Scarab Cycles debuted a new paint scheme for their Santa Rosa road bike, dubbed the Rauch. Pulling together influence from several different artists, the steel beauty is as much art as it is function – and we have plenty of images from their dreamy photo shoot.
Scarab Cycles Rouch-Edition Santa Rosa road bike
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen serious artistic influence in a bike, but it ranks as one of the most aesthetically pleasing. Scarab Cycles is a small Colombian custom frame builder, and received a unique request for a custom painted version of their Santa Rosa road bike.
Brand manager, Nate King, gave us the 4-1-1 on the bike’s artistic influence:
“The customer came to us with a one-off request to create something inspired by Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #3, along with a dash of Omar Rayo (who was a well-known Colombian modern artist). We obliged, and ended up with something that had a dash of the late, great Dario Pegoretti sprinkled on top.”
The bike uses TIG-welded Columbus Spirit tubing, made-in-house dropouts, and an ENVE fork. Complete bike weight as-shown is 16.5 lbs (7.5kg).
Scarab’s online journal explains more of the bike’s design detail:
“Meet what we’ve dubbed “RAUCH”, the newest addition to the paint design selection at Scarab. No, the colors can’t be changed. Yes, every one is a bit different. Yes, we can paint your next bike like this. For now.”
“This Santa Rosa in ‘RAUCH’ is the first of its kind, built to go up – and down – the hills of the San Francisco Bay with aplomb. Its geometry is designed to reward even the most disinclined of descenders on technical Northern California downhills. A low center of gravity, sharp steering, and even weight balance give it a natural inclination to glide to the bottom of hills with minimal worry and input from its pilot.”
“It’s not what we’d characterize as a one-trick pony, however. Oversized Columbus Spirit chainstays and our house-made hooded dropouts deliver urgency under uphill accelerations while the Rotor 46-30t spider setup paired with a SRAM Force AXS 10-33t cassette gave gears for any circumstance. The half weight-conscious and half everyday-driver custom build kept the bike light without veering into the weird, while still complementing the decidedly one-off aesthetic of the paint design.”
If you want to own your very own Scarab bike, they are currently running a contest that will give one lucky winner a free custom frameset. It includes a frame, fork, headset, seat clamp, and axles – built to the winner’s measurements – and painted with any current Scarab paint scheme.
