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The Freedom To Explore
Bikeradar ‘first look’

Words by Bikeradar – July 10, 2015

With its sleek titanium frame, disc brakes and customisable finish kit, the J.ACK by new company J.Laverack is designed to be a versatile, comfortable beast for all-day adventuring.

Founded by Oli Laverack and partner Dave Clow, the J.Laverack is named for Laverack’s grandfather Jack, a keen cyclist who rode the hills and dales of Yorkshire. It’s a bike with adventure and exploration at the core of its design.

“Our philosophy is to fuse elegant design with modern engineering to provide a highly capable and versatile frame that can tackle pavement, paths or pavé.”

The J.ACK titanium frame is a product of Laverack’s desire to create a bicycle that could handle everything from the cobbled classics to the gravelled country lanes of Northamptonshire, where the brand is based, to smooth tarmac.

The frameset consists of the J.ACK titanium frame plus Whiskey No.7 Carbon QR Forks, and features a tapered headtube, internal cable routing and disc brake mounts. A large bottom bracket was selected to increase frame stiffness, and allows 30mm crank spindles.

In keeping with the adventurous spirit of the bike, there is significant tyre clearance allowing up to 35mm tyres with mudguards or 38mm without, plus optional mudguard and rack mounts.

The J.ACK is available as frame-only for £1,850, frame and forks from £2,280, or a custom full build which is fully customisable for the client – choose your bars, saddles, wheels, groupset and J.Laverack will put together your dream ride.

The build we’ve seen combines the titanium frame with Whiskey No.7 Carbon QR Forks and Carbon road bar. Shifting duties are down to the full Shimano Dura-Ace groupset. The TRP Spyre SLC disc brakes use cables rather than hydraulics, but have dual sided actuation for better performance. The J.ACK rolls on Hope Pro 2 Evo hubs laced with Sapim D-Light black spokes to Stans No Tubes Grail Disc 32H Rims. Finishing kit consists of Hope CNC Machined seat clamp, QR skewers, integral headset and PF46 BB. Enve provides the carbon stem and seatpost. Saddle comfort comes courtesy of the Brooks Cambrium C15’s classic looks and hammock-style design.

The total cost for this build is £4,650, and it weighs in at a not insignificant 8.98kg for the 56cm size. However, as Laverack states it’s a bike built for comfort rather than low weight, and by changing the wheelset, saddle, and a few other features you could drop this further – but perhaps at the expense of the bike’s character.

The first 50 frames will be individually numbered with a corresponding stem cap, but for those of a superstitious nature J.Laverack will also offer the recipient of the 13th bike the choice of having the number stamped upside down or not at all.

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