Alright so it is the end of the year and the bikes are rolling out. This year my bike lust seems to be moving in another direction, that direction is backwards towards the past and my childhood. The root cause of what first go me into cycling in the first place. I have never been much for sports, as a matter of fact I have always hated organized sports, however cycling caught my imagination. 
There was a poetic, natural beauty to it and the beautiful metal frames, sponsor logos and overall European sensibility captured my attention. I have always felt as if I was born on the wrong continent and definitely in the wrong country, cycling gave me the ability to ride and dream of other places, people and traditions.
Since this time, the technology of cycling has grown exponentially. Having always been a fan of solid technological advances, this at first seemed a natural direction to me. However after a decade of the next best marketing gimmick, the latest and greatest carbon weave and the immense “look at me” gear neatly parked at the local coffee stop I have found myself again yearning for more. Not to be overly nostalgic, but the days of old where cycling was about human strength, will and determination were far more invigorating than the 3rd Lance Armstrong comeback!
2010 marks the year where I have decided to refocus my career and by refocus I do not mean go back for my MBA in International business but rather a much humbler undertaking. With any Luck I will begin my path with 3 weeks of one on one instruction in the art of Bicycle framebuilding from David Bohm of Bohemian Cycles in Arizona. Learning the art and true craftsmanship of fabricating framesets of Steel, Aluminum hybrids and Titanium. This career switch is likely to take somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 years but I believe I am up for the change.
With this focus in mind I present 3 beautifully designed and realized modern day frames that reference the best craftsmanship of yesterday with the tub innovations of today.
First up, Pegoretti’s Luigino. They are no stranger to modern classic steel craftsmanship, come to think of it, in Italy they are at the forefront of it. Building off of the fantastic Columbus Niobium Spirit steel tubeset with a slightly oversized diameter to ensure adequate stiffness, this frame is beautifully built in all aspects! It is available in 1cm increments between 48cm-62cm and 34 different paint schemes at no added cost, though I love the Orange and yellow classic realized scheme shown to the right. No details are overlooked with nice (not to fancy not to plain) lugs, well placed cutouts and one of my favorite headbadges. I might also mention that Dario Pegoretti spends excessive time on the internet looking for classic 70-80’s era Campy dropouts and fork ends for the frames!
For the second frame of of the 2010 bike lust series, I bring you what is arguably one of the coolest best realized bicycle product company’s in business today, Rapha. Even the name reeks of tradition and quality. So leave it to Rapha to enlist no less than 7 independent frame builders to make custom frames for their Continental Team! Each frame is uniwue to the builder and the intended rider with the exception of the paintjobs, glossy black with the subtle Rapha logo in pink on the top tube near the junction of the seattube. This section of the Rapha site is well worth exploring. Not only do you get to see all of the builds but you get a sneak peak into the builders workshops and some one on one talk with each of them. Check the images below and I think you will agree that these are some lust worthy steel Framesets! Rapha is known for the fantastic line of clothing that happily lives somewhere between the past and present but is firmly some of the coolest gear you can get yourself into!
Last but not least Encyclista recently posted a rather promising looking frame made out of aluminum and hailing from Denmark. Though I know little about this company Rivette, the R6 road frameset looks like a promising piece of Aluminum craftsmanship. A semi sloping design with internally routed cables, a 27.2 (thankfully) seat tube and oversized tubing make this an interesting offer from this relatively unknown Danish company. I will do a more thorough write up on it in the future as I learn more about them.
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