Winter Bikes of the Pros

I've been thinking about "other bikes" while waiting for my new Moots RSL mountain bike to arrive. It's hard to think about mountain biking when there's over a foot of snow on the ground, so I've been thinking about training bikes.

Michael Barry's father (maker of Mariposa frames out of Toronto) has a great blog called Bicycle Specialties. He outlines the winter bikes that Michael and his wife Dede Demet Barry use, and they're pretty cool especially if you're a Europhile pro wannabe...like me.

Here is Dede's carbon Giant. It was specially built for former World TT Champ Bert Grabch for Paris Roubaix 2008 and features revised dropouts to increase mud clearance and provide more stable handling. The bike remained unused since it didn't rain and Grabsch opted for his normal road machine on the day. It's equipped with cantilevers and you can still see his name decal on the top tube if you look carefully. Michael purchased it from the Highroad Service Course at the end of the season.



This is Michael's Carbon Giant from the same Roubaix special fleet. Not surprisingly it also features cantilever brakes and more mud clearance, which makes it exceptionally well suited to running fenders (or mudguards if you prefer). As an active pro he's also running an SRM, albeit an older wired version.


I'm not normally a fan of fenders, but I know that for winter training they're standard for many pros. If they can get over the dork factor then I should too...