Luke's Bike

Luke is the brand manager for Rockshox and SRAM at Zyro Fisher, so as you can imagine we work with him quite a lot. SRAM have been super supportive of Airdrop Bikes right from the beginning, and Luke's one of the good guys. So when Luke came at us for help with his own bike, we were stoked to get involved.

As the brand manager, Luke has to represent. So it was pretty obvious that this was going to be a special bike. It's difficult to compare with some of the other customs builds we've done, but this has got to be a contender for the best Edit build yet. It certainly looks the part:

Luke's Component Choices

SRAM is almost unique in that they make almost everything for a bike; within the SRAM family of brands you've got Rockshox, SRAM and Truvativ. That's almost all the bases covered right there. So in a way, the choices were easy to make and everything's compatible. But Luke still put a lot of thought into how he wanted to build the bike for his local trails and his style of riding.

SRAM XX1 Eagle Drivetrain

Let's be honest. SRAM's flagship XX1 Eagle drivetrain isn't cheap. But it is a work of art. That gold chain and the machining on the 10-50t cassette is incredible. In Luke's words, the choice of XX1 was "really a weight saving initiative. SRAM prefer XX1 to be an XC/Trail group and X01 to be more for Trail/Enduro". But let's be honest: we'd all spec XX1 if we could afford it. Luke's running a 32t direct-mount chainring up front on the carbon cranks, so he's got all the gears he's ever going to need.

2018 Rockshox Pike RCT3

Luke said he considered speccing Lyriks but that they're probably overkill for the kind of riding he's doing. Plus the new 2018 Pikes with the Charger 2 damper and revised lowers are a fair bit lighter than their predecessors. If you're the kind of rider that wants the extra strength and stiffness the Lyrik offers, the weight penalty is worth it. But Luke reckons the Pike is easily stiff enough for his local trails in the Peaks. In case you're wondering, Luke went for the 2018 Pike RCT3 Solo Air 160mm.

SRAM Roam 60 Carbon Wheelset

No self respecting uber-bike would be complete without a carbon wheel set, and the new SRAM Roam 60 carbons don't disappoint. They're incredible strong and stiff - as you might expect - and the new rim has a 30mm internal width so they give the tyres a nice square profile. Speaking of which, Luke went for the new Vittoria Morsa 27.5x2.35 front and rear. They have a unique quad compound construction and graphene in the rubber. I don't fully understand what the benefits are meant to be but Luke speaks very highly of them and he says they're great in the Peaks.

SRAM Code RSC Brakes

A slightly unusual choice given that the rest of the build is fairly weight conscious, but Luke went for the new SRAM Code RSC brake. There's certainly no lack of stopping power - we'll see these exact same brakes on a bunch of world cup DH rigs this year. When I asked Luke about this he said that the weight penalty was tiny and he's willing to trade that off for the extra power, given how steep some of his local trails are. And they do look the part hooked up to his 2018 Reverb stealth with the new 1x lever and the XX1 shifter on matchmaker clamps. A nice clean cockpit, which I approve of.

Full Specification

Custom Bikes

All Airdrop Bikes are built to order, which means that we can do part or full custom builds, to suit your needs. If you're thinking about building up a new bike, probably the best place to start is our frame sets, or maybe you'd be better off with one of our frame and fork bundles. But if you've got an idea for a full custom bike, give us a shout and we'll be happy to put together a custom build quote for you. It doesn't have to be a blinged-up bike Like Luke's; maybe you're on a budget or you only need part of a bike - we're pretty flexible.