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Check out the Reilly Rainbow Road Warrior that will take centre stage at the Reilly Rides Out memorial ride

As a tribute to founder Mark Reilly who died last year, the bespoke bike brand is organising a ride on 7th August and taking part in Pride Month

While tonight's Bike At Bedtime is about a very nice bike as per usual, it's also about celebrating the legacy of Reilly Cycleworks' founder Mark Reilly, who sadly died last year at the age of 53. The Reilly Rainbow Road Warrior titanium bike has already been featured in the new Bike Is Best campaign in support of Pride Month, and will also be "front-and-centre" at the Reilly Rides Out bike ride, taking place in memory of Mark Reilly in August. 

Reilly was one of the UK's most respected framebuilders, gracing the workshops of Omega and Enigma before founding Reilly CycleWorks with Neil Fitzgerald in 2014. He was also one of the few openly gay men in the bike industry, and according to the brand's new co-owner Chris Ratcliff, Reilly's decision to move his business to Brighton in the early 2000s was to "embrace an LGBTQ+ lifestyle":  

"Openness is central to how we operate as a business and we will continue to proudly bang the drum for greater diversity in the cycling industry," adds Ratcliff. 

Back to the bike... it's essentially a custom-painted version of Reilly's T325, with the titanium frameset providing "an exceptionally direct but velvety smooth road experience today, tomorrow and for many years to come" according to Reilly. It certainly impressed David Arthur back in 2015, who said the bike was surprisingly stiff and direct compared to other springy titanium offerings at the time. 

> Reilly Cycleworks blends titanium and aero with new Fusion road bike

This Rainbow Road Warrior version was custom-painted by Faye Bishop, whose day job is painting for the Mercedes AMG F1 team. It took her over a week to create the colours for this bike, which covers the whole frame and fork apart from the majority of the seat stays, which remain polished titanium. 

The increasingly endangered rim brake makes an appearance here, with a mechanical groupset and English threaded bottom bracket that will please traditionalists. Here's the full spec: 

Shimano Ultegra R8000 mechanical groupset
DCR x Reilly carbon 77 wheels
Continental Gran Prix 28mm tyres 
Reilly 31.6mm carbon seat post 
Reilly titanium-railed saddle
Deda 90mm stem 
Reilly alloy bars (400mm)
Violet purple Lizard Skin bartape
Reilly black headset
Two sets of bottle cage mounts
English threaded bottom bracket

If you're really sold then you're in luck... because you can actually buy this exact bike! It's a size small and priced at £5,499, the link is here if you're interested. 

Reilly's commitment to championing diversity and inclusion in cycling is spearheaded by Elaine Burroughs, an LGBTQ+ adventure cyclist who was approached by Mark Reilly to be a brand ambassador the year before he died: 

“There is a perception around cycling that you have to be an elite athlete, which I’m not, and I’m passionate about raising awareness of just how accessible cycling can be, after all, it was a skill most of us learnt as children", says Burroughs.   

"I’ve managed to convince women to switch from tarmac to off-road and they’re now happily reliving their youth by adventure biking.” 

Reilly Rides Out will take place on Sunday 7th August departing 9am from TrainSharp Cycling in Lewes, with a choice of 30 mile gravel or 50 mile road rides. You can book your place here

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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20 comments

Avatar
vthejk | 1 year ago
2 likes

Reillys (Reillies? Reilly's? Reillyes?) are just stunning, stunning machines. A lovely tribute to an artist of a bike builder, gone way too soon.

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
1 like

I come to this website to read about cycling: not BREXIT, not Pride..just cycling.  Lately, however, it seems the preponderance of 'political' articles is increasing.  As a result, I've just unsubscribed. 

Avatar
Steve K replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
11 likes

Cycling website published article about cycle company producing a special cycle to commemorate the life of a cycle builder.  Sounds like the article is about cycling to me. 

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
7 likes
Chris Hayes wrote:

I come to this website to read about cycling: not BREXIT, not Pride..just cycling.  Lately, however, it seems the preponderance of 'political' articles is increasing.  As a result, I've just unsubscribed. 

