Biggest ever Rouleur Live gallery: Pro tech, beautiful paint, and one-off money no object bikes
Plus an incredible 'road bike' from Argon 18
Rouleur Live is the traditional last stop for the season in terms of bike shows. Every year in the ever-so-fashionable Spitalfields area of London current and former professionals from road and gravel congregate to give some talks, meet the public, and have a few drinks. At the same time, there's also three rooms full of show bikes to ogle in between listening to Tom Pidcock answering questions on whether he is staying at Ineos for the thousandth time.
Unlike shows like Eurobike where there is a lot of OEM parts and a lot of consumer-facing products, Rouleur Live is just stuffed full of hyper-premium show ponies. There is rarely anything new in terms of tech - though there is occasionally a smattering - but for one-off bikes, custom builds, and special editions using the most bling components on the market (and off it), it is pretty much unmatched.
I spent hours on Thursday roaming the halls to bring you the very cream of the crop, so get the kettle on, brew up a fancy single-origin coffee as is befitting, and have a scroll through all the tech that, in all likelihood, you and I will never be able to afford.
To kick off with some Olympic tech, here is Wout van Aert's Cervelo time trial bike from Paris, with a double disc wheel setup that was claimed to be 17 watts faster.
Very custom wishbone TT extensions, a 3D printer computer mount and low profile grips keep things slippery at the front. If memory serves me correctly he used Vision extensions, not these, at least in the race recon.
Taped over bolts are a common theme on TT bikes nowadays where races can be won or lost by thousandths of a second. The arm cups look to be custom 3D printed to fit the Belgian's forearms.
No Visma Lease-a-Bike colours for the Olympics, just lovely mottled sponsor logos in vaguely Belgian flavours.
The unusual looking saddle is from small brand Dash, that tends to focus on TT and triathlon saddles.
A T-Rex, on a Canyon? It can only be Alec Briggs' Aeroad in Team Tekkerz livery.
Custom chrome painted Lightweight wheels really are a rare thing indeed, but the suit the brash visual identity of the team down to the ground.
You get to see pro bikes from the big races, in this case the polka dot Cannondale SuperSix Evo Lab71 of Richard Carapaz.
Pinarello had a special Zwift edition of the new Dogma F. Only a handful are made, and anyone who buys one gets a corresponding bike in the popular indoor training app.
In the independent builder hall Mosaic was showing off some particularly beautiful paint.
A matching stem is a big flex, as is the colour matched Chris King headset.
Matching anodised Chris King hubs too? Oh go on then!
Not to be outdone, just across the room titanium stalwart Enigma had a similarly handsome headtube and custom painted carbon fork.
Australian lugged specialist Bastion showed off this carbon and titanium steed.
Just when you thought Lightweight wheels couldn't get any more exclusive, some limited edition ones pop up at the show.
I believe the coating on the lugs and these 3D printed OSPWs is some kind of Cerakote. In any case it's a fine bit of matchy matchy.
The carbon weave on the tubes is achieved by weaving carbon fibres on a giant loom, which can then be cut to length and bonded into the lugs.
Even the seatpost topper has a number on it so you know exactly which of the 88 limited editions you have.
Fresh from smashing the round the world record, Lael Wilcox's Specialized Roubaix was on the SRAM stand.
A custom 3D printed computer and dynamo light mount caps Wilcox's aero extensions.
It's unusual at Rouleur Live to see things as unfashionable as clip on lights, but this bike is utilitarian first and foremost.
Wilcox is masterful at packing light, and the drybag slung under the bag is almost all she packed in a beautifully minimal setup.
Up top a GPS tracker and a phone mount keep communications close at hand.
A Revelate Designs top tube bag generally houses snacks. Wilcox has been seen stashing fries in it on occasion.
There were plenty of beautifully painted Trek bike son show. This prismatic Madone certainly drew a crowd.
Eisa Longo Borghini's pink Giro winning Madone also caught many an eye.
I believe Alex Yee was the only athlete at the Paris Olympics to win gold aboard a Trek, and so the Wisconsin brand went all out on his gold Madone.
The painters managed to achieve a look of almost tarnished metal covered in fingerprints. A fine achievement.
Here it is in all its gold glory. Fortunately the brand avoided going totally overboard with a matching cockpit.
This pastel Madone is an official collaboration with Pantone.
Ribble, not normally considered a super premium brand, was showing off its brand new titanium all road bike, with a colour scheme quite similar to the Bastion it must be said
The titanum was well polished, and when I got to it at least it was mostly clear of grubby fingerprints from curious attendees.
On an all-white Ribble Ultra SLR this mad AbsoluteBlack OSPW upgrade was spotted.
Warwickshire based Meteor Works had the only THM crankset that I spotted at the show on its road bike.
However, its gravel bike had perhaps the most bling set of wheels I've seen in recent years. Gold Onyx hubs laced to Princeton Carbonworks rims with Berd nylon spokes.
Steel bikes can have lightweight parts too, in this case a very slender carbon bottle cage.
Here's a look at the slightly mad lacing system of the wheels. The spokes just hook onto the hub and are totally floppy like string when not tensioned.
Onyx isn't a brand you see a lot of in the road world, coming primarily from BMX racing. Its rear hub features a freehub ratchet that totally disengages when freewheeling for a totally silent ride.
Have you recently bought a bright green Festka? Why not get a matching set of Lake CX 333 leather shoes to match?
While he didn't make an appearance himself there was no escaping the presence of Tadej Pogačar through his many bikes at the show, in this case his Tour-winning Colnago V4Rs.
