When we finished reading The All Road Bike Revolution, we had heard enough. ENOUGH. It was time to experience, first hand, the spirited ride the bike that Jan outlined so eloquently in his book. Like many of you, we are already enjoying the plush ride of Rene Herse tires, with soft supple casings and once low low psi, the ride is true bliss. But tires are only part of Jan’s genius, he’s spent countless hours testing tires, tubes, tubeless, frames, forks, bags, saddles, handlebars, and just about every part that makes up a bike in search of what makes a bike faster, more aero, and more comfortable, which he refers to as “a spirited ride quality.” Spirited meaning, you can ride this bike and become one with the machine, it disappears beneath you while providing as much speed and aerodynamics as any other bike, but with all day comfort as well, basically, having your cake and eating it to, at least that’s what I took from his book and blog posts.
The final product, however, might not match the image in your head. In place of massive carbon tubes, engineered to be as inflexible as possible, will be narrow gauged steel or titanium tubing engineered to flex.. 25mm tires are replaced with huge 40 – 54mm, and instead of 100psi, try 40, or less. The wheels aren’t 700c, but 650b?Instead of aerodynamically shaped frames and wheels, use a handlebar bag to hide behind and slice through the wind. All of Jan’s ideas seem to fly in the face of the notion that what you need is a new carbon bike every year that is lighter, stiffer, faster, than the last in order to achieve the fastest ride.
We tend to buy in to a lot of Jan’s findings, and after reading this book, we’re excited to partner with Royal H Cycles to build a bike based on what we learned from the book, the forthcoming result is what we are calling the Bed of Roses project. A bike built to achieve the elusive “Spirited Ride.” We are so looking forward to the process and the product.
If you want to follow along, please do, and please ask questions or share thoughts along the way.
Our posts:
http://truecyclery.com/drillium-bed-of-roses-update/
Other posts of interest: