Juliet's Fiery Fixed Crit Race Bike
Juliet is a multidisciplinary bike racer and for this build she wanted an all out race machine. This bike is to be ridden at the Redhook Crits, a series of fixed gear criterium races on closed road circuits, as well as a number of other fixed crits this season. The Redhook courses are known for their tight bends, making for lots of excitement, so Juliet needed something really stiff and responsive that she could throw around corners at full speed.
To get the ride quality we were after we chose the Columbus Sprit HSS tubeset, this is their flagship race tubeset, thin walled with a really large diameter aero downtube and chainstays for a super stiff ride and great power transfer. This was paired with their new Futura carbon fork to give the optimum handling characteristics without any toe overlap, something that's really important for the tight bends in the type of courses Juliet will be racing on. The 50mm offset option on the Futura fork allowed for the extra toe clearance we needed whilst maintaining the super sharp handling.
For the paint, Juliet really wanted something that would make a splash, and I'd been experimenting with a very labour intensive technique of gold leaf and candy paint, so thought this would be a great way to get a really high impact, almost glowing finish on what is essentially a very stripped back race frameset. The front to back fade, is nod towards the speed blurr and the idea of riders hurtling around the track – a contemporary take on the 'racing stripe' perhaps!
Good Luck Juliet!
Frame: - 700c fixed crit race bike
Tubing: - Columbus HSS Spirit frameset and Columbus Futura carbon fork.
Wheelset: - Handbuilt 700c Owen Wheels deep section carbon rims with DT Swiss classic track hubs.
Groupset: - Sram Omnium crankset, C-Bear ceramic bearing bottom bracket, KMC X101 track chain.
Finishing Kit: Deda Superzero seatpost and stem, Cinelli Dinamo bars, Brooks C13 carved saddle.
Paint: - Custom paint by Hartley Cycles, full gold leaf covering with fiery red candy fade.
Details: - Hand cut solid silver 'Juliet' detailing, Hartley Cycles asymetric bridges and Bentley Components track ends and custom stem cap.
Image Credit: Sebastien Klein
All Hartley Cycles custom frame builds and bespoke bicycles are handmade in London with great care and attention by frame builder Caren Hartley.
