The Unicorn Bike?

This article was originally featured on Escape Collective.

The bike industry is very good at selling desire. The latest shiny thing. That beautiful, unobtainable machine. The new micro-niche you didn’t know existed—until suddenly you needed it.

N+1. Incremental aero gains. Marginal improvements in layup. Anything to make you a touch faster. To shave a few grams. To promise that this one is the new best thing.

We’re all guilty of it. Scrolling through the bike porn galleries on Escape Collective, drooling over the dream builds from MADE in Oregon or Bespoked in Manchester. Reading the breathless copy on the latest product launches. Buying into the promise of more speed, more comfort.

Just like you, I’ve lusted after the next big thing in exotica. But for the average rider, it’s about as realistic as pulling up to your local garage and driving away in a Ferrari.

I wanted to have my cake and eat it—to build a bike that was completely unique to me, without the five-figure price tag of full custom. A bike that could do (more or less) everything: from bikepacking to singletrack to the Tuesday chain-gang.

It needed to be versatile, because I was selling my road bike—a Specialized Aethos—to fund it. And my cyclocross bike was stolen, so it needed to be able to handle the odd ‘cross race too. And of course it needs to nail its bread and butter – gravel racing (or at least what passes for it in the UK). The unicorn bike. The one bike to rule them all. But is it actually possible? Or is it just the worst of all worlds?

I wanted to find out. And most of all, I wanted it to be beautiful.

I’m one of the founders and the lead designer at The Handmade Cyclist.  Design and storytelling are our bread and butter. Our Quotes mugs pair cycling wisdom from cycling legends with colour block designs inspired by their most iconic jerseys. A personal favourite is our Mathieu van der Poel mug—Dutch champion stripes with a killer MvdP quote:

‘You have to want it as much as your next breath’

That became the theme. Red, white and blue fades equally inspired by MvdP and Stephen Roche’s all-conquering ’87 Battaglin (the object of much teenage lust back in the day). Go-faster stripes. Quote on the top tube to slap me back to life when my willpower starts to crumble.

Design sorted, but budget and build were a little more problematic. There’s no chance I could even think of a full custom, steel machine from the likes of Ricky Feather – and let’s be honest, even stock bikes have been getting more and more out of reach in recent times. The answer, it turned out, was just down the road.

A few years back, at a local Wessex League cyclocross race, I spotted something very fast and very pink at the pointy end of the field. It turned out that rider was Ian Crocker, founder of Forwards.cc, a small independent bike brand based a few miles away in Southampton. He was racing a pair of bright pink ‘cross bikes built to his own spec.

We got chatting, and I learned that Ian had launched Forwards during lockdown, escaping from motorsport to return to his cycling industry roots. Forwards was born from a frustration with off-the-peg bikes - you spend thousands on a bike, then gradually spend hundreds more upgrading parts until you end up with the bike you really wanted in the first place.

Ian decided to do it differently. Forwards would build every bike to spec from day one—no upgrades needed. And Ian wanted the bikes to be carbon, which makes things tricky - as bespoke carbon moulds cost a small fortune. Forwards started sourcing frames directly, using open moulds from factories making carbon frames for some of the world’s biggest brands, then building them up in the UK to each rider’s fit, spec and taste—with quality control, fitting, and attention to detail at the heart of it.

There’s a lot of snobbery around open mould frames, and I can be as snobby as anyone. But Forwards’ frames are beautifully finished, bang up to date and just as good, if not better than the average, mid-to-high range bike in your LBS. All without paying a penny toward WorldTour sponsorships or glossy ads – meaning Ian is able to pass serious value on to the customer.

Did I mention I’m a sucker for the next big thing? I’ve done my best to tick every trend box while keeping the budget tight. 50mm Schwalbe G-One Pro tyres—mismatched R front, RS slick rear—for grip up front and speed out back. My knees (and Pog fandom) demand 165mm cranks, which meant Rotor to achieve a 48T chainring (GRX doesn’t offer a 165/48t combo). A 2x setup that doesn’t top out on the road. Hunt 35mm carbon rims.

Weight? A shade over 9kg with pedals. Drop nearly a kilo with road tyres. But what really matters: it absolutely flies and is truly unique.

I’ve ridden it in road pace lines at 25mph, and dropped straight into twisty local singletrack without changing a thing. Those big tyres at around 25psi are a revelation on and off road, and that virtually slick rear is a hoot once things get a little damp. A BMX for grown-ups.

My plan originally was to get a spare set of road wheels for maximum versatility – but perhaps the best testimony is that for now, I’m good.  It does 98% of everything my Aethos did on the tarmac, and 1000% more than it could do off road.

I admired the Aethos - but this bike, I love.

Is that because it’s ‘better’? More versatile? Or just because it’s singularly, definitively mine? I don’t know. But in an industry where ‘special’ is often linked to the number of zeroes on a price tag, I think we’ve achieved maximum desire whilst only having to sell a Specialized to fund it, and not a kidney.

Since this build we’ve completed another Handmade Cyclist Quotes build, a Forwards One road bike in a Beryl Burton theme as a surprise for Ian’s partner, Jenny - and we’re able to offer this custom package to our customers now too. You’d think that designing a bike would be a dream gig, but it’s surprisingly scary. There’s no Cmnd-Z on a physical object, so the big reveal is pretty nerve-wracking – I’m not sure I’ll ever quite get used to it.

As for my ride, at HMC we always aim for timeless style, delivered in a super-modern package.

One eye on the past, but always looking to the future – and I hope we nailed it.

For more photos and information on custom frames and builds, or to enquire, click here.