We’ve featured a number of Rapha’s superb Continental bikes here on The Spoken. The magnificent riding machines of VANDEYK Contemporary Cycles have also made a prominent appearance. In fact, if you purchased the 2013 The Spoken Calendar, you’d be enjoying the svelte VANDEYK Nighstream right now—it’s Miss July. As you’d expect, the combination of these two brands, who place such a high emphasis on good design, is nothing short of spectacular.
Arendt van Deyk heads up a team of experts in fields such as photography, music, art, graphic design and, of course, frame building. Each lends their input into these eye-catching bikes, especially Georg Blaschke, who brazed the frame together from Columbus XCr stainless steel. Georg was formerly a senior engineer at SRAM and, interestingly, is ambidextrous—a very handy skill to have when maneuvering a torch around steel tubes in a jig.
The bikes used by Rapha’s Continental teams are created specifically to each riders individual geometry by the world’s best artisan builders. There’s a few subtle differences that make for a successful Continental bike: a slightly longer geometry and wider clearances for tires that can handle the variety of local terrain the riders pass through. VANDEYK added disc brakes to their version, and coded the word ‘Continental’ into the graphics on the seat stays and fork blades.
Read more on the VANDEYK website. Head to Rapha’s site for an interview with Arendt and more information on the Continental program.
