Bike Check: Alice's Edit v2

Custom builds are what we do best at Airdrop Bikes. Alice had a special request: she wanted a bike built to her very own spec with one-off custom decals of her own design. Working with Merge Decals we made it happen.

Alice is a print designer by trade, fro the UK but living and working in Stockholm. She and her partner Ollie came to visit us over Christmas to take out a couple of bikes for a demo ride and talk options. It's always a big deal getting a new bike and we get that, so like a lot of our customers, Alice wanted to do something a bit different and build a bike that reflects her personality and also some of her riding history. 

Custom Decals

You probably know we offer a lot of decal options; it's part of what we do at Airdrop. We cut all the decals here so we offer 12 different colour options, and also produce special edition printed decals with the help of our mates at Merge Decals. That's what inspired Alice to come to us with her special request; she wanted to design her own decal kit so her bike could be truly unique. She's obviously got the skills and working together with Merge, it was easy enough to get an individual set produced. We asked Alice what the design is all about:

"Mostly my previous experiences on a bike, I only started like two years ago and couldn't get up a curb without getting off or falling off. Since then, I've been to morzine, bike park Wales and participated in different races. On the design there is, 'Devil's Staircase' from Cannock Chase, the dreaded curb, some black space for when I got a pedal to throat and blacked out, my Roche coat of arms, and a burger and cup of tea because they're my favourite!"

Take a closer look and you can see the level of detail is amazing and the colour choices work really well:

We kept the rest of the bike low-key but high spec. Alice may be fairly new to the sport but she can really ride a bike, so we went with a variation on the Edit Pro spec, but beefed up the wheels with Hopetech 35W rims and changed the standard Guide R brakes over to Shimano XT, which Alice prefers. 

Alice's Bike Spec

Another Stoked Customer

Sometimes these custom builds take a fair bit of time and effort to bring together. It's always worth it to get the bike just right, and this one was no different. Between us, Alice and Ollie we were corresponding between three different countries and working with Merge on the decals too. But when it does finally come together, you hand over the bike and you get feedback like this, it's all worthwhile:

"Had my first ride on the Airdrop today at Grenoside. I absolutely love it, feels like it's been mine for years haha. Thanks for the great job, and the vinyl looks awesome, supper happy with it being bespoke!"

Custom Bike Builds

First off it's worth saying a massive thanks to Merge Decals for helping to make this happen. If you want to build a fully custom bike like Alice and you've got an idea for your own decals, give them a shout and they'll be happy to talk through the options. 

Thanks also to Alice and Ollie for taking the time to come visit us and try out the bikes, and investing so much in the process - hopefully it was worth it! And of course Alice deserves special credit for being such a talented designer. Cheers!

If you want to look at a custom build, give us a shout. You don't have to go full custom; maybe you just want to tweak one of our existing builds to suit your needs. Or if you're up for it we can do a ground-up build with everything to your specification. It's a one-to-one service which we don't charge anything for, and it's the best way to get a bike that's truly unique.