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Joey’s Specialized Allez Sprint
I love a good project, and when Joey reached out to ask if I’d be up for building his latest road bike I was stoked when he pulled up with this stripped raw Specialized Allez Sprint. I really like these frames, and the raw finish adds to the industrial look of the stiff alloy frame
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Merida Big 9 TR Hardtail
I first rode the Big 9 during an MBUK photoshoot in the autumn of 2023. It was a bike that ticked a lot of my boxes. It’s got a threaded BB, moderately aggressive geometry, low standover height, and doesn’t weigh very much. The Big 9 climbed better than anything else I’d ridden, and seemed to
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Pinarello Dogma F
With my workplace being one of the UK’s top Pinarello dealers it was only a matter of time before I swang my leg over one of these Tour De France winning megabikes, and so I’ve kindly been loaned this incredible Dogma F to ride and race on for the year. I didn’t used to be
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Freya’s Cannondale Scalpel HT
Towards the end of last year, my dad won a Cannondale Scalpel HT frame custom painted by the legendary Doktor Bobby. The frame was won in a raffle as part of the Slay Ride, an event involving collecting for food banks ahead of Christmas and organised by Claire of All Terre Adventures. She is one
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Gabe’s ORŁOWSKI Społem Łódź Pursuit
Its 2023 and fixies arent cool any more, except for when they are. Since moving back to working in the city I have been skidding my track bike down the big hill to work every day and absolutely loving it. Fortunately after lending him my set of track wheels Gabe has been persuaded to do
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Cinelli Mash Parallax 2014
Pre warning: I’m about to spend a lot of words getting all soppy, nostaligic and excited about this bike. Feel free to skip straight to the pictures of how damn radical it is. This was one of the first batch of Cinelli Mash Parallax frames to arrive in the UK way back in 2014. Despite
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Fairlight Strael 3.0
It’s officially winter, which means fitting mudguards, and going out in the dark. It’s also a nice excuse to take photos of my bike again, something which I enjoy far too much. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the usual ENVE 3.4’s have been swapped out for something less exotic – I’ve been doing a
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Santa Cruz Chameleon V7
You know when you have those ‘What if I could only have one bike?’ conversations… Well here it is. This thing is like triggers broom really, Since buying the complete bike five years ago the only original part is the Fox 34 fork (not even including the steerer tube!). Even the frame cracked and was
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Argos MDT Fixed Wheel Time Trial
This bike is still in my possession and I do tend to break it out for the odd 10 mile TT every now and again. These pictures however were taken back in 2016 when I think it looked its best, in a time before sky high extentions were the norm. It’s an Argos Cycles Fixed
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Cannondale Caad10 2011
This Cannondale Caad10 was my first road bike. I’ve had it nearly 10 years now, and It’s been raced, crashed, painted, and now unpainted. I had been a little on the fence about stripping its custom paint as it did have some sentimental value, but it was looking a bit tired and didnt inspire me
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James’ Singular Perigrine MK3
When James asked for a hand building up his dream spec Singular Perigrine MK3 I jumped at the chance. He had pre ordered this frame over a year ago, and had a long time to mull over the spec choices and source his dream selection of parts. I actually built his wheels months ago, and
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Transition Sentinel
After a couple of years getting to know the Santa Cruz Hightower I decided it was time to move it on and swap the frame out for something different… The Sentinel ticked all the boxes, with 10mm more travel at either end, a 30mm(!!!) longer wheelbase , and a 2 degree slacker head angle its
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Stratos NJS Track
I scratched the NJS Track bike itch around summer 2014 with this beautiful candy red Stratos bought straight from NJS Export in Japan. It arrived wrapped in Japanese newspapers and with the charictatistic dent in the top tube which meant it couldn’t be used in competition any more. NJS frame are written off for racing
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Cannondale Caad10 Throwback
These images were shot by Jamie of The Headset Press back in May 2016, when i’d recently rebuilt my Cannondale Caad10 after having it resprayed by Bristols finest painter Doktor Bobby. The bike was an all round fast and sturdy road bike. no lightweight carbon bits or expensive parts, just dependable stuff. At time time
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Concorde Pista Track
Around 2013 I picked up this ‘Concorde’ branded track frame from the LFGSS classifieds. It might not have actually been a Concorde, but was made of some nice tubing and had tight clearances, which was all I cared about. It was about £250 and I built it up with whatever I had laying about at
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Cannondale Supersix Evo Hi Mod 2018
A few images of my 2018 Cannondale Supersix Evo Hi-Mod. The bike was painted by the talented Bobby at Colourburn studio, with a brassy style down tube texture inspired by my saxophone. Images from Jess Greaves.
Rob Borek
borekthepencil.com 