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TECH NEWS

Germany’s VANDEYK unveils Rapha Continental bike

Luscious long-haul steel machine rolls out of Stuttgart

The latest addition to Rapha’s Continental project, which features long rides through less-travelled parts of the world, is a collaboration with VANDEYK Contemporary Cycles of Stuttgart, Germany.

Arendt van Deyk’s bike for Rapha Continental is TIG-welded by hand from Columbus XCr stainless steel tubing. It’s a custom one-off so Van Deyk isn’t putting a price on it, but his frames in the material start at €6,950.

“With Rapha Continental working with the finest framebuilders around the world, VANDEYK was excited to built a bike for the fleet of the programme,” says Arendt.

“To handle the wide range of terrain that the Continental riders encounter, the handbuilt Columbus XCr stainless steel frame features added tyre clearance, longer seat stays and disc brakes.

“The code design on the seatstays and fork blades translates as ‘Continental’.”

Of course this is just a thin excuse for us to run a bunch of bike porn, and we do love a black bike shot on a black background, so check out the gallery for more pics. 

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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5 comments

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timbola | 11 years ago
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Pretty nice machine - Campag instead, though ?

Avatar
Osprey | 11 years ago
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Note there is added tyre clearance so some wider crossers/tourers could be fitted.
I wouldn't say the saddle is the bit to be worried about, more the compliance of the seatpost, MTB/CX saddles are much the same as road bikes. Apart from fit, there aren't really many ways to improve saddle comfort, something like that Specialized Roubaix seatpost or the Thomson suspension seatpost would be perfect, which could be added aftermarket like the wheels.
The target market, as with most Rapha kit, is likely people who want really quality stuff and have lots of spare money to throw. In all honesty if money wasn't an issue for me I'd probably buy one. Unfortunately, it is.

Avatar
farrell replied to Osprey | 11 years ago
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Osprey wrote:

The target market, as with most Rapha kit, is likely people who want really really desperate to be seen as having quality stuff and have lots of spare money to throw.

Edited for you.

(Just a joke Raffalovers)

Cracking looking bike.

Avatar
AidanR | 11 years ago
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Very pretty, but I don't think that whoever specced that bike has ever done "long rides through less-travelled parts of the world."

Double chainset, skinny tyres, racing saddle... really?

Avatar
musicalmarc replied to AidanR | 11 years ago
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Mike Hall did a rather long ride on a carbon fibre frame with skinny tyres and carbon wheels. In fareness it wasn't your everyday long haul ride.

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