The Dream Machine

I love cycling. What a cliche, of course I do, I'm a white man and I'm an Industrial designer, the simplicity, the purity, the efficiency, it ticks all the boxes, probably the greatest piece of product design ever.

Two years ago however I was starting to feel my age creeping up on me, I had been commuting around London on a single speed LeMond Fillmore for about 15 years by then and unless Highbury Hill was getting higher, I was definitely getting slower. I decided that it was time to finally get some new wheels (more importantly gears) for the daily commute.

So I started to do some bike shopping and two things struck me immediately. One, bikes are flipping expensive now. Two, I didn't really like very many of them, they seemed overly complicated and very heavy looking, not what I had in mind. At this point I should probably mention that while I love cycling, I love it as an efficient and classless form of commuting, I don't love it for 8 hour trips up the side of mountains dressed in lycra, that day may still come, but not yet.

So, to my solution and the birth of the Dream Machine. I decided I wanted to give new life to an old bike so I went on eBay and immediately hit gold with a 2005 Cannondale CAAD 5 for £165. As mentioned I'm not a performance cyclist so did not know a great deal about the quality of the bike (apart from it was made of aluminium which is something I wanted), but come on, look at it, it's burnt orange! Luckily, the CAAD range of bikes are very well regarded and this one was in pretty great condition about from one small dent.

So I collected the bike and that started the year long process of slowly accumulating the parts needed to bring it up to date. Obviously there was a lot of research involved (bottom brackets are bizarrely complicated given what they are) and agonising decisions about gearing etc (my advice, just go standard) but all in all it was a very fun side project that ended with me as the proud owner of this absolute beauty which is as fast as a modern road bike and feels just as good!

So, what was the cost I can hear you cry. Well, I feel it would be, inelegant to talk about raw numbers at this point (plus my wife might be reading this). However, when I started the project I intended to use only second hand parts and with the exception of the break levers and the rear derailleur I pretty much succeeded. I ended up replacing everything on the bike apart from frames and fork and went with Ultegra R6800 for the groupset. The wheels were the most expensive part, they had to be black, because: designer and I have since decided to change the seat because my old ass cannot get used to the one I initially chose. To cut a long story short, I spent about a £1000 to build the Dream Machine, which is a lot of money I appreciate, but it's not a lot for a modern road bike with these parts and this weight. Also, because I learnt a lot (can't put a price on knowledge can you) and ended up with something unique, exactly as I wanted and err ORANGE, I consider it money well spent! No, it isn't, it's stupid to spend that amount on a push bike and no amount of mental gymnastics will ever justify it, but it's done now and I do love it.