Small, but mighty—a perfectly fitted gravel bike for Charlotte
Like many of our customers, Charlotte came to us because the mainstream bike market wasn’t catering to her specific needs—primarily, size. While we’re well known for our attention to detail and focus on fit, fabrication and finish, the thing we’re most proud of is that each Spoon bike build begins with the individual rider, and we knew we’d be able to help Charlotte out.
After all, we create custom bikes one at a time, always starting with you and the type of riding you want to do and designing to meet needs and exceed expectations every single time.
We believe there’s a problem inherent in the way the majority of mainstream bikes are made: engineered around an assumption that the average rider suits a 56cm frame, with the materials and geometry often informed by similarly generic, predominantly male input. Apart from the obvious discomfort caused by sizing issues for people who fall outside of that cohort, badly designed kit can deliver handling and ride-characteristic issues for people who don’t perfectly fit within design standards.
Toe overlap, poorly set up controls, and critically, weight distribution can all lead to a feeling of insecurity when battling with sub-optimal kit designed for someone else.
Emma Pooley, famously the best female cyclist in the world for some years, rode her entire career on a bike designed for someone else entirely. She told us that she felt like she’d never had access to optimum kit designed just for her—until David Barnes (our head fitter at the time) did just that, starting with a blank sheet of paper. The bike was a carbon WyndyMilla Massive Attack, but the chassis and geo were developed around a 650B wheelset, perfectly suited to Emma’s size needs.
Emma’s an engineer as well as a world class cyclist, so she knows a thing or two about the way kit can limit you if it’s not designed around user needs. Her feedback at the time: she believed that she could have won the Giro had there been access to a bike designed just for her, such was her difficulty with off-the-shelf kit—a problem present even at the top level of the sport.
As Emma’s and Charlotte’s projects both show, regardless of what shape and size you are, or the type of riding you want to do, we start with you and your needs, not those of a generically sized pro rider. We believe this results in a better bike.
Of course, buying a bike that looks the part in the pro peloton can also be fun. After all, who wouldn’t want to fit in amongst the greatest riders in the world? But for most people, a balance must be struck to ensure that form matches function.
That’s where custom bikes once again come into their own. With custom, riders aren’t restricted by two or three headtube lengths; we can make the bike fit to the millimetre. That means if you want that slammed race look, you can often have it, without the sacrifices or compromises associated with trying to reach overly aggressive positions on a bike that might otherwise have fit with a few spacers or a shorter stem. Similarly, if your position doesn’t require a particularly ‘racey’ drop from saddle to bars, we can dial in a little more top-tube angle, and get the race look without the compromise to fit—and without having to fold the rider in half.
Having dialled in the size, Charlotte’s bike, seen here, is built with Columbus Life and Zona tubing to be strong and stable on gravel. The geo is relaxed enough to handle toe paths, but sharp to feel at home on the road, as well. The 650B wheels, a common sight on a bike of this type, are used here to provide a bit more room in the chassis, enabling us to drop Charlotte’s weight into the bike and reduce the overwhelming feeling an oversized wheelset can give rise to. Overall, everything about this build is designed to deliver a greater sense of confidence, comfort and control.
The final spec sheet is GRX, using Rotor’s 160mm cranks and Ben Sharp’s handmade 650B wheels. Deda bits finish everything off, and the paint is a matte frozen-metallic black sourced from BMW’s colour chart, with contrasting teal details selected by Charlotte herself.
Thanks to Charlotte for trusting us to make a bike that works for her specific needs. It’s a real cracker.
