Been riding carbon all my life, made the switch to steel early last year and would never go back!
Here in 650b off road setup but easily interchangeable with a set of 700c carbon hoops, a mix of columbus spirit & life:
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My Chesini Strabia I had made this past summer. If you haven’t ever worked with a frame builder to design and build a custom bike I highly recommend it. Choosing the colorway and all the shapes and angles was a lot of fun. Having something bespoke makes you realize how well a bike can fit.
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Oh, and my Eroica bike. A 1984 Tommasini Prestige with Super Record. Don’t worry, I didn’t realize that my seat had slipped. I got back on the bike, made about 3 pedal strokes, then fixed the saddle position…
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Thank you!!
I was waiting for an English bike to show up. I really love Rob’s work. How do you like it? How was the build process? I’m actually on the wait list for 2021 and cannot wait to get started. 
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Awesome pictures! What kind of racing did you do on the Land Shark?
Working with Rob was a flawless process. It was super easy dealing with him from the beginning to the end and his communication was prompt and very detailed.
I was pretty clear going into this in terms of what I wanted, so I think that helped a lot. The build process (consultation phase) was started in January 2017 and I had the bike in my hands at the end of March.
One of the reasons why I went with Rob, is because I’ve always loved his work, and his function over form philosophy really resonated with me. I also couldn’t really find an off the shelf fat tire road bike that fit my needs at the time. I knew I wanted road geometry, but have the ability to fit 700x42 and 650x50, and have short chainstays (412mm). Being only 5’ 8, most bikes in this size have shallower HTA - normally 71-71.5, but I wanted more road geo, so I went with 72.5 degrees.
The other bonus for me, is Rob and I are almost the same size and both cat 1 racers (at the time), so he really knew and understood my needs in terms of performance and how the bike would be used.
The bike really has lived up to exactly what I wanted. I have 3 sets wheels: a 700 road setup, a 700 gravel setup, and a 650b fat gravel/trail setup. I’ve done lots of big gravel days and trips, and wouldn’t change anything about the frame.
Good luck, you’re gonna love it.
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Tnx!!
Shark was built for Criterium and road racing. Typical USA cat 3 weekend warrior stuff.
It is a sweet bike. Mixture of tubes, told John what I’d be using it for and he did the rest. I specified the paint and this is very tame for Land Shark but I like the classic panel look. The “LandShark Skulls” on the seat tube panel don’t show up in the photo but really stand out in person.
Believe he is building only with carbon fiber now.
absolutely in love with this Festka XCR frame that i found second hand a couple of years ago. I use it for big miles, crits and everything in between.
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That stem! 
@mackeenj - much of @Ian747 experience I got as well. Rob was a pleasure to work with and he built a great bike for me. So much so, I have a 2nd build scheduled for 2021 . P.S - my buddy’s Dave Kirk, also in the pic is an awesome bike as well
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This is my Bob Jackson Vigorelli, 631 Reynolds steel in British racing green with ivory barber pole decoration and logos. It’s et up with 49:18 gearing. Mainly used for commuting, but does do occasional service on training rides and races. I did a 15-mile 2up time trial in 2019 for which both of us rode fixed-gear bikes on a sporting course. That was painful.
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How about a speedvagen thrown in the mix? Picked up on paceline last year and never going back to carbon…
Excuse the iphone 5 pic quality…
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A few years back when I rode for transpiration a lot more than I do now. Was cutting through a local state park trail network after helping a friend fix his motorcycle. Nothing fancy but this is my road bike. Vasssgo Fisticuff with Rival 10 speed brifters, X9 rear derailleur & an 11-36 cassette of some sort. Rode this in D2R2 Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee -a western Mass southern/VT gravel ride way before gravel was a thing.
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Whoa, that a killer bike. I don’t blame you for not going back! I feel the same way with my English.
Nice! What type of build are you going to do this time since you already have your roadie?
This just makes me more excited! Beautiful bike, by the way.
I love that this thread exists! Deep love for steel. 
Anywho…used to ride a Kona Kapu waaaay back in the day:
The only thing left is the Reynolds 853 frame & forks.
Deciding what to do with it – gravel build maybe? CX? 
Funny thing, on the local championship hillclimb I’ve got a pre-Strava time of 5min riding this 20lb beast. The 4:45 KOM is currently held by a WT pro…on some 15lb carbon jobby. Steel can still give 'er! 
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