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feature
bike at bedtime june 2022 reilly rainbow road warriorCheck out the Reilly Rainbow Road Warrior that will take centre stage at the Reilly Rides Out memorial ride
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.
Latest Comments
- mikewood 20 min 1 sec ago
This really easily solved by making it a 20mph zone and banning overtaking cyclists in 20mph zones without fully crossing into the opposing lane
- David9694 51 min 48 sec ago
Car is rescued from ditch of Bournemouth hotel car park...
- David9694 56 min 38 sec ago
'Ghost car' terrifies mum and daughter as they drive down Cheshire road...
- rct 1 hour 3 min ago
Or at least just have access via the platform. Assuming it is barriered and and manned.
- Simon E 2 hours 40 min ago
Correct. The Pidcock link is just to pull people in. The 2016 CX Nationals were held at the same venue and it has hosted several National Trophy CX...
- Simon E 3 hours 2 min ago
One problem with your position is that the helmet does not protect you from the things most likely to cause harm - large, heavy, fast-moving...
- KiwiMike 3 hours 17 min ago
At some point this traffic only here for reviews of reviews of reviews achieves critical mass, and then who knows what happens....
- Safety 3 hours 22 min ago
In Scotland we have SNP in power for over a decade and delivered remarkably little on active travel....
- chrisonatrike 3 hours 59 min ago
With that kind of blue-sky lateral thinking, the sea may be coming to them, sooner than they think...
- IanMSpencer 5 hours 57 min ago
Just binged ST-SNW season 2 for a freebie on Paramount+ via Amazon and something of a curate's egg. Quite a bit of tongue in cheek self-depricating...
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20 comments
Reillys (Reillies? Reilly's? Reillyes?) are just stunning, stunning machines. A lovely tribute to an artist of a bike builder, gone way too soon.
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.
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.
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.
QFT - well said.
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.
"I come to this website to look for articles I might be triggered by"...
Oh dear. How sad. Nevermind.
It really lifts the spirits to be out on a ride and see something like that.
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'.
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)
In my experience, the entirety of life is an exercise in some kind of polilitics.
https://youtu.be/zruGBWLk9s8
I'd rather not read your homophobic comments on here too.
I guess we're both disappointed
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.)
'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.
Such a lovely paintjob.
It is - and on this occasion I'll even put aside my general "don't paint ti frames" view.
Isn't it.
I'd love a paint job like that, regardless of my, or anyone else's sexuality