See the 1800KM photo essay here

So almost one year ago today we did our first post on the Elcyclista site. Almost as exciting was sending our first Elcyclista kit out not long after. That was to Stefan Rohner, who turned out to be an amazing and published photographer, and so our photo features began. Since then Stefan regularly drops me a note to poke fun at my riding – like I rode up the Stelvio on the wrong side (Ed: is there a right side? They both hurt you know). So it is only fitting that on this day of celebration in the Elcyclista household we are able to publish this stunning photo essay from Stefan.

He just spent three weeks with his brother riding the great and slightly lesser known climbs of the Pyrenees. The numbers speak for themselves. The longest daily ride: 168km, the shortest daily ride: 83km, the average ride: 135km. Vertical climb approximately: 36,500m, average: 2810m…. but you know what, none of that really mattered to them. No Garmin or SRM, they just figured it out after wards, choosing to ride the climbs with their thoughts, conversation, and a view. What I love about these images, is that you can literally feel the silence on the climbs, and the only sound left is your breathing and the changing of gears. The absence of people and traffic. The aftermath of the Tour (they rode them in the weeks right after the Tour had passed through). If anything ever makes you question why you ride, or commit so much of you life to sitting in a saddle, look at these pictures. You will instantly remember why.

There is also something very fitting, that on the day that we get to publish these incredibly peaceful photos, we are also able to pay tribute to Laurent Fignon who did so much to animate racing on the roads of the Pyreness, The Marie Blanque, Aubisque, Solour, Tourmalet, Larrau, Pierre St. Martin, Burdincurucheta, Baragui, Houratate, Bouezou, Sustary, Labays, Marmare, Pradel, Pailheres, Agnes, Ares, Peyresourde, Aspin,

We have been fans of the Ritte team for ages. Apart from being one of the funniest teams around (check out their blog), they have also managed to produce a quality team bike that is now available to the public like you and me. Named after the Bosberg climb, it is a light all-around race frame. The features include carbon dropouts, an integrated seat mast, a BB30 bottom bracket and massive chain stays for power transfer. Also a tapered 1.125″ to 1.25″ head tube giving it very precise handling. You can find these features on a lot of bikes today, but what really makes the Bosberg pop is the paint job. It is a pretty unique looking design, and has now been updated with a beautiful matte black carbon finish, (just like my Storck) with a high gloss finish on the paint. Pretty classy right?

According to the guys at Ritte it will also make you roughly 240% more attractive and 312% more intimidating (Ed: ? So while you might attract more ladies with a 240% increase in charm – you will scare them off when they get close with your 312% improvement in the intimidation category. Net gain, you have a 72% better chance of either charming your way over the line first, or scaring everyone back to the feed zone).

Back to the real facts, a medium Bosberg frame with uncut mast weighs less than 1000g, the fork with uncut steerer weighs a scant 350g. Bolt on SRAM Red and a pair of racing tubs and you are in the 14-pound race bike range. All of this with a nice finishing kit for under $5K. If you are interested, it is as easy as going here. They have also extended the line to include the mean looking Crossberg (I think I like this design best) and the 1919 time trial bike, both below, all available at the Ritte site.

How did you get into the sport?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been into bikes. I vividly remember my 9th birthday when my uncle, who was a big roadie at the time, showed up for my birthday party and had a dark blue Masi road bike that he had just picked up. I remember it had Campy on it and he trained on tubulars. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. That same birthday, another uncle gave me a Murray BMX. I got more and more into it, and I eventually wanted a higher-end BMX bike, but my parents wouldn’t buy me an expensive one. So I “de-tassled” corn (I grew up in the Midwest just outside Chicago) for the entire summer when I was 12 so I could order a new Robinson from Frankford BMX, a mail-order company advertising in the back pages of BMX Plus. I raced BMX for a while and eventually graduated to mountain bikes. Then in college I was racing a 250GP bike as part of the AMA Superbike Series and used a mountain bike to train on when a mechanic friend of mine, Mike Rockwell (another roadie) got me out on an old steel Bianchi to “chase some school buses” for fitness. From that moment on, I loved it and I’ve been on road bikes ever since.

Reading the background on you guys, it sounds like you have put together an interesting business model. How did the Franco brand get started?

My cousin, Hector, and I have both spent our entire careers in consumer goods. Hector on product development as an industrial designer and engineer, and me on the business side. Our experience there was really pretty simple. We would partner with retailers and base every decision on consumer insights, always focusing on the customer needs. That meant if we kept the focus on the customer, the business would take care of itself. Having bought a lot of bikes ourselves we didn’t think that was the case in the bike industry. We’d find what we thought was the perfect bike and then we’d have to try to find it, since our local dealers didn’t always have them in stock. One time in particular, when I was looking for a specific new bike in my size, that meant printing off a list of US dealers for that brand, and calling every dealer from the east coast to the west until I finally found it. I found it in Utah, and since I was on vacation with my wife, she didn’t appreciate my efforts that morning as much as I did! Experiences like this and our network of contacts allowed us to create a company that did exactly what we wanted when purchasing a bike. Franco Bicycles was born.

