We’ll be putting up a new story on our blog with more information about Rich, his inspirations and a loving of tea, so keep an eye out there. We also have a few words from the man, and some more pictures on the blog here. But, remember, once they are gone – they are gone.

If you’ve always liked the idea of a cross bike, but think maybe I could do with something that could take on just that little bit more then, a Foots Cray could be the answer you’ve been looking for all that time. Capable come race day, but its out in the big blue yonder that its characteristics truly come to the fore.

Borrowing more from the mountain bike world than the cyclocross fields, the Foots Cray stands aside from most CX bikes. Aside from the monster clearance up front with the CTRL forks, the frame is around 20mm longer than a road bred cross bike for a given size.

It is designed to run with a shorter stem to maintain the saddle to bar reach. A longer frame adds huge stability at speed as the wheel base is longer, and the design gives more room to move around between bars and saddle - its designed for big adventures where cross bikes usually dont fare.

With 50mm between the rear stays and over 75 up front, big rubber fits fine, and with the usual Bowman attention to detail you know that the fun is going to last a long time.