It’s been a while since we’ve taken a close look at Pipedream Cycles, but this switch from their usual hardtail mountain bike lineup brought us through the looking glass. Now, they’ve launched A.L.I.C.E., a go-anywhere drop bar bike designed to handle the weather and terrain of its home base in Scotland. The frame is a custom triple-butted, heat treated 4130 chromoly with shaped stays and tubes, paired with a chromoly uni-crown fork, both with mounts galore.
The name stands for “All-purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment”, a mouthful for sure, but suggests its available uses. Braze-ons for bottles, fenders and racks adorn the fork legs, downtube and stays so you pack it out for adventure or commuting, or just try to keep yourself dry on the outside and hydrated on the inside during your next fun ride.
The fork legs taper to a 15mm thru axle at the bottom. Axle-to-crown is a long 432mm to keep the front end a bit higher and make room for a 29×2.1 tire. They say you can swap it out for a shorter cyclocross fork to give the bike more aggressive geometry, too.
Sliding thru-axle dropouts at the rear let you set it up as a single speed or just tweak the chainstay length and wheelbase around your riding style or tire size.
The top tube is slightly ovalized, which they say is to make shouldering more comfortable. It also lends a little more vertical compliance, particularly when paired with the S-bend seatstays.
Up front, an oversized headtube keeps things torsionally stiffer. All cables run externally through guides fastened to the bottom of the downtube.
Available in this British racing green or a wonderland blue, get it as a frameset (frame and fork) for £625 or a complete bike with a Funn Components cockpit and wheels and SRAM Apex 1 group for £1,795. Sizes are S/M/L/XL, which get a relatively short seat tube height that might confuse the sizing. For example, the XL is listed as a 54, but the top tube length is a stretched out 611mm. So, best to check your current bike’s geo against this to compare key numbers like TT, wheelbase, etc.