Tell us about the direct-to-consumer model you have established and what makes it a unique service?

Our direct-to-consumer model, “The Franco Experience,” is unique in that it allows us to custom tailor a new Franco bike to every individual customer. We get to know the customer first and the type of rider they are. What type of riding they will do, the terrain they will ride on, and the kind of experience they want to have on the bike. This may mean building the Ultimate Race Bike, or building up an elite performance bike that delivers real all-day, in-the-saddle comfort. We accomplish this by matching components to the customer needs.

Here is an example, while a build with SRAM Force comes stock with alloy Ritchey Logic II bars, a customer who doesn’t race and wants the additional vibration damping a full carbon bar offers can upgrade to the Ritchey WCS Carbon Curve bar. They can even upgrade to the Ritchey Superlogic Evolution bar if they do a lot of climbing. Or through conversation we might find they might benefit from the slightly swept-back tops of the Evolution bars, which are designed to help you keep your elbows in and head up when climbing. Every part is upgradable at the cost of the upgrade, and not as an add-on. The bike is shipped exactly how the customer wants it. That means they get everything they want from their new bike, and nothing they don’t.

Combine this level of service with a complimentary bike fit using Retul’s 3D motion capture that comes with every complete bike we sell and customers get a new bike that is tailored to them and delivers the performance and experience that they expect when they buy a bike of this caliber.

So one day there was no Franco product and now you are sitting with the Balcom frame: tell us how you went from scratch to creating a product of this quality? What was the design process like?

Once we had decided the type of bike we wanted to create we traveled to Taiwan a number of times and met with manufacturers that we thought would offer the manufacturing capabilities that were most important to our vision and could commit to the quality that we required. This meant touring a lot of facilities and seeing some of their exclusive manufacturing processes firsthand. We then went to work on developing the product. This was a long process that included CAD development using Solidworks and ProE, initial FEA analysis, prototyping, refining and detailing carbon layups, samples and sample testing. Various steps were repeated until we had a rideable prototype. We rode and tested a lot of prototypes before finally settling on the Balcom, which is now for sale. The final steps were deciding on a graphics package and finally offering it for sale! That took just 2+ years!!

What is the ride quality like on the Balcom? What type of rider or conditions does it suit best?

The Balcom was designed to be an Elite Performance road and race bike. It’s a super stiff bike that provides immediate feedback when you push on the pedals or hard in the turns, while being comfortable enough to endure long training rides. Can you ride a century on it? Sure. Are there more comfortable bikes out there to complete a century on? Sure. Will they be faster than ours? No.

You spec your bikes out beautifully. What is a typical build weight?

A build with SRAM Red, Ritchey cockpit and Zipp 404 tubulars as shown on our site is 13.28 lbs. We actually have a bike built up right now that is going to be tested by a print magazine that we believe is the ultimate race bike. The bike is full SRAM Force, with Ritchey Superlogic components (including a traditional seatpost), and Hed Stinger 4 tubulars with Vittoria tires. It weighs 13.9lbs complete and retails for less than $4k.

Apart from the Balcom, what other models do you have planned?

We are just getting ready to kick off development of a new road bike, and have started development of a new TT/Tri bike. The Balcom will still be in the lineup with no changes planned for it, but we do hope to broaden the range over the next 18 months.

The Factory Team look like a bunch of pretty mean riders. How do they fit into all of this?

The Factory Team was designed to give us immediate feedback on bikes. Some of the guys on the team are ex-Olympians and current Pros that race Pro 1-2 and Masters here in Southern California, which is arguably the most competitive racing scene around. (Elcyclista: I think there are a few guys in the Park Series here might give you an argument on that.) A few of them had ridden an early prototype version of Balcom back in 2008 and have provided a lot of feedback for the current. As an example, we’re working on a cross bike, so this season we have the cross racers on the Factory Team riding an aluminum version to test out the set-up and geometry and we’ll make the bike available for limited sale next year.

Tell us about the “Nut House” ride–I saw something on your Facebook page about it.

Haha! The Nut House is a stop along our backyard route. We’re based in Camarillo, CA, and the bike’s namesake, Balcom Canyon, is just down the road from us. We often do a ride we call the Balcom/Grimes Loop. Now, I’ll be honest, on most occasions we descend Balcom and climb back up Grimes (below). No matter which way you go, you deserve a stop at The Somis Nut House. Plenty of salty snacks to get you back on the road and home. They also sell Mexican Cokes! Which are especially sweet after a hot day in the saddle.

Are you guys still able to ride and race with all of the success of the brand?

Yes, as much as we can. We both have small kids at home, and a business to run, so it’s definitely a lot harder than it used to be to get the time in on the bike, but I’ve still been able to get in 10-12 hours in per week. Racing can be pretty competitive in SoCal, so if you don’t put in the time on the bike…it’s embarrassing. I learned that earlier this season when I had been off the bike for a few weeks because of an injury and then let my friends talk me into racing the Manhattan Beach GP. It was brutal. I suffered more than I should have, and got dropped. The only way to fix that is to ride more. Plus I have a carrot that lives down my street, I ride to beat Greg Lippert.

