Pan Celtic Folly | Part 8: A Star is Born

Chris Davis, 28th June 19

I’m getting ridiculously fickle as I get older: I have a new love after only 100 miles. Dave recently completed a beautiful Pan Celtic celebration paint job on our Endeavour and handed it over to Greg and Joe to complete the build. Fair play to them; with the event rapidly approaching they leapt into action and had the Endeavour ready to go for me to do a shake down test mid-week.

Hipster Joe completing the build: super calm and collected as ever, filling me with confidence

 The finished article – I am in love

Since then, I have been unable to concentrate. Smitten does not come close to describing how I feel about this bike. The ride is unbelievably comfortable, which is something of a relief given the distances we’ll be doing for the Pan Celtic! This is likely down to a combination of factors: finely tuned frame design, great mix of carefully selected steel tubes for the build (thanks Sam and Greg!), the 28c tubeless tyres and a really tight build. What surprised me though is how well this bike bowls along: fully kitted up I completed my commute to work against wind in record time. Moreover, it has that elusive X factor: character.

Charged with emotion, I blubbered to the team here upon arrival early Wednesday morning that it’s the best bike I’ve ever ridden. If I could only have one bike, this would be it. I could see myself doing everything on this baby. On road, off road, commute, easy rides, quick rides. But talk is cheap. So convinced am I of this bike’s all-round capabilities, I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and enter it into this weekend’s Worthing Triathlon. My fastest time on the course is 1hour17mins set a few years ago on a time trial bike – it will be interesting how my time this year compares.

OK, a reality check. I’ll admit I’m in the honeymoon stage, and I don’t want to come across all ‘Love Island’ gushy here. Only a stern test such as the Pan Celtic will see whether this relationship develops into something more serious, so I’ll be making sure I keep a clear head to ensure we use my experience of this prototype second generation Endeavour to inform the production run planned for July and August. When I return from the Pan Celtic I’ll write a final post with reflections on the ride, experiences and bike.