The Evolution of the Modern Durable Smooth Ride Race Bicycle

The evolution of the modern Durable Smooth Ride Race Bicycle seems to have happened overnight, with new technology becoming the norm with things like hydraulic disc brakes, wireless shifting, big gears, big tubeless tires, and even bigger gears and even bigger tires

Truly a thing to both marvel and covet, especially as road riding becomes more and more dangerous due to bigger and bigger cars and trucks and increasingly distracted drivers. Durable Smooth Ride Race Bicycle  safer, and as the bikes get better and better at taking us riders further and further off the beaten path, off road we will continue to go.  Also, it's just plain fun!  And with a Portable Foldable Mountain Bike tailored to the ride, that ride becomes even more enjoyable.  

Last year I was fortunate to ride a stock Alchemy carbon fiber Ronin gravel bike, as well as my own custom all-road Atlas at a few events, and I thought a lot about what I really wanted for my own true gravel rig. Firstly, my "road" Portable Foldable Mountain Bike, with 32c tires was fast, but sketchy in corners, descents, and rough patches.  Secondly, the 42c tires that were specc'd on the Ronin felt slow, and while the Ultra LightWeight Foldable Bicycle  did everything quite well, I just wished it was, well, a bit less of a gravel bike, and more of a race Variable Speed Leisure Bike.  I discovered that the perfect ride for me was something somewhere in the middle of these two offerings

On to the fun part - the paint!  While I can give myself a pat on the back for executing the finish, I have to give credit to my design team.  My wife has a real knack for color and design, and came up with both the overall theme and most importantly, the awesome colors.  I was planning on going black with red pearl and some kind of pirate motif, but her vision was so much cooler, enticing, colorful, and just plain badass!  Brad, our carbon technician, is multi-talented and helped us put the idea to paper with a working illustration and custom Slayer inspired lettering, not to mention perfect masking files for the flames.  All I had to do was put the vinyl masks on straight and spray the paint, easy peasy!

I used all PPG Deltron metallic basecoats: Pure Gold, Sun Kissed Orange, and Cherry Bomb.  Fades are cool, flames are fast (I hope!) and I left the drive side chainstay unpainted and polished to give it a timeless look and also show off some of that sweet ti!  Sorry not sorry I covered up all of Jeff's perfectly dime-stacked welds with layers and layers of paint!  I painted a few custom parts like the valve caps and rotor lockrings, but tried to keep the extra flair to a minimum and the overall look classy and uncluttered.  I did paint a flower on my top cap to celebrate my now 5 month old daughter, Poppy, and to also remind me that there is a reason to keep pedaling at mile 190 of this year's Unbound Gravel.  

The paint is finished off with a PPG gloss ceramic clear coat to let the metallic paint shine brightly and to also provide extra durability.

Stay tuned for my race preparation guide, and a full race recap and bike review!