James wanted an adventure bike for hanging out with his children and being a kid again blasting around the local tracks near his home. The specification was to include a lightweight Reynolds frame with flat bars and 1 x gear system.
My own early childhood was a time before Mountain Bikes. I first became aware of Mountain Bikes at the age of 14 when a school friend Geoff had an Overbury's Crossfell. As a keen road cyclist at the time I thought the Crossfell was the future! Soon after my friends and I all had Mountain Bikes - living in South Cheshire with no mountains!
Before Geoff my memories off road riding and bikes built were very DIY, that said there is one bike from my childhood bought by my parents when I was 7 or 8 years old I will never forget. The bike was a called a Trackstar made by Halfords. The concept of this bike seems to have evolved maybe from bicycle speedway or almost certainly from the 70's Tracker Bikes discussed here at Retrobike. A Tracker is a bike built from old parts, mostly road parts including the frame. Wide bars were sourced for stability and you could buy knobbly tyres from your local bike shop that were narrow enough to fit into a road frame. This bike concept homemade and totally custom was light fast and responsive with ability to tackle most of the terrain your mates couldn't. The Trackstar I owned was an attempt by Halfords to commercialise the Tracker concept and I thought it was brilliant! My friends at the time had Grifters with the image of off-road but not the ability. I would ride circles around the best Raleigh could come up with. My parents have a photo of me on the Trackstar, most of this bike is held together by my memories, I've never found an image of this bike online. This bike was my street scrambler.
James approached me with his bike concept I thought of my Trackstar immediately. A custom road frame with simplicity a priority. A light, fast and responsive fun bike with all the knowhow I now have built-in to design something special.
So a few specification highlights
Reynolds Frame 853 Pro-Team
Kinesis Carbon Fork
Wheels - Hope Hubs, H Plus Son rims
Middleburn Uno custom chainset
Brakes - Paul Component Cantilever - Neo Retro Front - Touring Rear
Tyres Schwalbe Ultra Bitre
USE Carbon Seatpost
USE Handlebars and Stem
Campagnolo Veloce 10s rear mech
Campagnolo bar end shifter mounted on Paul Component Thumbies
Brooks Cambium Saddle
The FFLO Urban Scrambler is named after James' extraordinary landscape design business, something we used graphically to influence the aesthetics of the bike. Explore FFLO here.
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