Beacon Bikes BF_80

Many of you may have heard of new British bike company - Beacon Bikes, operating out of Whalley, near Clitheroe, Lancashire.  I'm one of a team of people bringing the business to market after 18 months worth of planning.  You can read more about the story here.

The first store opened in Whalley, near Clitheroe at the end of the Summer after a huge effort from all concerned, it's a very unique place.  Like a cross between an Apple store and a bike store combined with the service levels of John Lewis.

I've just taken delivery of my new ride, a Beacon BF_80 Supersport (one of the upsides of having an interest in a bike company).  When we were looking at the designs for this new range, this particular model in terms of its geometry characteristics and paint scheme really appealed to me.  To be honest it was difficult to choose as I'm also a big fan of the BF_100 paint scheme, however I wanted a dark colour for my new ride as I already own a blue bike.

The whole ethos of the new brand is about distinctive looking bikes in terms of paint schemes, with exceptional technical performance, supplied out of our own stores and built by highly capable mechanics, in our case - ProTool Cycleworks who provide all the race support for the Rapha Condor race team.  All bikes are built to customer order and body specification with a range of different bike fitting services available.  

The black and dark grey colour combination, with pink accents on the rear chainstays is really distinctive.  All the frame paint designs were done by world class creative consultant and designer - John McFaul - who works with major brands all over the world.  His brief was to go away and design something that would be immediately identifiable as a Beacon bike and across the range of models, he's achieved that in my view.

Build Wise I've gone for this specification: -

• BF_80 Grey/Black Frame
• Ultegra Grey Groupset (50/34-12/27)
• Deda 35 bar and stem
• Beacon Carbon Seatpost
• Beacon Carbon Bottle Cages
• ProTool 50mm carbon wheels with DT Swiss Hubs
• Look Keo Pedals 

I've put some pictures below.  I took it out for its first ride last weekend and the performance of the bike was exactly to expectation.  I've ridden the 50MM carbon rims below as test prototypes on another one of my bikes for three months and thought they performed excellently, they are supplied by ProTool Cycleworks.  

This latest build wheel is a full production version with DT Swiss hubs and they roll absolutely beautifully, best wheels I've ever owned by far.  In particular I've been really impressed by their capability in strong winds, normally with 50mm rims you can find yourself being blown all over but the aerodynamic profile of these rims seem to displace wind really well.

Anyhow, on to some pictures....

Bike In Store as I picked It Up

At Home, Side Shot

Downtube Shot

Deda 35 Bars and Stem Set-Up

Front Shot

Ultegra Grey against the Grey Gloss Frame

Rear Cassette

Pink Inside Rear Chainstays

ProTool CW50 50MM Carbon Rims with DT Swiss Hubs

You can follow Beacon on Twitter - @Beaconbikesuk and like on Facebook here.  If you'd like to view the range of bikes in the store, you can find directions here or alternatively if you want a bike fit then give the guys a call on 01254 658950.