Make something unique
Make something unique
If we’re honest, we’d all like to be riding a bike that nobody else owns. But most of us can’t afford a £19,000 gold-plated Sarto – and even then there are 24 others – so the next best thing is it to make something yourself.
Turning up on the club run on your Specialized Tarmac might seem a little predictable, but if you’re the only one there who’s specced it with Enve finishing kit you’ll at least be able to take a small amount of pride in your choice, even if it all seems more like splitting hairs than the business card scene from American Psycho.
And there are loads of brands out there you can go for that you wont find (or only find in a few isolated cases) on stock bikes, from mainstream brands that just don’t make it on to many off-the-shelf machines, to the likes of AX Lightness, THM-Carbones, Lightweight, so if you’re a fan of exotic carbon components then you can go truly crazy in your quest for exclusivity or the ultimate featherweight bike build.
But seriously, building your own bike is a chance to be creative beyond the spec basics. Use fancy coloured cable housing, colour-match your components, route your cables pro-style and switch the routing around the bottom bracket, use outlandish or dual-coloured bar tape, add your own decals. There are tons of ways to put your own mark on a bike. Remember, there’s only one rule: make sure the bike works when it’s all done. Which brings us on to…