TOM’S Di2 ROAD BIKE 

Tom is my girlfriend Sally’s brother. Sally’s family and myself came up with the idea of building Tom a custom bike for his 30th birthday. It was actually a good while off and still is, Christmas Day 2019, in fact. The idea soon got a little out of control and Sally’s dad was too excited to wait that long, so it ended up coming early. We surprised Tom with the idea over Skype the night before his bike fit had been arranged and before long, we had made our way through about five or six different paint designs. In the end, we ended up settling on gloss black with a special touch of green pearl to funk things up a bit.

Here’s what Tom has to say about it.

“Having a custom bike built as a gift from my family came as a complete surprise to me. I knew they would want to make sure it was something really special. I wanted a classic looking bike that would stand the test of time, whilst also being fast and race ready. It was going to be the bike I'd use throughout the summer months, hopefully for a great many years to come. I also wanted it to be somewhat understated. I was so excited that I ended up changing my mind about 20 times, so I knew it would be a tall order for Ricky to know what to actually build!

I couldn't be happier with the finished product. It's definitely a looker in my eyes and I'm glad that Ricky managed to create a design that both satisfies my need for something understated with a gloss black paint job and at the same time, make it fun, thanks to a really deep green sparkle that looks amazing up close in the sunlight. The stainless chainstay is a great aspect of classic steel bikes which I've admired for a long time but never had the chance to own. The cutout on the seat tube gives both a super responsive feel and a unique look for a steel bike. It's a bike with all the trimmings and I love the retro-modern feel it has. After loving a few days riding it in Mallorca with Ricky just after it was built, I'm really looking forward to getting it back out on the road and riding it as many miles as my legs will let me. That's if I can bring myself to stop staring at it long enough to get outside”.