News reaches me that Evans has become an official distributor for Sabbath, the Cheshire-based maker of really rather tasty (and surprisingly affordable) titanium road bikes.
Always good to see a big chain supporting one of our many, excellent home-grown bike brands. Looking forward to seeing them in the flesh/metal - apparently they'll be available from the new flagship store in Mortimer Street (London W1), Waterloo/The Cut (London SE1), Deansgate (Manchester) and Xscape (Castleford) to start with.
Jury still seems to be out on the virtues of titanium as a frame material. A beautiful element, no doubt, but the promises of combining steel's comfort with carbon's stiffness is a difficult message. One man's perfect compromise being another man's, well, compromise. The old grumblies have a point - if titanium is so perfect, how come the pro teams are still riding carbon? - but the positive messaging seems to be winning through, if the number of Litespeeds, Moots and Sevens spotted on recent sportives is anything to go by.
Be that as it may, all the best to both Evans and Sabbath on what I hope will be a successful experiment.
More details @SabbathBicycles and http://www.sabbathbicycles.co.uk/
Cycling's one of those sports where as a mere punter you can - if you have the cash - buy exactly the same piece of kit that a pro uses. It's not like we can all nip down the dealer and pick up a McLaren MP4-25 like Jenson drives. Frankly, you wouldn't want to, either, as the ride would be, umm, slightly uncompromising.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet road cyclists all seem to want to get as 'pro' as possible by having carbon everything and race geometry. For most of us, sacrificing a little bit of stiffness and a tiny weight advantage for a bit more comfort is probably not a bad idea.
That said, I've always felt the titanium finish is a bit dull. Can you get them painted?
Oh, and some of those Sabbath bikes (the Silk Emperor for one) look properly odd. And the names! Silk Emperor's bad enough, but 'Monday's Child'?