Bespoked Bristol 2017

Just ridden back to the campsite, up the biggest fucking hill in Wiltshire, and are driving home. Some fantastic kit, and so impressed with the quality. My highlights were the separable fat bike, halfway between a normal one and a surly big dummy, in ti, and chatting to Chris king. I had to do a double take when reading his name badge Chris King, Chris King'!
He showed me the cutaway hub, and explained it in detail.... I then took it in my catastrophic paws, and proceeded to fire an 'O' ring over my right shoulder..... He was fine about it though!! The fat bike was an 'Iowa' and the guy was so cool, he let us take it out the fire exit and rag it round the car park!!!
Next year I'll ride there though!

Oh, and massively on trend seemed to be randonneur rigs, with a collection of modern soft baggage coupled with Gilles berthoud style handlebar bags on small racks or decaleurs....strong look!
Ricky feather's stuff was obviously awesome, with the pinky/mauvy bike with the little bit of rubber to stop chain slap my fave!
The Llewelyn bikes were lovely too.....

I've slept since about 2am, when we got home, after the noisy chickens woke me up most of the night before, and we tackled some bastard hills......oh, and my wife had been out with her staff for a belated Christmas do, and she was drunk....that's funny though, as she doesn't imbibe as a rule :0)

Photo album
https://goo.gl/photos/UJ36A9JyDa3Cdc9BA

Highlights were definitely Talbot and Hartley.

Though I also loved Demon Frameworks and that jacket, as well as https://www.mackworkshop.com/ bags (which can be custom, so it you have narrow bars this will be a bar bag that fits).

I heard that there was a bike with paul braze on brakes ..

Cover your eyes!

Uncanny:

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A huge congratulations to @Ecunard for her successful show!

Stick it in the Fishy thread. :)

as well as mackworkshop.com/ bags (which can be custom, so it you have narrow bars this will be a bar bag that fits).

Fatherly glow

Gutted not to have looked round but mountains and great weather lured me elsewhere

Glad ventile is really getting used by all sorts these days.

One thing I'd like to see is someone improve it by protecting exposed hems from wear, it does fray ITRW. Anyone got pics of the jacket?

Oh just found it.

Meh.

The only down side to this wonder material is its price.
There's only 2 mills that can produce the fabric one is here in uk and the other is Switzerland.
Time to send production to far east I think.
Anyone know about epic cotton? I think howies have used it.

Had some Alpkit jeans made from it, which were nice but more for the cut than the fabric. As I remember the fabric is impregnated (with silicon?) which made it water resistant, but this wore off fairly rapidly on washing to ~normal levels. Was perhaps slightly better long term than standard denim and was reasonable at not getting stained.

Not the same as Ventile, which I believe is like a soft duck cotton and get's its properties from a dense weave that swells when wet becoming ~waterproof.

Outdry is the material I would be interested in seeing more jackets/items made out of.

AIUI epic cotton's proofing should last for the life of the fabric, but it needs reactivating by tumble-drying. I've got an old Vulpine jacket and it's so-so; it's​ reasonably water-resistant but will wet through in heavy rain, and while it's as breathable as regular cotton I run hot and so will cook if it's not cold and I'm giving it any welly.

I'm not that taken by the Demon jacket; for the money you could get a replica Greenspot Nomad in double Ventile from Lancashire Pike, or Hilltrek will make you an updated version of the Greenspot for about £200 less. Unfortunately Ventile has the drawbacks of epic cotton at even higher cost: when it eventually wets through it gets stiff and heavy, and the breathability drops; it then takes ages to dry. Which isn't to say that I'd never consider getting one - just that it would be mainly as an about-town jacket, and would be unlikely to be worn on serious bike trips.

Having just looked at the ones you mentioned I can see where the money goes... tailoring.

The Demon jacket looked excellent, and was super comfortable when I tried it on. The pockets were great, and it was somewhere between a classic field jacket design and a classic cycling jacket. You could wear it 3-season off-bike and no-one would even guess how good it might be on-bike in foul weather.

But agree on the drawbacks, once wet they do get stiff and heavy.

Still... damn nice jacket. I'd put it in the same league as Engineered Garments and they don't even produce cycling wear, just incredibly well made pieces.

The Hilltrek jacket is a bit of a bag, but the publicity shots I've seen of the Lancashire Pike one looked pretty good I thought. I'd agree that if you're dropping that kind of cash it needs to be well made and tailored; to my mind it's really competing with fashion gear rather than cycling kit.

The thing about ventile is that it's 100% cotton with no treatment all all. It's waterproof ability is due the cotton yarn being able to expand when wet and seal the material. This can make it stiff and hot when drenched.
But it was designed for raf pilot crashing into the sea.
I especially like the fact that it feel non rustly unlike goretex or event.

Any one tried wax cotton whilst cycling? Too hot?

I've got the Swrve waxed cotton jacket. Think I rode in it once, and it was a sub zero morning and I was still sweating like a pig when I got to work.

Wax cotton is really not more than showerproof.

My experiences of using a double-Ventile Hilltrek greenspot has been almost perfect - it has to be said their finishing lacks something and attention to detail not perfect (cuff design for instance), and there's the issue of fraying I mentioned above, but re: waterproof and using it as a 'proper' adventure garment, I really like it. Used my first one for 6 or 7 years (worn almost every day) walking, camping and cycling. It does get heavy when wet, and it's true it doesn't dry quickly. However it never leaked.

Onto my second one, regretting choosing the warm orange colour Hilltrek now offer as it's attracting the dirt so quickly compared to my old countryside-alliance-green one.

Thank you so much.

The weekend went pass in a blur of great chats and friendly faces. Exhausting but also so energising for the future.

The standard in the show is so high, its pretty humbling to just having been there with my work. So getting the awards... shit, it's a bit out of this world.

Now to ride my bike, process how insane the last 12months have been and then get cracking with the next batch!

i had vulpine epic cotton trousers, like all vulpine kit they were shit and got soaked the first time it gently drizzled

my Hilltrek ventile jacket is amazing, when it pours it stays waterproof, though it does go completely rigid when the outer layer wets through, so when you take the jacket off it will stand up on its own -until the outer has dried out

Loved your paint on the Toad bike... Really beautiful work.

Missed out again this year :(

Been checking out the 'gram. Interested to see the Hartley + Talbot collab.

Nice pics @Velocio