Merckx or Coppi?

Merckx. If it wasn’t for WWII, we might say Coppi, but at the end of the day it’s Merckx.

What do you enjoy more, the Classics or the Tours?

The Tours. Even watching from home, I love the entire “Tour watching” experience. The fact that it’s happening every day, the coffee, the way it becomes a part of the daily routine for nearly the entire month. We’re on the west coast so watching the Tour live every day means you have to wake up pretty early to enjoy the entire stage without having to struggle to avoid spoilers online. Especially on the climbing stages when coverage can start as early as 3:30AM PST. Once it’s over, you can go through some serious withdrawals. That said, you can’t beat the tension and the potential for heart break that the classics offer. For so many of those riders, it’s all on the line that one day and so many things have to go right. Where in the Tours there is always tomorrow, and there are 20 opportunities for a win every year, a classics rider gets relatively few attempts at a big win. Can we say both?

If money was no object and you could own any frame you want, what would you order up (can’t be your own)?

Easy. I’d get in line for a bike from Sacha White over at Vanilla Bicycles. As far as carbon goes, ours delivers everything beyond expectation, so I would mix it up and add some variety to the garage with one of his bikes. Have you seen them? They’re beautiful.

The Franco Bikes Site »
Franco Bikes on Facebook »

Vincenzo Torriani was best known as one of the original “Giro Bosses” or organizers of the Grand Tour. He held the role for 46 years, from 1946 to 1992. This bike was a special edition given to him by Ernesto Colnago in the 1980s as a gift, recognizing his contribution to the great race and Italian cycling in general. Also in his honor they named the “Trofeo Vincenzo Torriani” after him, awarded to the rider who took the Cima Coppi ascent. He was also the man responsible for introducing the Cipressa to the Milan – San Remo, under the direction that the race needed to be made harder in the final stages. Something riders like Cav will curse him for today. I saw this bike in the museum at the top of the Ghisallo, and of all the bikes on display that day this one really stood out. The pictures do not do the finish justice, the bike literally glows in the light, even indoors. But as with Colnagos of that era, it was the attention to detail that makes it special: the painted inlay branding and the Italian national colors painted into the seat post inlays. Bike design today has got me so used to fat and shaped tubes and high profile rims, that a bike like this looks almost naked now.

Is that thing even legal (well not with todays rules)? That is a ridiculously large wheel, and somewhat seems to defeat the purpose of trying to beat the hour record. Sure you might as well just stuff a motor down that extra long seat tube. Hell why even stop at the 4ft diameter, you can get that thing up to 6ft, and your back isn’t even straight. Dave Zabriskie (“the most aerodynamic man in cycling” according to Phil Liggett) could sort that out.

Just got sent these two lovely shots from our friend Stephan Rohner and his brother currently their on a road trip through the Pyrenees riding the climbs. These are from today’s “Sunday morning ride” up the Col D’Agnes. (10 km at 8.2%). It looks like they got a nice foggy day, but knowing Stephan that would have made him want to ride it even more! Jealous.

I can’t find much out about Cicli.co, a company from Milan that we found on our recent trip. They make a very unusual and cool looking commuter bike. They work in partnership with Spernicelli Bici one of Italy’s premium vintage bike restoration shops. Check out their site for some beautiful vintage rides. Would love to get a test ride on that power arm crank they have instead of a chain.

For the longest time I have been walking past this great empty shop front space on Baltic Street and Court Street, and thinking it would be a great place for a gallery. Well someone went one step better, and turned it into a very special bike shop. The new Rolling Orange shop specializes in old school Dutch “Work Bikes” or “Bakfiets“. Newly built and updated from the old designs to meet the needs of modern transportation by bike, they get behind the brand tag of “Slower Is Better“. They stock the De Fiestsfabriek, Dutch ID and Batavus brands, all variations on the theme of the old work bike design, with updated components. They are also carrying a great selection of very stylish accessories that any about-town rider would be happy to wear. Check out the Little Nutty polka dot helmet. The original design of the work bike dates to pre-war years when biking with cargo (kids, groceries, milk churns…) was the preferred and most efficient mode of transport, and mostly the only way to travel in rural Holland. After the war and the introduction of mechanized transport the Bakfiet started to fade away from daily life, but brands like De Fiestsfabriek have successfully updated them and re-introduced them to the modern eco-friendly rider.

This is one fine looking ride. There are a few parts on here that I might swap out, but that SL3 frame looks fast standing still. Completely turned my head.

Photos and bike by Mario Hartman

I have been reading and admiring the Storck Fenomalist from afar, mostly because I am afraid if I get too close I might actually try and buy one. Then I stumbled across the S-Tec site in Germany that is a specialist dealer for them, and they have great shots of these pretty pimped out builds. My fate may be sealed. I am not sure about those wheels in the top shot though, they look like you would have to wear white shorts to carry them off and I am just not sure I can go there. But that white frame is a beauty. Everything I have read about these frames says they are one of the best rides you will ever throw your leg over. If anyone reading owns one, or has had the joy of riding one, I would love to hear some first-hand feedback.