"Vous êtes des assassins!"
FiftyOne Bikes released the Assassin today. The Assassin is a factory-made gravel bike that gives you the freedom to suit any riding and terrain. We have been looking forward to its arrival and are stoked to have the first of these innovative frames landing in Australia.
Gravel riding is not only growing fast globally and in Australia, but it is broad spectrum of styles and nearly anything goes. The Assassin has been designed to cover as much of that as possible, ensuring plenty of fun along the way - from riders exploring back roads and light-duty gravel roads, but wanting something close to a road bike in handling, weight and responsiveness; to riders taking on tough terrain and wanting a robust bike with the stability to tackle steep, rough trails and singletrack. In between lies every type of gravel road found the world over, and the bikepackers setting out to ride them all.
The Assassin has been designed to cover gravel greatness with one frame. Some other manufacturers will solve that breadth with several different models to span riding conditions and styles. Not only can you configure The Assassin for your riding preference, you can change it pretty easily using innovative flip chips to alter overall geometry and handling of the bike.
The quick list of Assassin features to get you started is here:
- 47mm tyre clearance in both 700c and 650b
- 1x or 2x, up to 50/34 running gear
- Dropper post and Di2 jointly compatible
- Internal routing for front dynamo lighting
- Fender and rack mounts (supporting 15kg on the rear, 5kg on the front, and 5kg on each fork)
- 4 portal bosses + 2 bottle cage mounts
- Flip chips on front and rear to configure geometry and handling
The Assassin comes in two stock paint options – British Racing Green, and Rothmans Racing Blue.
The Assassin - origins of the name
In 1910, the Tour de France tackled the high mountains for the first time, with not one but four high passes in the Pyrenees, including the mighty Col du Tourmalet, in a single stage of over 320 km and 6000m. At that time, every road was gravel.
Summiting the fourth climb, the Col d’Aubisque, eventual stage winner, Octave Lapize, was furious at the stage’s excesses and screamed at the race’s deputy director, Alphonse Steinès, “Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!” (You are assassins! Yes, assassins!)
About FiftyOne Bikes
Based in Dublin, Ireland, FiftyOne Bikes is a manufacturer of hand-built custom road bikes and factory-built gravel bikes. Every bike is made to our exacting standards and designed to the especially textured understanding we have of the needs of each individual rider.
FiftyOne Bikes was founded in 2016 by former international rider Aidan Duff, in response to the disappearance from top-end race bikes of the custom options that he had always enjoyed during his career.