My bikes.
This site is starting to contain a lot of images, and I thought it might be confusing to know which bikes are mine and which are not. Most of them aren't mine, but here are the few I've owned or still own since 2014, with a short story about each one.
In approximate order of ownership:
Peugeot fixed gear conversion (Complete gallery here).
This was my first fixed gear, built in 2014 from an old road bike, shortly after discovering that fixed gear bikes existed. Before that, I had no idea about them. Until then, I was using a cheap and heavy entry-level mtb, which was fine, but quite standard. When I saw some of my friends starting to use such bikes, I wanted to have one too. So I bought an old road bike and built this bike.
8bar Fhain V2 (Complete gallery here).
I bought this bike about a year after building the Peugeot. I wanted to have something more original and really dedicated to this. It was my first proper track bike, intended to be used as such. I immediately noticed the higher crankset, which allowed me to take sharper turns. With the Peugeot, the pedals were often touching the ground since it is supposed to be a road bike with a lower crankset, where you can stop pedaling to take corners. I only kept it for a few months, it was unfortunately stolen from my car one night, and I’ve never heard from it again. The serial number stamped under it was “FHAIN V2-1 082”, I would love to know if it is still around somewhere.
Ridewill/Oscar (Complete gallery here).
After getting my 8bar stolen, I was bummed… I needed a new bike. One day, I saw several nice looking orange bikes at a criterium, used by team named Oscar Cycling. I asked them what brand it was, they told me that it was a custom frame they designed for the team that could be purchased on the website “Ridewill”, as a raw unpainted frame, so I bought one. I had it painted in a similar way than the 8bar was, because I really liked its “golden/green-ish” tint.
Cinelli Mash Parallax (Complete gallery here).
After riding the Oscar for some time, I wanted to try something new and even more exciting to own. I was getting more and more attracted to Parallax frames, mainly because of its look, the overall tight geometry, and the front wheel so close to the down tube. I was looking for either a “classic” Parallax (black and white), or a “charcoal” one (similar paint, but dark gray instead of white). One day, Nicolas U, a bike messenger from Paris wrote to tell me he had a Parallax for sale, but not exactly the one I was looking for. He told me that it was an “anniversary edition”, sent me some photos, and even though I preferred the Charcoal, I bought this one. At the time, I didn’t even know this version existed, I only realized years later how rare it was. I’m proud to own it, and I will keep it as long as I can. When I went to buy it, Nicolas let me try it first, and I immediately felt the difference with the tighter fork angle compared with my previous bikes. I thought it would take several months for me to feel comfortable with it, but I really liked the immediate steering responsiveness due to that tight fork offset. I bought it in 2017, used it a lot over the years, but it unfortunately had to be rewelded because it started to crack near the bottom bracket shell (pictures of this can be seen in the complete gallery), addet to that I've been hit by cars twice in 2024 while riding it, so its appearance is gradually deteriorating over the years, but I don’t care, they’re just scars, I'll keep riding until it becomes a pile of dust (I may be the first of the two to end up in this state).
Omnium CXC (Complete gallery here).
I built this bike in 2019, because I wanted a bike with multiple gears, “real” brakes, and that would be suitable for off-road bikepacking. It was a bit heavy (CroMo steel), and after a few years I replaced its all-steel fork with a lighter carbon/aluminum one. It had a slightly aggressive geometry which often caused neck, back and hand pain, because I leaned forward so much when riding it. But I didn’t know that was the cause at the time. It was a cool bike which made me discover bikepacking and endurance cycling. With it, I discovered that cycling can be more than just a ride around the city. I just wish I had discovered all this this sooner.
Brick Lane Bikes (BLB) Lo-Pro (Complete gallery here).
I wanted to try a new track bike (in addition to the Parallax), and I found this one for sale that I liked. When I bought it, the seller hadn't told me that the seatpost was stuck... I absolutely couldn't get it out, even after trying several techniques for hours... I hit it with a giant hammer, drilled it, heated it (and the frame) with a blowtorch… Nothing worked. So I took it to Stolen Garage, who managed to get it out, but it took three people and a lot of muscle... The secret was to blow cold air on the seatpost to prevent it from expanding. At the time, I wanted to repaint it in metallic pink, so I went to get it painted, but there was no nice pink available, so I went back home as I came, with the frame on my backpack. It wasn't until years later that I learned it was a limited edition in partnership with the clothing brand H&M (see the video here). I like this fun fact, and I’m glad it stayed like it originally was.
Canelli (Complete gallery here).
Once again, I wanted another bike, in addition to the Parallax the BLB and the CXC. I’ve found someone who was selling this frame, which used to be a training track bike used in velodromes, built by Cyfac in France in the 90’s. It is slightly too big (58cm top tube and I’m more used to 56). I was planning to sell it in 2023 to make some room and eventually buy a different one, but I didn’t find anyone interested, so I kept it.
Vechter Genesis (Complete gallery here).
This is the first and only time to date that I've been sponsored to shoot pictures of a bike, by Vechter, a small Australian cycling brand. It was way lighter than the Parallax, mostly due to the full carbon fork, I could really feel the difference (the Parallax fork is half carbon and aluminium). I really liked using it. One day I went for an extra long solo ride with it (330km in one go), because I wanted to ride long distance/endurance, so I went with the lightest bike I had. I sold it, but I miss it.
Salsa Warbird (Complete gallery here).
This was the new bike I built in early 2023 to replace my Omnium CXC. I wanted to have something lighter, more suited to gravel & bikepacking, with a more comfortable posture for endurance cycling. That's when I realized how bad my posture with the CXC was. It was near perfect, much lighter than the CXC (carbon frame instead of steel), I had two wheelsets to use with it since it was both my gravel and my road bike, making switching between the two very quick and easy. I kept it for about six months, traveled about 6000km with it between may and october 2023. I thought it was the perfect bike, I wasn’t planning to change anytime soon, until BOOM, the crash happened…