The Enve decals have a lot of detail in them, including Didi the devil.
It wasn't the only yellow Colnago at the show, but it was the only modern one.
There was also a bike to commemorate the Slovenian’s spectacular season, also complete with custom Enve decals.
This is an almost exact replica of what Pogačar rode to his world championships win, besides the tyres and a few small details.
As I said, it was hard to escape his presence.
While Lightweight wheels are often seen at the show, but a Lightweight cockpit is a much rarer beast. This one was fitted to a black Colnago C68 for an extremely bling bike.
This was perhaps my favourite thing at the show as a massive sunglasses nerd. On the left are Fausto Coppi's original Persol sunglasses, picked up by a group of enthusiasts off ebay when. aBelgian museum closed down. The group then spent over £9,000 recreating them in a limited run, as seen on the right. A true passion project if ever there was one.
Some vintage bikes were still on show, as they always are. This one featuring a particularly ancient transmission system.
It may look like it is 3D printed titanium, but this Storck is an all carbon, all aero machine.
Its Scope wheels feature a fish scale pattern said to aid aerodynamics.
The Scope hubs are however 3D printed titanium, and left raw in a very limited run of cases.
The head tube is particularly deep, even among modern aero bikes.
The special black edition of Campagnolo Super Record, with a special crest... because the standard black Super Record isn't quite exclusive enough.
A Look bike was being painted live at the show too, fortunately with a lightweight airbrush to save covering the punters.
Danni Shrosbree's Felt Breed was the first thing the public saw upon entering the show, fresh from a season of gravel racing in the States.
While the frame can accommodate 50c mountain bike tyres, it was running narrower Kendas in this case.
A Lauf fork provides extra compliance, and the carb stickers add a bit of fun.
Interestingly Shrosbree opts to use Wahoo power pedals usually only seen on the road. If you never put your foot down do you even need gravel shoes and pedals?
George Fox broke the British 10 mile TT record aboard this 'road bike', which was actually a heavily modified, but not illegal, TT bike. These bars certainly wouldn't cut it in a UCI race though.
Continental's Aero111 front tyre was clearly a must fit component.
The front and rear brakes featured neat cooling ducts and fairings.
An extremely deep head tube here, along with a custom stem to allow the use of those super narrow drop bars.
Nobody call the commissaires please!
This looks to be a homemade fairing, though it does bear a resemblance to the CeramicSpeed OSPW system.
Every exposed bolt was taped over in a no stone left unturned build. Even the derailleur hanger was taped off.
Monster watts needed to turn this 66 tooth front chainring, naturally set up 1x with a waxed chain.
Two empty bottles, there as a fairing rather than for hydration, and within the rules.
At the back of the hall British brand Reap had this impressively cantilevered seatpost atop a triathlon post.
It also had this prototype gravel bike on show. You can read more about it in the story below.
The chainstays were almost razor thin.
The integrated seat post is by far the most chunky I've ever laid eyes on.
This beautiful carbon and steel head tube belonged to a hyper exclusive Officina Battaglin.
Below which stood a very fancy Aurum, complete with black and gold matching Princeton Carbonworks wheels.
All it needed was the gold 150th anniversary edition Pirelli tyres and it would have been complete... alas.
As promised, the second yellow Colnago of the weekend. This one was ridden by legend of french cycling, Thomas Voeckler on his long, but ultimately futile stint in the yellow jersey.
The tight spacing of this 11sp Campagnolo Super Record groupset looks positively old fashioned nowadays.
One thing I'm always going to stop and snap is a matching Silca Impero frame pump, here slung under the top tube of a Stelbel.
A third yellow bike? Oh go on, twist my arm. This time it's Kasia Niewiadoma's Canyon Aeroad.
As it was on the Canyon stand the bottle cages and bar tape had been swapped to Canyon units.
An ergon saddle is a pretty regular sight in the women's peloton, with teams often breaking sponsor commitments in the name of comfort.
You'll have probably seen the leaks by now, but of not I've linked them down below. There's something new on the way from Wahoo.
Princeton Carbonworks' stand had a slew of ultra premium wheels, including these tri-spoke numbers.
At the entrance Scicon was showing off its rainbow sunglasses, made for Tadej Pogaçar.
James Shaw's crashed POC helmet was on show, following his crash at the Tour de France.
Lachlan Morton's POC helmets were also on show from his record-setting lap of Australia, noticeably sun-faded after thousands of miles.
His shoes were also on show too at the Fizik stand, though I was advised not to sniff them.
These are apparently a new set of gravel shoes from Fizik, without a name as yet though it'll be something like the Powerstrap X.
New sunglasses too from Koo, the 'Hype' model, which will be on the faces of Bora Hansgrohe next season.
This isn't strictly bike tech, but my friend David was painting a lovely mural all weekend so I wanted to show him off too.
A strong contender for the most bling chainset. Cane Creek cranks mated to CarbonTi chainrings.
Pinarello had by far the biggest stand. Amongst the various Dogma, F, and Dogma X's there was the new Bolide time trial bike.
Both the seatpost and seat tube are scalloped for aero gains.
Chinese brand EXS brought a load of superlight goodies to the show, including this all titanium cassette.
This beautiful hub even had the freehub body anodised, which is amazing attention to detail for a part of the bike that is almost always hidden.
This 3D printed titanium bottle cage would cap off any superlight build.
Castelli had a full set of Gabba jackets, past and present, including this Soudal-Quickstep Gabba R. I was told that in applying the logos the jacket actually shrinks half a size.
At the time of writing, tickets are still available for Rouleur Live on Saturday and can be purchased here.
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Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.
