Sour Clueless

I once read an article where someone made the remark that everyone thought Vincent van Gogh was mad, and that his paintings of the Netherlands were wild fabrications of the landscapes he painted. This was of course thought up by people who had never been to the Netherlands, or maybe never stood in the fields in spring, at sunset. The intense greens and yellows in the evening mix into the blues, pinks, and purples of the early morning light... All contrasted with the stark mix and contrasting presence of water. Water everywhere. It's just too intense to be real, right? Well that was the argument made for van Gogh not being mad, and that he was merely painting what he saw around him, and that it was in fact the landscapes that were truly unbelievable.

To put that into perspective, I took these photos without a filter, on albeit a cheap mirrorless camera, and STILL "had" to desaturate them to make them appear "normal". The Netherlands is very silently and quietly absolutely gorgeous.

Oh yeah, the bike. I like to call it the SS Compliant. The steel frame, tight yet relaxed geo, combined with the godly eeSilk seapost and flexy carbon handlebars mean this allroad bike is a KM-munching racing-lounge-chair.

Carbon Rodeo rims holding onto OG Compass Bon Jon Pass tires, laced to the venerable Chris King R45d mean this bike rolls noticeably smooth on all the roads, as well as "roads", the Netherlands has to offer.

Check below for the gallery and detail shots. Keen to know more or start a build of your own? Don’t hesitate to send an email today!

Nordest Britango

This one is a little unique. Unique for a couple reasons… One being that this is a personal build, and that’s generally not something I post, and secondly because this bike was built during the Great Bike Parts Shortage of 2021. If you look verrrry closely, you’ll notice very little matches, and that many parts are used. See it now? Yeah, me too. But nonetheless this bike works really well and is a great option for bikepacking and general singletrack shredding.

This frame was chosen for bikepacking and bikepacking races. Granted 2020 and 2021 aren’t the best years for this, but hey, here’s to wishful thinking. The frame is classified as a “downcountry” frame, if you can call that a classification. But generally speaking this is an XC frame with a penchant for going downhill, nearly as much as going uphill. Throw on a few bikepacking oriented hits such as a slightly lower BB height and third bottle cage mount, and you’ve got a daily-shredder that can head of into the sunset in the weekend.

The bike is using Shimano and SRAM components because of availability obviously, but at the same time, a SRAM derailleur can control the chain just a hair better, but the choice of 10-45 and 10-51 tooth cassettes on Shimano’s Microspline freehub is pretty choice for a bike that can use 27,5+ and 29” wheels. The larger of the two will be combined with 2,4/2,5” tires and a dynamo hub for long distance KM eating.

The big thing of this frame is the paint… or lack thereof actually. See, this frame has been coated with Cerakote, a super thin ceramic film. Now, this isn’t some fancy aero ceramic hype, this is a super hard and resilient coating generally used in other industries to protect mostly metal (carbon also). Cerakote isn’t bothered by chemicals, heat, or rubbing, so that makes it perfect for this sort of rig… plus it’s just beautiful. Another bonus is that you can use Cerakote to create similar effects to wet paint (logos etc.), while being about half the price and double the durability. Neat, huh?

Questions about this build? Keen to start your own, or just want to talk possibilities? Send Parallel HQ an email today!

Transition Spur

"Cross-country bike". What does that even mean anyway? I mean, this is a cross-country bike, sort of, but two minutes test riding this thing and it's immediately apparent that it’s ready to get rowdy. Fun geometry combined with 120mm travel front and rear means that you’ll tire long before this @Transition Spur wants to head to back to it’s stall.

Transition makes some really rad bikes, mostly for my gravity-fed disciplines, but the Spur is their uppy-downy bike, but like, an uppy-downy bike made by people who like to fool around. Ride this thing up whatever crazy climb you can dream up and back down. For in the Netherlands, Ardennes, or even German bikeparks, the Spur is good to go.

This rig is kitted to the gills. @srammtb XX1 Eagle AXS, including dropper post controlled by your TV remote, probably. @Ingrid takes care of the rest of the drivetrain with their truly stunning POP crankset and 10-48t cassette-that-is-actually-just-art. Throw into the mix a cockpit by @Beast Components and their 30mm wide boxy-boy tire holders... and I'm starting to sweat behind the knees... Wondering why we went for an enduro rim instead of a 30mm trail rim? Yeah, this bike is that rowdy.

Seriously, what a pleasure it is to get to build a rig like this. And I'm not only proud of the work here, but also being able to finish a project like this, it takes a ton of trust from the client, and crazy amounts of diggin’ around to find these parts. In the current state of affairs, finding components is basically witchcraft, and building a bike like this, magic.