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Above Category Cycling

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Above Category Cycling

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The world's finest custom bikes, handpicked products and cycling culture. Sausalito, California.

Above Category Cycling is the world's premier road cycling retailer. Exclusive US online retailer of Q36.5 and Pas Normal Studios cycling apparel.

10/01/2026

We test everything extensively before we put our name behind it. It’s better to find a product’s limits ourselves, at race pace, than discover them on a client’s bike.

That work now falls largely to Ted Schwartz, who joined us this year as Service Director after nine years at Métier in Seattle. He also races Cat 1, which he regards as the most exacting proving ground for how equipment behaves under sustained, consequential use. Most products our clients ride, Ted has already spent considerable time on himself.

Since early September, he’s been riding ENVE’s new SES 6.7 PRO, arriving today. Developed in the wake of the UCI’s new rim-depth limit, the 6.7 pairs a 59mm front with a 65mm rear at 1,495g, built in Ogden, Utah.

Ted’s provisional assessment: everything you want from an aero wheel, absent much of the usual compromise. There’s perceptibly more mass than the 4.5 PRO at lower speeds, but once the road flattens or rolls, they carry speed with remarkable facility.

His full review will follow. For now, our interview with Ted is in the Journal, and the SES 6.7 PRO is available to reserve through the link in bio.

09/20/2026

I can say with relative certainty that almost any shop would be thrilled simply to build a frame from Mr. Sachs. At the intersection of craft, standards, and style, Richard Sachs has built a marque so revered that commissioning one now feels almost apocryphal. Ask me how I know.

So when this opportunity appeared, we said yes with approximately the same restraint you’d expect from someone offered a cyclocross team sponsored by Design Within Reach and House Industries. Richard did that too, naturally, and left every ex-graffiti kid turned graphic designer with a proclivity for mid-century modern furniture kicking themselves for not being a better CX racer. I digress.

This frame began life as a Richard Sachs team cyclocross bike, raced by Sam O’Keefe and later owned by a former member of the AC team. When it arrived, the obvious move was to restore it as a cross bike.

Wonderfully problematic, its new owner doesn’t race cross. He doesn’t race at all.

So we didn’t restore it.

Rob English made the stem. VéloColour repainted the frame. The rest we’ll leave to the Journal.

One of the coolest builds we’ve done is at the link in bio.

09/19/2026

He came to us riding a hybrid with flat pedals and no particular opinions about what should replace it, which is rarer than you’d think and, as it turns out, my favourite way to start a custom bike.

What we landed on was a Mosaic GT-1 iAR with a full Super Record WRL 13 build, in a paint scheme he didn’t arrive with either. We worked that out together, and somewhere in the process I found myself sending Mark at Mosaic a photo of a bike I’ve admired since the late nineties.

The full story, the build sheet, and the paint are on the site. Link in bio.

Also, yeah, obvious track is obvious. But as lore goes, he literally wrote this song at this dock. So.

09/01/2026

Prova Mostro Gravel. Titanium fork, big wheels, fast tires, and great lines. The Mostro backs up its striking aesthetics with a ride feel to match.
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08/22/2026

My first mountain bike was a Schwinn Paramount, rigid, on 1.9” tires, at a moment when suspension was unobtainium reserved for the pros.

I was a roadie first. It took the Schwinn-Wheaties team and their multi-discipline riders like Tim Rutherford to get me onto dirt at all, and then Bellingham did the rest, because in Bellingham the trails didn’t seem to end. Then I moved to Marin, and Marin meant road for the better part of thirty years, until gravel arrived and gave me back a little of it. A little. Somewhere in there I did what road riders do to gravel bikes and drew an invisible line around where I believed one could go, based on the width of my tires.

Campagnolo World and Baum Cycles moved that line for me.

Super Record X is the gravel expression of Campagnolo’s Super Record 13 platform, wireless, thirteen speeds across a single chainring, a clutched rear derailleur with a higher-torque motor than its road sibling, and a chainline pushed out to 47.5mm for one reason only, which is to make room for a proper tire. This is the company that invented the quick release because Tullio’s fingers went numb on the Croce d’Aune in 1927, and I have spent most of my adult life unable to look at what they make without wanting it on a bike. They have not made that any easier.

Darren and I have been friends for fifteen years from opposite sides of the planet, most of it spent agreeing about Campagnolo, so the frame to wear the new groupset was never in question. The XTM is Baum’s titanium gravel bike for riders who want more than a road bike with clearance: butted 3/2.5 tubing, Baum’s own 6/4 titanium dropouts, a head angle relaxed for descending, and room for a 61mm tire. Mine is wearing 2.2s, a mere three-tenths of an inch wider than the Paramount’s.

It landed from Australia with just enough time to be built and sent straight to MADE in Portland, which means I haven’t ridden it yet. I’m 53, I’ve been looking at trail maps of places I stopped thinking about decades ago, and I’d like it back now, please.

08/21/2026

A special collaboration with Baum Cycles and Campagnolo, brought together at MADE Bike Show.

The stunning Orbis is on display in the Builder’s Lounge this weekend. Stop by and see this exceptional build in person.

08/04/2026

Now available at Above Category.

Explore the new Mosaic GT-1 i55 and start planning your custom build with us:

https://abovecategory.com/products/mosaic-gt-1

08/02/2026

Handcrafted by Prova Cycles and built at Above Category, this Speciale Integrale was designed for a rider seeking complete confidence on every climb, descent, and mile in between.

Completing a build around Prova’s exacting craftsmanship demands an equally considered supporting cast. With long-standing partners such as the highly regarded atelier Busyman, the result sets a formidable benchmark for both ride quality and aesthetic ex*****on.

Read more about the build in the AC Journal. Link in bio.
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07/22/2026

The Mosaic RT-1 iTR Artist Series. Our latest build that deserves a closer look. Link to the full specs in our bio.⁠
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07/09/2026

Italian craftsmanship, custom artistry, and race-ready performance come together in this week's featured build, the Sarto Raso Gravel. ⁠
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Address

42 & 1/2 Caledonia Street
Sausalito, CA
94965

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	11am - 6pm
Wednesday	11am - 6pm
Thursday	11am - 6pm
Friday	11am - 6pm

Telephone

+14153399250

Website

http://www.abovecategory.com/

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