Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

As each of their offerings has proven so far, My Wild Love is all about raising heartbeats with outspoken graphics and beautiful Treviso-built frames. This all-road custom – tailor made for Ross Chapman – raises the bar further with travel capabilities and plenty of space for rubber.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

You may remember that we featured Ross’s frame before it was built up last year. After waiting on the last parts to arrive, Ross has now fully equipped his bike and is ready to ride the road less traveled.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

Ross works with big bike brands and wanted a machine that was both memorable and could accompany him anywhere in the world. He commissioned this fully custom frame with My Wild Love while sourcing the rest of the build himself.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

S&S couplers were a must-have so that he could pack the frame easily and avoid hefty luggage fees. Instead of hiding the couplers away, My Wild Love made a feature of them, buffing them to a mirror finish and building the paint scheme around their placement.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

During the early design process, My Wild Love pitched two paint designs at Ross. He went with the two-tone ‘Unravel’ concept because of its simplicity and the way it underscored the functionality of the bike.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

Under the paint is Columbus Zona tubing held together with a blend of tig welds and fillet brazes. The result is a lightweight frame that is strong enough to survive airplane baggage holds and heavy hits on the trail.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

Ross also knew he’d need lots of tire clearance so that he could easily escape to the wilderness and drop-in on cyclocross races every now and again. Thanks to an ENVE GRD fork and curvy stays, the frame has plenty of space for mud and can run up to 38mm tires.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

To keep things simple when packing, Ross went with a SRAM 1X11 drivetrain. Should he choose for a double crank in the future, the frame is complete with cable guides for a front derailleur.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

Thru-axle dropouts and flat mount brakes were chosen both for their handsome looks and to avoid rotor chop in the loose stuff. And because couplers rule out the use of hydraulic cables, Ross went with mechanical Spyre calipers from TRP.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

Ross likes to support local brands where possible and, for that reason, settled on a wheelset from Hunt. Known for their reliability and respectable price tag, Hunt was the perfect choice for the regular miles that this bike will be making.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

The Brooks Cambium saddle and leather bar tape were sourced locally in the UK, while other specialty parts like the Thomson seat post, Salsa Cowchipper bars, and Wheels MFG bottom bracket had to come from further afield.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross

Perhaps the most exotic part on the bike is the stem, handmade by Amsterdam’s Lester Cycles, it features the maker’s hallmarks of a triple-drilled face and super-smooth fillets.

Ross has already racked up a healthy score of winter miles on his new ride and is looking ahead to a big year of gravel, travel and turning heads.

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Massive thanks to Paul Carroll at My Wild Love for the story.

Take To The Sky: My Wild Love For Ross