Wow! We show you a lot of cool-looking finishes in the road.cc Bike at Bedtime slot but this Factor Ostro that Vires Velo has put together for Bradley Wiggins… well, it’s an absolute peach.
2012 was a hell of a year for Bradley Wiggins. He won the Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné, and the Olympic time trial. Oh, and he became the first Briton ever to win the Tour de France. He was unstoppable that year.
To mark the 10th anniversary, Wiggo commissioned Vires Velo to build him a special bike and this is the result.
At the heart of things is a Factor Ostro VAM. When we reviewed this bike, our man Liam Cahill said it was “addictively fast with brilliant handling at speed; one of the best race bikes out there.”
Fast, light, pretty comfortable, the Ostro VAM really doesn’t have a weakness. However, it’s just the start of this project.
> Check out our review of the Factor Ostro VAM frameset here
“Wiggins had a clear idea of what he wanted the bike to represent and we turned to Karl Kopinski to help bring the vision to life,” says Vires Velo.
Nottingham-based Kopinski is a cycling fan who has worked with Vires Velo, Factor and Wiggins on various projects in the past.
Pic ⓒ Gareth Winter
“Once the frameset had been given a pearl-white base coat, it was sent to Kopinski’s studio for him to work his magic,” says Vires Velo.
“After completing watercolour sketches of the concept for the butterflies and getting the nod, Kopinski turned his hand to the frame. He used liquid acrylic paints to achieve a watercolour effect and allow for the colours to run into each other, giving the butterflies energy and a sense of movement.”
Kopinski hand-drew 33 butterflies on the frame and fork, one for each of the days that Wiggins led the races mentioned above in 2012.
Then there’s one gold butterfly on the integrated handlebar/stem to represent Wiggins’ Olympic gold in the individual time trial. You remember him sitting on the throne in front of Hampton Court Palace, right?
Vires Velo says that the painting took weeks to complete. Looking at the detail, we can certainly believe it. Once finished, a protective coating was applied in the paint shop before the bike was built up at Vires Velo’s Norfolk HQ.
“Black Inc’s FIVE spoke wheels were specially requested by Wiggins for the build and we fitted them with white tyres to match the bike,” says Vires Velo.
They’re Schwalbe Pro One x Spartacus tyres released earlier this year.
> Check out Schwalbe’s Pro One x Spartacus white tyres
“It was fortunate that CeramicSpeed launched a Gold OSPW (Oversized Pulley Wheel System) earlier this year which made for a fitting upgrade on the drivetrain,” says Vires Velo.
The bike is fitted with a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 12-speed groupset with 175mm cranks.
> Read our Shimano Dura-Ace R9200 groupset review
The saddle is a white Fizik Arione R3 and the handlebar tape matches.
This isn’t the first butterfly bike that we’ve covered on road.cc. Back in the early days of the site, we featured the famous Damien Hirst-designed Trek Madone ridden by Lance Armstrong during the 2009 Tour de France. It was eventually auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York for half a million dollars.
> Lance Armstrong auction: Damien Hirst ‘Butterfly Bike’ goes for $500,000
Pic ⓒ Gareth Winter
The overall result of the Vires Velo bike is spectacular although, with all that white, we hope that Wiggins doesn’t mind putting a shift in with the cleaning products.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
15 thoughts on “Check out Bradley Wiggins’ Factor Ostro Butterfly Bike from Vires Velo”
Oh dear, money doesn’t buy
Oh dear, money doesn’t buy taste does it.
not having money doesn’t buy
not having money doesn’t buy it either……
Yes, how does a bankrupt pay
Yes, how does a bankrupt pay for a custom made bike?
Kapelmuur wrote:
In PR value.
Technically, though, i’m not sure he has been bankrupt, has he? I thought proceedings against him were dismissed? He later had companies wound up, but that doesn’t make him bankrupt.
Yes, he cut a last-minute
Yes, he cut a last-minute deal with HMRC and the petition was dismissed by agreement.
Good bike but with naff
Good bike but with naff wheels and a horrible looking paint job. What were they thinkng?
I wasn’t expecting much from
I wasn’t expecting much from a bike designed by Wiggins but this has exceeded all my expectations in how tasteless a bike can be. Absolutely gopping.
Jebus. Looks like a wannabe
Jebus. Looks like a wannabe hipster fixie. Is Wiggins sporting a waxed moustache these days, or still in Hillbilly beard mode? Why didnt he go the whole hog and have 1 5 spoke and 1 wire spoke wheel?
I have an
unreasonbleperfectly reasonable hatred of all low spoke count “mag style” wheels unless on a BMX. They all look pants.I’m usually a believer in if
I’m usually a believer in if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all, but ouch, thaty’s a bit painful to look at. The clash between the yellow of the butterflies and the gold decals is really unattractive, The wheels and tyres just look awkward and a bit silly, and as much as I usually really like a colour matched stem, with the white tape and the effect of the yellow and gold making the frame seem off white it doesn’t work for me.
Fair enough on Wiggins though if he’s happy with it, I hope he’s got some suitable matching kit.
Road.cc you need to correct
Road.cc you need to correct the typo in the headline and change the e for a u
I know he was born in Belgium
I know he was born in Belgium, but his name’s not spelled Bradluy.
That’s Brum not Belgium.
That’s Brum not Belgium.
Fair enough – if it was
Fair enough – if it was Belgian it would probably be Braadluy.
mdavidford wrote:
Not sure what it would be in Flemish but probably similar to the Dutch, where it would be something like Bredeweide (broad meadow, which is the etymology of the name Bradley).
change the e for a u making
change the e for a u making chuck not check!