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The Spoon Customs Izoard Racer in steel with a wild Klein-esque paint job. There’s a lot to love here. I’m a huge fan of the matching painted stem and bars but leaving the seat post alone. Flat top tube and straight head tube is classy. Super Record mechanical is an appropriate choice. I’d be happy to see the back of the alternating spoke/nipple colors though.

£2,500 (~US$3,200) seems like a decent frameset price.

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We’ve got... the new 12 speed Super Record hydro group on an Open U.P.P.E.R. sporting 48mm Compass Switchback Hills mounted to Zipp’s 650b 303s. Custom painted by Vélocolour. The bike is absurd and perfect fits the Above Category MO.

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So much love for the traditional styling of Legor Cicli. Usually not a huge Zipp fan but they work on this machine. The photo was taken at the door to The Service Course bike shop in Girona. I’m still disappointed I ran out of time to visit it while I was briefly there last year. 

If you haven’t seen it here’s a lovely short doco on the single man Legor frame building operation.

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An elegantly setup titanium Salsa Fargo. I’ve always liked that Salsa sells this frameset alone. I wish they’d do the same for the rest of their range, titanium and otherwise. $2,800 is pretty steep though.

A huge amount of photos at Masahiro Matsushima’s Flickr.

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Horizontal top tube, full fenders, dynamo + lights, Tubes front rack. Looks like 700c with some 40mm (?) tires. This is exactly how I’d want to setup a dream tourer or super-lux commuter.

See the full album at Flickr.

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It’s Tour Down Under time which means we see the new season Pro Tour bikes. The Lotto-Soudal Helix SLX is the pick of the bunch for me. Classic geometry, understated paint job and minimal branding. Campy 12 speed too.

See the rest over at Cycling Tips.

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The Trail Donkey 3.0 from Rodeo Adventure Labs. There’s a lot to be said for the sheer utility of this thing. It could be built up to do anything. I’m a big fan of the new colors, especially this one and the naked option. I could do without the agreessively stamped down tube but perhaps it’s not as pronounced in person.

$2,650 is steep for the frameset and 1300g 56cm plus a 600g “spork” ain’t exactly light. Still, it’s tempting.

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The older I get the more interested I get in utilitarian bikes. Fenders, racks, a multitude of mounting eyelets and especially dynamo powered lights. This Firefly is an exquisite example.

See more pics of this build at the Flickr album.

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I’ve experimented with exotic cranksets before with negative results. Finicky setup, noise, poor shifting and extremely tight clearances. It’s hard to argue with the look of the THM SRM cranks paired with custom (I think?) Caron-Ti chain rings.

More pics of the private collection C64 these are mounted on at Super Domestique.

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A freshly repainted Indy Fab SSR. Hot damn. Looks amazing paired with that Enve matte black.

More pics at Super Domestique.

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I recognize Specialized were jumping on a bandwagon with the AWOL but they really did nail the hyper-utilitarian but still long-distance capable machine. Lots of super nice details, especially on this build with the Gates belt, minimal rear rack and full coverage fenders.

If you haven’t seen it yet I highly recommend Melons, Trucks and Angry Dogs, a specialized produced doco on the 2014 Transcontinental ridden on two AWOLs.

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Super clean Crosscheck. I used to have something against cantis but the more Bicycle Quarterly I read the further I come around.

More at Blue Lug on Flickr.

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Love the huge tubes and polish on this Passoni. Rarely seen these days mechanical Red. Hard pass on the integrated bar/stem, it couldn’t clash with the bike more.

More pics at The Road Goes on Forever.

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Gorgeous colors and paint fleck detail on this English road/gravel. I’ve always loved their super skinny wishbone stays but could do without the seat tube mounted bottle cage.

More pics at English Cycles.

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An incredibly tiny but stylish midnight special.

Via mac_cycles.

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Bonkers lugwork and eeCranks on this Bedford.

Apparently built by Fairwheel. More pics at Cycloffee.

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A Mosaic in those throwback Ridley colors from a few years back. Straight head tube and traditional bend bars for look much older than its actual age.

Photo by ycblextra.