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A modern look at an old school maker, still hand building Ti in the Rockies. There's a link below to the story on my site... https://www.augustusfarmer.com/mutts-of-moots/

Barnoldswick. It just sounds like a Northern village name. I can’t hear it without thinking of a northern accent saying it. The kind of place you find in a rom-com where Cameron Diaz goes to find herself but finds Ewan McGregor instead. What you actually find in Barnoldswick is Hope. Pulling up at the house of Hope is quite different from most of the British bike industry I’ve visited. It’s, well, kind of American actually. At least in appearance. Kind of huge in presence and neat in display. You’d never think this gentrified modernised church of British bicycle family silver was actually made in this incredibly smart building, it’s just too nice, too neat, too, well, American. But this front of house is entirely appropriate. To the...

Why a retrobike? The coolest people of every generation have an icon. During the 1960s, among the rock n’ roll set on Chelsea’s Kings Road, it was the Jaguar E-Type. In the 2010s, the trendsetters are the 20-something media types of Shoreditch. They wear skinny jeans that stop above the ankle, and the coolest have meticulously manicured moustaches. Their preferred mode of transportation is a retrobike, specifically a fixed-wheel road bike from the 1970s or 80s, such as a Colnago or a Mercian. Less cool, but still way ahead of most of the population, is a slightly older male – mid 30s to mid 40s – typically a graphic designer with a penchant for classic trainers and vintage mountain bikes. On dry spring and summer days, they can be...

England has a historical north-south divide. But not these days surely? Not in the age of homogenised pursuits like Saturday shopping, the cinema the night before and the pub the morning after? Must be just the same up there as we are down here, must be. No. They are not. They are hard. Maybe it’s the relentless economic climate that nurtures the south and freezes out the north. Being overlooked and neglected has made them tough. And they laugh about it. Pride themselves on it. Shandy drinking soft southerners. Being British has always been built on an element of banter within, but there is truth in the soft south, hard north divide. Maybe it’s as simple as the bleak weather. Maybe it’s deeper. Whatever it is, I am most definitely a...

What is the most iconic retro mountain bike component of all time? We here at retrobike plan to try and find out or at least gain some sort of consensus from the forum. Simply make your nomination on the iconic retro mtb component thread here and see if the retrobike massive agree with your reasoning. Will it be the XT thumbshifter? Cooks cranks? Grafton cantis? XT v-brake? 200lx plastic coated cranks? We'll leave it with you....

Pulling up at U.S.E HQ it dawns on me, over the years we’ve known each other, I had never taken up Rory Hitchens’ offer of popping by anytime for a tour round (they’re only 5 miles down the road). Right, better turn round and pick up some cakes then hadn’t I? Pulling up at U.S.E HQ for the second time in half an hour, I am greeted by a flurry of bike business activity. “We’re moving into the unit opposite” a huge pile of Exposure Lights boxes said as it crossed the road on the small industrial estate that is so often the type of place you find an industry legend like U.S.E. Am I going to be met with an air of confused derision at my longing to unearth a pile of anodised purple loveliness gathering dust in the loft? Probably. This...

This article on a 'retro' 10 speed MTB cassette conversion has been written by Omar R. Esteves from Caracas Venezuela. PART ONE I am an old man who has been experimenting and tinkering with all kinds of bikes for a good part of my life, including mountain bikes in the last twenty five years or so. During all this time I have seen quite a lot of good ideas (not including terrible ones) on bikes and bike equipment fly away to obscurity only to come back some years later as the latest innovations. For a few years, I had been reading that now when we have mountain bikes with 9-speed cassettes in all imaginable ratio combinations and from various manufacturers, some people insist that these are not suitable for mountain bikes...

"This is the true tale of a personal journey into the heart of darkness. A passage lined with fear and loathing, heartache and despair, fascination and longing. A journey punctuated by learning and discovery and humiliation and realisation. A bicycle ride through the wilderness of the captive soul, passed desperation and drug addiction, public nudity and lost inhibition towards an awakening and a lost horizon. This is my Apocalypse Now. Sort of. " Click here to read on apocalypse; noun - 1 an event involving great and widespread destruction. 2 (the apocalypse) the final destruction of the world, as described in the biblical book of Revelation. nowt; noun - Northern England colloq or regional dialect meaning Nothing originates from...