- MALCOLM’S FLAT BAR ROAD BIKE -

Malcolm’s flat bar road bike was a completely unique project for me. He came to Feather in search of a road bike which could take on his surrounding hills but didn’t want drop handlebars. In addition to this, he had a vision of his bike being akin to the super cool Speedvagen Urban Racer but with the addition of a full set of road gears and wanted to use the bike year round in different conditions.

The mission was to meet all of Malcolm’s goals whilst keeping the bike as simple looking as possible. The bike had to be comfortable but perform like a modern bike, so a mixture of slim, ovalised and opposed oval tubes were chosen, along with a steel fork and custom bent seat stays to add compliance of the rear end. The triangular window in the fork crown was removed to add to the simple aesthetic and the bike was painted in a very specific matte battleship grey specified by Malcolm.

A handlebar and stem combo was fabricated using T45 aircraft grade tubing, Di2 wiring was integrated into the handlebar with custom bar ends machined from stainless steel to protect the control unit and tiny Di2 thumb switches were used to control the gears. Coming from an early 2000’s BMX background, it was the perfect bike for me to sneak on a set of ODI longneck grips which were always known for the comfort they provided.

This was definitely among my favourites of 2023, its always nice to have something a bit different to build.