Pashley has untangled the bunting from its spokes, chucked away the cucumber sandwiches and has burst into the 2020s with a thoroughly modern new bike. Billed as being capable on road, off-road and any combination in between, the Pashley Roadfinder uses 3D-printed and laser-cut elements but, crucially, it’s made in the brand’s factory at Stratford-upon-Avon from Reynolds 853 tubes and is packed full of little nods to a 99-year heritage.
It’s hard to think of a bike brand more quintessentially English. Founded in 1926, Pashley claims to be the longest-established British bicycle manufacturer still in existence. Its classic Guv’nor, a reworking of one of the brand’s earliest path racer designs from the 1930s, is the perfect fit for nostalgia fests like L’Eroica. In its commercial operations, Pashley was also the manufacturer of the red Royal Mail bikes for over 35 years and it made the London Santander hire bikes, the ‘Sadiq Cycle’ that replaced the original Boris Bike in 2017. But the new Roadfinder – a single frame ‘platform’ that comes in road and gravel-specific builds as well as an e-bike version with a Mahle X20 drive unit – is neither throwback nor utility bike. It brings Pashley fully up to speed with current riding styles and aesthetics as well as with industry trends. The Colnago Steelnovo recently received a hero's welcome for its "fusion of heritage and innovation", highlighting a comeback for sustainable, European-made metal bikes. and there's no reason why the reception of Pashley's new bike will be any less enthusiastic.
Pashley’s CEO, Andy Smallwood, who was managing director at Boardman and then CEO at Ribble for seven years before he joined Pashley in 2024, told Rouleur: “As soon as I walked into the factory, it was one of those goosebumps moments. You’ve got the smell of metal being machined, welding, and you realise this is all still happening here in the UK. Some of the guys have been brazing, handcrafting these bikes for 30 or 40 years. The type of products they were manufacturing were beautiful, but very much ‘heritage’. It got me thinking – there’s this magical thing that no one else is really doing here, it’s been going since 1926, but it’s been quite narrow in terms of its audience. There was a real opportunity to tell the story of what Pashley does in a product that’s more contemporary and aligned to current trends, that brings the Pashley quality to a much wider audience.”
Smallwood continues: “So we sat down and thought about what we wanted the range to be, how we could maximise the benefit of steel as a material, looking at more modern ways of manufacturing including 3D printing – bringing all that together to showcase not just what Pashley can do as a business but also for the future of the brand. Also to make what we want to ride. I have a commute to work that’s 16 miles each way, it can be off-road, it can be a bit of everything. I did it on a Pashley Guv’nor… and don’t get me wrong, it was an experience, but the Roadfinder is much more suitable. It can do fast commutes, gravel, group rides with mates. All on one bike. So that’s what we wanted for our first genuine foray into a drop-bar sort of product. Something that’s truly versatile, super high-quality but still accessible."
The Roadfinder frame is made with Reynolds 853 steel tubing but it's not simply TIG welded together. Pashley’s lead designer Jon Cumberpatch explained that he was looking for the tubes to flow into each other more elegantly, especially where the top tube, seatpost and seatstays meet – the focal point of a frame. The solution was a 3D-printed lug that’s invisibly welded to the top tube, ending with crisp spearpoints – reminiscent of traditional lugs – where the chainstays are silver soldered in. At the bottom of the chainstays are 3D-printed stainless-steel UDH dropouts – the standard being adopted by an increasing number of road and gravel bikes – adorned with a curly Pashley ‘P’.
Up front is a machined 44mm head tube with aluminium head badge holding a Columbus Futura Cross+ carbon fork with a flip chip dropout that adjusts trail for road to gravel/bigger tyres. There’s no integrated cockpit, with Cumberpatch saying he and his team decided it was “unnecessary for this sort of bike… not so easy to live with”. The cables are internally routed in the older sense via another exquisite detail: the braze-on into which the cables disappear is 3D printed and neatly silver soldered to the down tube.
The geometry, Cumberpatch describes as “comfortable: a 72° head angle, 73.5° seat tube and the top tube is slightly elongated versus traditional road so that you can run a slightly shorter stem. It gives you a longer wheelbase for stability and reduces toe overlap especially when you fit mudguards to a smaller size.” There’s clearance for 45mm tyres, even with a double chainset.
Custom geometry is also possible at a supplement of “around £500”, Smallwood says. “It’s not just a case of throwing it into a jig and cutting the tubes to different sizes and angles; we’ll do a full CAD process because the 3D-printed elements have to change as well since they’re specific to the size of a frame. If customers give us their bike fit measurements, we can meet with them to discuss their requirements, we would send them the proof of the CAD… we can paint it to their own colour as well, so there’s complete flexibility.”
For those looking at stock options, there will be three standard spec variations for each of the four models (Roadfinder, Roadfinder X, Roadfinder E and Roadfinder X E) and three standard colourways per model – Azure Blue, Rich Burgundy and Oak Green. All the frames start out by being e-coated inside and out for protection against corrosion, and then wet painted with stencilled and painted graphics (rather than decals).
In its road-focused spec, the Roadfinder is available with Shimano mechanical and Di2 groupset options, Parcours Alta carbon wheels and Zipp/Brooks finishing kit, with standard weights from 9.5kg and starting at £2,795 for the mechanical 105 build, topping out at £4,595 for the Ultegra Di2 build.
In the gravel spec, the Roadfinder X is available with Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo groupset options, Parcours Alta carbon wheels and Zipp/Brooks finishing kit. Standard-spec complete bike weights are from 9.8kg and prices start at £2,795 for the Shimano GRX 610 version going up to £4,595 for the Campagnolo Ekar build.
The electric versions – the Roadfinder E and the Roadfinder X E, both start at £3,995 and go up to £5,995, based on the same specs as above but with the Mahle X20 system.
We saw the bikes when Smallwood and Cumberpatch brought them to Rouleur HQ at Somerset House in Central London to be photographed – and the finish is exquisite. We hope to be reviewing one ASAP.
For more information and pricing, go to Pashley’s website.
