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Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

To celebrate the year of his 40th birthday, Rob English decided to compete in this year’s TransAm Race — a 4300 mile journey across the United States. He set off from Astoria, OR, on Saturday, June 3rd, on what could be the ultimate continental racing machine.

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

At the time of writing, Rob has passed the 800-mile mark and is cruising steadily upon a bike of his own construction: the result and combination of his 40 years of riding, racing and framebuilding experience.

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

Like all of his builds, the amount of thought and engineering expertise that has gone into this particular English Cycle makes it a wonder to behold. Rob has built plenty of competitive bicycles in his time but he will surely be proudest of this one.

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

Rob’s TransAm racer is loosely based on his road frames, featuring his signature pencil-thin seat stays, with a lower bottom bracket and a longer wheelbase for extra stability. He opted for disc brakes here, and a SRAM eTap groupset with extra Clic shifters.

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

He worked with Oregon local Kaibab Customs on the luggage, including the food storage box under the aerobars with its integrated ‘map flap’ – and there’s a standard XLAB bento box on the top tube. Now, how’s about that custom Ruckus Composites saddle bag?

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

Rob supplied a foam cutout to Ruckus and they came back with a molded carbon bag that will help to improve aerodynamics, along with the extra headtube fairing, helping Rob to slice through the air. It’s perfectly matched to the shape of the Parlee TT fork.

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

Parlee also supplied fairings for the disc calipers. Once the True Temper S3 and Columbus Life frame was finished, it was sent to Colorworks for a very visible bright orange paint job with chrome logos.

Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike

It’s a sleek and individual machine; a summation of Rob’s ingenuity and passion for the craft and culture of custom framebuilding and endurance riding. The Spoken wishes him, and the other competitors of the TransAm race, Godspeed and good luck.

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Lions And Eagles: English Cycles TransAm Race Bike