A quick glance at the homepage shows 39 stories and features available, of which two are what you might call "political", this story about a tribute to a well-known and much loved framebuilder and the story about the female athletes in America taking a knee to protest the Supreme Court decision on RvW. If you choose to click on those rather than read the other 37 available options, that says quite a lot about what you are looking for, which appears to be more an excuse to be offended than actually to read about cycling.

 

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
5 likes
Rendel Harris wrote:

an excuse to be offended than actually to read about cycling.

QFT - well said.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
6 likes

Good.  Not gonna miss you.

If this was just a random context free post - me being Stale Male and Pale - I might agree with you.  However, Reilly have never hidden their light under a bushel when it comes to representation and as a happy purchaser I'm glad to see it and they have my support.  Even if its just by calling people like you out.  If you genuinely do not care about representation in cycling you are part of the problem, its not about politics its about equality of opportunity.

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
8 likes

"I come to this website to look for articles I might be triggered by"...

Avatar
IanGlasgow replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
6 likes

Oh dear. How sad. Nevermind.

Avatar
captain_slog | 1 year ago
3 likes

It really lifts the spirits to be out on a ride and see something like that.

Avatar
KRSL64 | 1 year ago
6 likes

Back in the early 80's my best friend had no choice but to leave our small Sussex town and move to London so he could 'come out' with less fear of being beaten to death.  Sadly he died from cancer in 1991 and never grew up to see how much things have changed for people like him.

I'd like to imagine him riding this bike at the front of the group celebrating just how much things have improved in the last 30 years.  I think you needed to live in that era to appreciate just how horrendous it was for anyone who didn't conform to 'normal'.  

 

Avatar
Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
1 like

Nice paint job, but on the whole, I'd rather sexual politics was kept out of sports.....

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
7 likes
Chris Hayes wrote:

Nice paint job, but on the whole, I'd rather sexual politics was kept out of sports.....

Celebrating the life and work of a gay man who was proud of his bikes and his identity is only political if you choose to make it so, to anyone who doesn't have a problem with Pride or celebrations of gay identity it's simply a lovely gesture and a stunning bike; I'm not gay but I certainly wouldn't let that stop me from having one in my collection if it was feasible!

N.B. Not that it would matter a single solitary damn if it was but it's not even sexual politics in "sports", it's a bike made for a ride in memorial of Mr Riley.

Ooh look at Trendy Rendy trying to be all PC thinking he's right all the time (I thought I'd get it in before one of our tiresome resident trolls does)

Avatar
KRSL64 replied to Rendel Harris | 1 year ago
7 likes

In my experience, the entirety of life is an exercise in some kind of polilitics.  

Avatar
Steve K replied to KRSL64 | 1 year ago
1 like
KRSL64 wrote:

In my experience, the entirety of life is an exercise in some kind of polilitics.  

https://youtu.be/zruGBWLk9s8

Avatar
keirik replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
9 likes
Chris Hayes wrote:

Nice paint job, but on the whole, I'd rather sexual politics was kept out of sports.....

I'd rather not read your homophobic comments on here too.
I guess we're both disappointed

Avatar
ejocs replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
5 likes
Chris Hayes wrote:

I'd rather sexual politics was kept out of sports.....

Would it be "sexual politics" to celebrate the life of a heterosexual husband and father who left a wife and biological children behind? If yes, then presumably you're not opposed to mixing sexual politics and sports at all, and you've no objection here on "sexual politics" grounds. If no, then neither is this article, and you've no objection here on "sexual politics" grounds.

If you're opposed to homosexuality per se, just say it. And if you're not, you should realize that's the way many people are going to interpret your post. (I'm not making any assumption or accusation, just encouraging more precise communication and candor.)

Avatar
Dogless replied to Chris Hayes | 1 year ago
3 likes

'Sexual politics' 😂
I guess if you've never been the victim of prejudice or violence because of who you love then it's very easy to separate the two; for other people it's not.
Sorry if you were offended by an article which you chose to read on a site you chose to visit.

Avatar
ktache | 1 year ago
4 likes

Such a lovely paintjob.

Avatar
Steve K replied to ktache | 1 year ago
3 likes

It is - and on this occasion I'll even put aside my general "don't paint ti frames" view.

Avatar
keirik replied to ktache | 1 year ago
1 like
ktache wrote:

Such a lovely paintjob.

Isn't it.

I'd love a paint job like that, regardless of my, or anyone else's sexuality

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