February 06, 2025
BOTW: Julius' Pristine Prova Speciale
A Prova is always going to be something special The ultra-talented two-person Australian team produces a very limited, very coveted, amount of frames a year. A scant 35 minute drive from Melbourne, you'll find Mark and Kelly Hester (yes, same last name, brother and sister that get along well enough...
Kalara Schuster
January 29, 2025
JB's Scarab Apuna Long-term Review
Here we are in the rainy season, and I find myself staying dry after last year's move to "sunny California" when nobody warned me about the rain and king tide in Marin, but I have learned my lesson since. Earlier in the year, I had the opportunity to build my...
Julius Berith
January 29, 2025
BOTW: A Scarab Letras for a Local
This customer walked into the AC studio to inquire about an insulated vest that would help to keep him warm on the cold mornings here in Sausalito. As he's a local, we've run into each other multiple times and have slowly become friends over the last few months. When it...
Julius Berith
January 16, 2025
Mike’s Bastion 007: Eight Years on and Still the Real Deal
The Bastion 007 arrived at AC in October of 2016, all raw ti lugs, wound carbon tubes, and splashes of red on the logos and dropouts. The build was straightforward and comprised a SRAM Red Etap 11-speed group with a Quarq power meter, Enve 3.4s laced to a White Industries...
Mike Wilson
January 09, 2025
A Lotus-Inspired Mosaic GT-1 45
This customer came to us to build his forever bike, a challenge we often get presented with at Above Category and one we always relish. After reviewing our portfolio of builders, we recommended Mosaic Cycles to our client, initially looking at the brand's 2-series line (stock sizing, raw finish, straight gauge...
Julius Berith
December 12, 2024
The Sarto Raso Gravel and the Evolution of Drop-Bar Off-Road Bikes
When "Gravel" bikes became an official thing eight or nine years ago, I had a bit of a chuckle. Who would want to ride that? Anything one of these new balloon tire road bikes could do, a hardtail mountain bike could do better.Despite my misgivings, we were still among the...
Chad Nordwall
November 28, 2024
Winter Is Upon Us
Bay Area winter is upon us. The winter months in our neck of the woods are very different from the wet PNW winter I grew up with or the dark and bitter cold Midwest winter. It seems that Bay Area winters are getting a tad closer to what we had in...
Chad Nordwall
November 28, 2024
BOTW: An Abstract Sarto Raso TC
The only problem when looking at a bike like this, painted this way, is, where to look first. The bike: a Sarto Raso in Tri-Composite flavor. The paint: a Velocolour Tour de Force. “It was my 70th birthday present from my incredibly thoughtful, lovely wife,” said Mark, our client. “I like...
Julius Berith
November 21, 2024
BOTW: A Factor OSTRO VAM TDF Edition
This customer came in a few weeks before our AC Invitational where we met to talk about a potential replacement for his road bike. After going over all of the options he settled on the new Factor OSTRO VAM in the limited TDF edition colorway. We took his existing fit,...
Julius Berith
November 21, 2024
10,000 Miles Update
The first post I did on this was on October 31st, and I was at 7205.9 miles, which was 690.1 miles behind the pace needed to hit 10,000 miles for the year. So, how much ground have I gained? How was the motivation? How was the consistency? As of this...
Chad Nordwall
November 14, 2024
A Mosaic GT-1 i45 in Porsche Ice Green
This recent build is one of my favorites. I've got a soft spot for Mosaic and Porsche, and this GT-1 i45 ticks both of those boxes. This returning customer had previously built a Mosaic road bike with us, and when it came time to add to his collection, he knew...
Julius Berith
