REVO Bicycles & Espresso recently approached Real Life Brand Architecture to create clothing designs for their mountain and road-cycling teams.  It was a great assignment, since we’re avid cyclists ourselves.

Darrin Duhamil, owner of REVO, sees these “kits” – the jerseys and matching bib shorts – as a great opportunity to extend his brand.  After all, when team riders are climbing up Saddleback or spinning along Coast Highway, they’re often surrounded by REVO’s ideal audience – fellow cyclists.

Mike Heindel says the REVO team is very pleased with their new kits.

For starters, we worked to maintain a high level of consistency with the REVO brand look and feel.  So we prominently featured the capital R that acknowledges the iconic signage on the storefront, the inclusion of “espresso” along with “bicycles” that differentiates the shop, and a unique color palette that stands out in a sea of black, white and red schemes.

As we moved to include the required sponsor logos, however, we had to check ourselves and intentionally hold back from turning these kits into display advertising.

After all, while REVO certainly wants to spread its message, we owe it to the team riders as well to create a kit that they’d be proud to wear.

Nobody, including us, wants to be treated as a billboard.

By balancing the needs of the client with the tastes of the audience, we believe we’re able to promote the REVO brand in a genuine, non-pushy way that invites participation.

REVO Cycles' new jersey and bibs.

Yes, I went mountain biking again. But if you know me, this no surprise. This time however, when catching the train out of Victoria station, we stepped onto the wrong train. So unfortunately we ended up in some town South of London - where we realized that we’d have to catch a train back North to Clapham Junction and catch a train heading to Dorking. Our mistake put us about an hour behind schedule.

When I arrived in Dorking, I caught a black cab to Westcott - dropping me at Nirvana Cycles.

Jackie and Simon had set me up with a very nice Turner 5-spot.

Today I was riding with Chris Moore once again, and a friend of his Russ (also an architect). Today however, we were an hour behind so the pace would be a bit quicker in order to hit all the good trails.

Tucking in out of the rain...

It began to rain as we climbed our first hill, but the canopy of the trees kept us fairly dry. Within 30-minutes or so the rain had stopped and the balance of the day was perfect weather conditions.

Trail markers....well, maybe.

A nice little drop for Chris, followed by some airtime...

This was one of my favorite sections - as I'd only seen terrain like this in videos. Tight tree groupings. Winding, roller coaster single track + jumps that went between the trees. The end of this trail finishes off with a section of what we like to call "bike surfing" - controlled skidding...at it's best. Absolutely a blast!

My Turner 5-Spot - in Peaslake for a quick bite to eat.

Wending our way back to Westcott along some of the prettiest bit of track.

Our final decent into Westcott. if you look real close (left of photo) you can see that "single track" here means about 6" wide. Nice.

A shout out to my boys at Revo Cycle…you gotta get here.

Working out which train was mine from the plethora of trains coming in and out of Victoria station

Yesterday I had the opportunity to venture outside, and took a train to the small English village of Surrey Hills. I had pre-arranged a bike hire, and brought my shoes, helmet and various gear. The only hold up that I saw was finding my way around the trails. So, as serendipity would occur, there was another guy on the train platform, fully geared up for a big days ride.

We struck up a conversation about the local mountains and talked about the differences between the riding in California vs the UK - he, having been to Scotland, Wales and England. Chris Moore, ironically enough an architect, offered to bring me along with he and his mate who were bound to ride for the day.

After picking up my bike and gearing up we rode to the next village to pick up his mate, Chris #2, also an architect. The weather, although grey and drizzling, was perfect temperature for riding, and the thick cover of trees took care of keeping us fairly dry.

Chris taking in some fresh air

The trails were mostly single track - my favorite (as compared to some of the compulsory fire road we have back home). But the real difference of this experience was the amount of green throughout the ride. Winding little bits of single track meandered through thick forests of ferns - fern that were 4 to 5 high. Then the trail would open up to a glen of trees, where the bike path dodged in and out of the forest. Occasionally we would pass by an open field of golden grass - contrasting to the dark greens that we had been riding through.

THIS is what I mean by really green single track...

Taking a quick break after a climb - preparing for a good run thru the trees

As usual, the rides usually begin with the uphill climbs, followed my a myriad of downhill fun. This was no different - with the exception of the absolute beauty in which I was riding in.

This was a place we stopped for a cuppa tea - yeah, castle-like structure, on the top of a mountain, in the midst of...no where? They promised me that on a good weather day, the views were spectacular.

About 3/4 into our day, we pulled into the very little town of Peaslake. The picture below pretty much shows you what’s there; a bus shelter and a small market to pick up sandwiches - perfect for re-fueling.

The village of Peaslake

A favorite spot to grab a bite to eat

The boys...

We rode a bit more - a few more hill climbs, and a racey bit of single track that they referred to as Telegraph.  By now the drizzle was falling with more vigor, but our ride was nearly complete. We ended up at a small village pub; The Volunteer, and grabbed a pint before heading back to town. Of course, heading back to town meant one more opportunity to climb a small grade and race down some single track with stunning panoramic views.

The field to the right provided some great views

Like this...

We took our pints outside, as we were probably not the best guests to be hanging around inside the pub - particularly after a full days ride.

Our last bit of track as we head back to Dorking to return my bike. I only fell twice...banged up my knee a bit, and yeah, I'm going to blame it on the equipment. Regardless of riding that mid-level, ridged tail, riding with Chris and Chris through such great landscape outweighed all of that.

I grabbed as many photos as I could. This being a difficult task with most of us mountain bikers. If you’d stop every time you saw something inspiring, you might never get to put in the ride that you were looking for.

I hope you enjoy.

PS - if you’d like to get an idea of what we were riding, take a look at this YouTube video:click here