Two Birds - One Torch.

For the full back story on Curtis Inglis, get it from the horses mouth.

Curtis has built under the RetroTec marque since 1993.  To put that year in perspective, Miguel Indurain won his third Tour De France and Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to it's third consecutive NBA championship, the first 'three-peat' in Basketball history.

One builder - two brands.  What's the difference?  RetroTec has all the 'retro' cruiser visual appeal of the 50s era with all the 'tec' you'd want from a modern race or trail bike.

Inglis Cycles offers the same with build engineering and quality with STRAIGHT tubes.  

Lucky for you, both can be found at the one place on the internet.

Here's a shot of the maker of the machine. 

Edmonton. 

I walked in off the street as a complete stranger to Red Bike.  The workshop is generally the place to ask for information and all I wanted was a simple trail map and where I could hire a bike.  The older, wiser and more bearded mechanic made a quick call to a buddy at another shop, and passed me the phone.  Bike sorted!   We got chatting and he said if I could ride at 2pm tomorrow he'd show me the trails.  It's one thing to have a trail map, but having a guide is pure gold on foreign soil and I jumped at the chance.

Next day on the way to picking up the hire bike I got a text saying I could loan the other mechanics Devinci Django.   Things were getting sweeter!  I walked over to Red Bike, met with Derrick,  put on the pedals and within the first minute was blown away by the quality of actual mountain bike trails cut into the banks of the Edmonton ravine and river banks.  Given I had no plans to even through a leg over in the spiritual home of 'The Greatest' I was thrilled to get this chance to ride.  

Given Derrick was a father of three young humans, I knew riding during the day is a massive luxury so was just grateful to have the chance to ride with a local who could definitely pedal a bike in anger.

Then I got this text.

A slight tweak of the saddle height and this RetroTec (barring the backwards brake set up). was nearly identical to my own.  

Don't let the curved tubes fool you, the geometry is designed a fast XC ride which was perfect for the trails in Edmonton.  A Short travel fork was more than enough and if Derrick had his time over again he'd probably look at a frame suited to plus tires and thru-axle but many standards have changed in the 7 years since the bike was made.

Derrick also opted for the RetroTec fabricated and painted stem to cap off the custom build.

After years of only seeing RetreTec's on the interwebs, it was great to see and RIDE one in the wild.  

Gotta have a Plan B!  Looks even better on this rig.

Thanks again to Derrick at REDBIKE for making Edmonton one of the highlights of our Canadian adventure.