Lucky Saint x Gun Control collaboration on an RTP Open Cycle

When Lucky Saint boss, Luke Boase, first visited Gun Control Custom Paint, he turned up with a bar in the back of his van and several barrels of free beer.

This is how Luke conducts himself, it seems. When he turned up for a second time with an RTP Open frame for us to paint, he brought along all the of the lovely parts you see here for this incredible Lucky-Saint-branded build: boxes of awesome parts, spare sets of wheels and tyres.

Open make design-forward bicycle frames, and because they embrace the creativity that customers and studios like Gun Control can bring to the party, they even supply them ready to paint. We love that. It’s like an airfix model kit for grown-ups.

Luke came to us because he’d seen our work and liked the way we do things. What he didn’t know was exactly how we go about designing and creating a bike like this—and to say he took to the process is an understatement. Andy and Luke spent weeks going back and forth on WhatsApp, sharing ideas and chatting through various merits and technical challenges as they explored what’s possible in paint.

The obvious place to start was Lucky Saint’s outstanding brand palette, so discussions didn’t stray too far from that. But the root-beer brown that Andy was initially cheerleading gave way to a white, blue, red and gold scheme, and we’re glad they left the beer colours out as the marbled candy blue and red really work with the subtle touches in 24k gold.

Sam’s showed his skills here, picking out every last detail of the Lucky Saint logo on the shoulder of the fork in 24k gold leaf with pinpoint accuracy. You’d think this would be too small and fine a design to capture in leaf, but somehow Sam nails it every time.

The blue fades out to white and sits over a marbled base in black, applied over a metallic silver to give it the candy-blue effect. The white has a pop of pearl in it for a subtle sparkle throughout the bottom of the bike.

It’s easy to see why these types of all-terrain bikes are so popular, as you can throw on road wheels when that kind of day is calling or switch to 650’s for gnarlier routes, and the bike should make light work of it all.

If you like this Open, but prefer to have your bikes custom made and fitted just for you, check out one of Spoon Custom’s All-Road style bikes, designed with exactly this kind of versatility in mind.

Luke makes the outstanding tasting Lucky Saint beer that you might have seen around. It’s alcohol free, so it’s perfect for an end-of-ride refresher without the calories or hangover. To find out more, or to order some for yourself, head over to the Lucky Saint website now.