March 13th, 2010 - By admin

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The unconscionable  cruelty of daylight savings time is releasing its gloomy grip, the central coast is sunny (and green for a change), and I expect to be amongst the other zillion cyclists enjoying pre-tourist season tomorrow.

I suspect the bike you see above will be out there too. It was completed shortly before the NAHBS, but the show prep was so all-consuming I’m only now able to show it to you. Its owner is a successful winery owner in northern San Luis Obispo county, with access to as much quiet dirt-road riding as you could ask for. He’s also younger, more fit and has a great band practice space in a cellar filled with French-built casks of expensive wine, but I’m not jealous, I don’t know where you got that idea.

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This style of flat-bar cross bike lends itself well to a lot of different types of terrain, probably anything except really tricky singletrack (we sell mountain bikes for that, by the way). The 1×9 Sram XO drivetrain covers you pretty well at the high and low end, and only having one shifter frees up a few more brain functions so you could for example, have one more glass of Syrah before you head out for your ride.

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Combine that with Edge rims, bar and fork, White industries crank, BB and hubs and a few orange (sorry, ‘mango’) bits here and there, and you have a 17lb bike you can blast around the vineyards all day on. If you happen to wander off the road and bump into a stray tree or cow, the bike can take it.

We build a lot of bikes in the vast cyclocross-touring-MTB continuum, but this one inhabits a pretty special spot. Congratulations, Justin.

You lucky S.O.B.

2 Responses to “Springtime in wine country”

  1. Beautiful bike Jim, great pictures and a nice bit of commentary too.

  2. Hi Jim!

    Life as it should be!

    Robert

    P.S.: Your Racebike rides great!!!