Luther Blissett’s Kinesis Tripster unveiled

Just to prove that Friday Schwag ends up where it should here’s a picture of the Kinesis Decade Tripster built up by lucky winner Luther Blissett – otherwise known as Dave Barnard from Brighton.

Dave won his Tripster frameset by merely telling fellow road.ccers what kind of bike he rode – in his case a year-old Trek 1.5 bought under the Cycle to Work scheme.

Not very surprisingly, there was an unprecedented response to this particular schwag offer so Dave, who works for an IT company that makes software for the publishing industry, didn’t have high hopes. He said, “Initially I was confused as I assumed that I would not win. I read the competition article on road.cc as I was interested to see that Kinesis (Upgrade) were a local company.

“My subsequent reaction was pleasure mixed with a little trepidation about my ability to actually build a bike. I could do basic bike maintenance, but had never attempted anything on that scale.”

Dave wanted something suitable for his daily commute and the odd bit of rough stuff at weekends. He only had a saddle and pedals so he embarked on some detailed internet componentry research before settling on a Mavic Speedcity wheelset with Avid BB7 disk brakes, Shimano Tiagra groupset, and Cinelli Vai XL stem and bars.

And the result? “I have been using the bike for a few weeks now. The commute is about three miles through quite heavy traffic, with a couple of very steep hills. The disk breaks are very useful on this journey. I have taken it out for a few weekend rides outside Brighton onto the Downs, where it compares favourably with my Trek 1.5. It's a little heavier, but handles very nicely. Having cycled up Ditchling Beacon, I'm considering changing the cassette to something a bit more forgiving…”

Dave's bike now sits proudly among the Readers' Bikes section of the Kinesis website.

Finally, and most importantly, why choose Luther Blissett for his road.cc name? Dave explained, “Besides being a good footballer and decent chap, Luther Blissett is a nom de plume used by different groups of activists and artists, as a shared identity. He's written a very good novel too.

“Pleasingly, I found out that the real Luther Blissett did the London to Brighton BHF bike ride this year – as did I.”