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Current lead times: Unpainted bikes: 7 weeks. Painted bikes: 9 weeks.

U.S. Built Custom Bicycles in Titanium and Titanium-Carbon Mix

Tag: Tires

RedSky – The Ultimate in Versatile Performance

Yesterday, we introduced Project RedSky. Today we want to look at this bike’s incredible versatility. To demonstrate, we offer photos of an eTap equipped RedSky wearing a wide range of tires.

With 23c tires, RedSky looks like any road bike. What you will notice, as we step up from 28c, to 32c, 33c, and finally to 30c studded, is that the bike always looks proportional, always looks purpose-built.

RedSky can very literally be your go-to fast, group ride bike, and also your winter time commuter (with 32c tires and fenders). You can ride mixed-terrain on it with an array of file treaded tires, or you can tour on it. It has hidden rack mounts at the dropouts.

We know a lot of our riders are hesitant to move to disc brakes, because they have already invested in quality rim brake wheels. RedSky solves this problem by giving those riders access to the same tires as they might run on a mixed-terrain or cyclocross bike.

Mavic 23c tire

RedSky with caliper brakes amply clearing a Mavic 23c tiresCaliper brakes amply clearing a Mavic 23c tire

Rivendell Ruffy Tuffy 28c

RedSky with caliper brakes amply clearing Rivendell Jack Brown 33c tires

Caliper brakes amply clearing a Rivendell Jack Brown 33c tire

Clement X’Plor MSO 32c

RedSky with caliper brakes amply clearing Clement X'Plor MSO 32c tires

Caliper brakes amply clearing a Clement X'Plor MSO 32c

Rivendell Jack Brown 33c

RedSky with caliper brakes amply clearing Rivendell Jack Brown 33c tires

Caliper brakes amply clearing a Rivendell Jack Brown 33c tire

Clement LAS 33c

RedSky with caliper brakes amply clearing Clement LAS 33c tires

Caliper brakes amply clearing a Clement LAS 33c tire

45 North Xerxes 30c studded

Axiom SL with caliper brakes clearing 45 North Xerxes 30c studded tires

Caliper brake clearing a 45 North Xerxes 30c studded tire

Horses for All Courses

John Lewis on singletrack

Three of us showed up for this morning’s shop ride on three different bikes (while others…ahem…chose to sleep). It’s only 10 miles, but all on twisty, rooted, rocky single-track, one of those cool stretches of uninterrupted dirt that seems so improbable so close to the city, but it’s a gift we avail of ourselves year round, year-after-year.

It was just the regular Thursday morning dirt commute, but here’s where it gets interesting. One of us rode a mountain bike with 2.3s. One of us road an Evergreen with 40c tires, and the third road a cross bike with 32s. None of us was out of our league, and none of us seemed to have too much bike. Were there differences in how we performed over the varied terrain? Sure. The mountain bike was fastest through rock gardens and over roots. The other two bikes were faster on packed climbs. But it all evened out, and we all had fun.

This was one of those cool, unintentional experiments that yielded reinforcement for an idea we’ve been nursing for a long time, that the common conceptions about the “right” bike to ride in a given situation are probably not more than reasonable suggestions, and that really, you just have to ride what you love.

Neil -n- Matty

Don’t get trapped by expectations. Be led by fun.