I’m going to be testing this lovely red Bowness Bicycle Company 2-4 cyclocross bike for a while this season putting it through its paces. I’m excited because I sold my Cannondale R800 road bike a few years ago and haven’t had a fast bike for road rides since. I love my fleet of mountain bikes, folders and touring rigs, but they don’t accelerate or corner like a road bike.

Okay so this is actually not a road bike either, but I’m not letting that stop me from pretending I’m about to win a field sprint at the TdeF or crush Lance on top of Alp d’Huez.  Actually if you look closely at what I’ve done to this bike its real purpose is a bit tough to figure out.

• swapped in 23mm Schwalbe road tires
• SKS P-35 fenders
• Old Man Mountain Sherpa rear rack
• front and rear LED lights
• Cateye Strada bike computer
• Time ATAC pedals

I know there are a few people out there shocked that I put fenders and a rack on a nice bike like this - lights even….*GASP*!  Yup it’s horrible and it has added 2.5lbs to the 2-4, but now I have a bike I can ride in any weather, at any time of the day and I can carry stuff on it.  Since the bike is named the 2-4 I’m going to be carrying 24 bottles of Corona on the rear rack to an Easter BBQ Sunday - it seems only fitting.

There is another even more cunning benefit to all these accessories.  I’m old and slow and have a bad habit of racing people on the highway.  So now if I lose I can point to my grey hair, fenders, rack and lights as the excuse for my poor performance.  On the other hand if I crush someone on a light road bike 10 years younger than me with my cross bike sporting all this dead weight they gotta feel totally schooled by the geezer…=-)

Since my days in the pro peleton are over I won’t be using this bike to race professionally.  I’ve never even seen a cross race on TV to be honest.  I’ll be taking this bad boy out on the highway for fitness rides and I’ll be using it in town as a fast light utility bike to visit my friends and pick up light loads.  If my commute didn’t involve walking 10′ from the bedroom to my office in the next room I’d definitely ride this bike to work.

I just got it built and decked out so with only 25kms on the odo I won’t try and get into too many details about this bike, but I will say it’s very fast on 23mm tires, surprisingly comfortable for a stiff aluminum frame and handles beautifully.  With spring here I’ll be putting lots of kms on this bike and I’ll report back.