to light about building it in a wonderful traditional style, but modernising it to be a real 21st century bike capable of long distance touring. We wanted it to have the reliability of modern materials and components, but remain cable operated for that unfortunate mechanical that can always happen in the middle of nowhere. It has bar end shifters, and friction gears with brake levers: All very simple but incredibly practical for this kind of bike. Dynamo lighting, custom pump fittings, rack alterations, and a few rare components really make this bike stand out among the masses.

I used Columbus XCr for the Lugs XL and stainless steel tubing for ultimate longevity. The steel is capable of carrying a full load and handling the strength of the disc brake-specific fork without feeling floppy when loaded up. This meant over 200 hours of building, polishing, machining and assembling on this bike, not including the incredibly time-consuming paint job. There was masking and box lining, de-masking and polishing... I think everyone involved with this bike took a huge amount of pride in the attention to detail and it really shows.

This bike won the ‘Cycling UK Choice’ for Best Tourer at Bespoked 2017.