Bike Check: James’s Finnbar Trout Rumble Fish
This is it! We’re at the end of March, and this is the final bike check from Bespoked Dresden 2025. If you think I might have gone slightly overboard with the number of bikes I decided to feature, especially considering the lighting conditions were, at least for me, more than challenging, then yes, you’d be right. There was just so much I wanted to photograph and share.
But curiously enough, there was only one track bike in my selection.
A lonely statement of simplicity in a sea of equally beautiful yet complex, gravel and road bikes, all of them interesting, of course, but still... We love track bikes! And I wanted to see more of them!
So today, let me show you my favorite track bike of the show, a truly superb and elegantly crafted machine by James from Finnbar Trout.
If you’ve ever seen the 80s film Rumble Fish, you’ll quickly understand the theme of this build. Something rough yet elegant, tailored as a winter bike that doubles as a hybrid for fixed-gear training or single-speed cyclocross. And as you can see, with the desire for proper tire clearance, James came up with this mesmerizing biplane fork, an absolute treat to look at.
The bars stay perfectly on theme with this pair of 480mm hybrid bars from Beast Components, manufactured right here in Dresden.
Stopping power is handled by a simple cantilever brake from Paul Components, clamping down on an Astral rim laced to a Mack Superlight hub, and wrapped in 38mm Barlow Pass tires from Rene Herse.
It’s also impossible to ignore the incredible paintwork on this frameset: a subtle bone base, deep candy Bordeaux, and delicate gold leaf lettering.
Detailed Parts List
Frameset Finnbar Trout Rumble Fish
Chainring and Cog 40T Garbaruk aero chainring, 19T Cog
Crank
Cyber Cranks
Seatpost and Saddle
Tune, Prologo dimension saddle
Stem and Handlebar
PAUL stem, Beast hybrid bars
Wheels Astral rims laced to Mack Superlight hubs
Tires Rene Herse 38mm Barlow Pass
Built with a mix of slightly tapered Columbus Spirit and Life, this bike was, for me, the perfect combination of tradition and modern touches. For example, these Cyber Cycles square-taper cranks were prototypes, so James decided to color-match them to the frame. And paired with a Garbaruk aero chainring, this combo pushes the training-bike vibe to the extreme, as it’s actually an eleven-speed chain, because if you’re really training… You might as well do it with some extra bing!
Tiny gear ratio! Spin to win!
🎞: Kodak Color Plus 200
📷: Leica M6
📍: Dresden
