Life’s Magic Cycle….With Added Prestige.
In the heart Hove, once a town, now an approximate third of a city, half way up a quaint cobbled street dappled with the dwindling remnants of high street retail, nested neatly between a coffee bar and a major mobile brand, there lives a shop.
To long-term locals on their daily forage and eagle-eyed explorers seeking sustenance, it is overlooked as easily as a chameleon in the African Bush.
But this particular shop thrives as much on the profound passion of its founding talent, as the widespread acclaim it has achieved, and operates on the principal that anyone wishing to reap rewards from the treasures beyond its modest entrance, will be harbouring unique desires and have planned their route in keen advance.
Before revealing the precise nature of the progressively popular niche it serves, here is a snatch of conversation I witnessed during one of many enlightening visits;
“This is one of our own customs. House colour, purple, extremely purple, new logo design and a plain gauge frame.
“Titanium?!”
“Oh yes, just painted. Livery’s an acquired taste but it’s a lovely little machine.
“Dunno. I was thinking just raw, or maybe gun metal, could you do that?
“Not a problem, that one over there, that’s close to gun metal, but we can do anything you like, including gold.”
“Nah, bit too bling. I want something noticeable that doesn’t scream out, maybe a splash of colour on the hubs.”
“Understood, subtlety with a touch of panache.”
“Yeah, it’s not about the speed, or the rider, it’s about the looks you get. I’ve always gone with raw.”
“Sure. Remember though, if you pick a shade and in a year you fancy a change, we can strip it back, and it’s raw.”
“ARGH! I just don’t know, I’m quite liking the purple now. Do they do a headset in that colour.”
“You mean a Chris King? No, there was limited edition about three years ago but they discontinued it in a month, I’ve been losing sleep ever since.”
The majority, unaccustomed to the agonizing dilemmas that a certain obsession precipitates could be forgiven for being bemused by such jargon riddled rhetoric, but those whose adrenaline races at the mere mention of group sets, bottom brackets, nipples and rims will have deduced its associated subculture within the opening sentence.
A historic practice, honoured and evolved by masterful human hands and born out of a craving for adventure, a yearning for good health, an instinct to compete and all with no aid but that of chains, cogs, pedals, profound stamina and intense ambition. A noble and honoured tradition requiring infinite reserves of dedication, control, technique, creativity, incisiveness and craftsmanship. The beloved, revered and prestigious science of bicycle building.
My inaugural experience of Prestige Cycles on a chill winter evening in 2015 was to prove a defining one.