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Check out Bradley Wiggins’ Factor Ostro Butterfly Bike from Vires Velo

Artist Karl Kopinski has created something special to mark the 10th anniversary of Wiggo’s Tour de France and Olympic time trial wins

Wow! We show you a lot of cool-looking finishes in the road.cc Bike at Bedtime slot but this Factor Ostro that Vires Velo has put together for Bradley Wiggins… well, it's an absolute peach. 

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 10.jpeg

2012 was a hell of a year for Bradley Wiggins. He won the Paris-Nice, Tour de Romandie, Critérium du Dauphiné, and the Olympic time trial. Oh, and he became the first Briton ever to win the Tour de France. He was unstoppable that year.

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 27.jpeg

To mark the 10th anniversary, Wiggo commissioned Vires Velo to build him a special bike and this is the result.

At the heart of things is a Factor Ostro VAM. When we reviewed this bike, our man Liam Cahill said it was “addictively fast with brilliant handling at speed; one of the best race bikes out there.”

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 12.jpeg

Fast, light, pretty comfortable, the Ostro VAM really doesn’t have a weakness. However, it’s just the start of this project. 

> Check out our review of the Factor Ostro VAM frameset here

“Wiggins had a clear idea of what he wanted the bike to represent and we turned to Karl Kopinski to help bring the vision to life,” says Vires Velo.

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 15.jpeg

Nottingham-based Kopinski is a cycling fan who has worked with Vires Velo, Factor and Wiggins on various projects in the past.

2022 Karl Kopinski pic Gareth Winter - 1.jpeg

Pic ⓒ Gareth Winter

“Once the frameset had been given a pearl-white base coat, it was sent to Kopinski’s studio for him to work his magic,” says Vires Velo.

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 20.jpeg

“After completing watercolour sketches of the concept for the butterflies and getting the nod, Kopinski turned his hand to the frame. He used liquid acrylic paints to achieve a watercolour effect and allow for the colours to run into each other, giving the butterflies energy and a sense of movement.”

Kopinski hand-drew 33 butterflies on the frame and fork, one for each of the days that Wiggins led the races mentioned above in 2012.

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 14.jpeg

Then there’s one gold butterfly on the integrated handlebar/stem to represent Wiggins’ Olympic gold in the individual time trial. You remember him sitting on the throne in front of Hampton Court Palace, right?

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 23.jpeg

Vires Velo says that the painting took weeks to complete. Looking at the detail, we can certainly believe it. Once finished, a protective coating was applied in the paint shop before the bike was built up at Vires Velo’s Norfolk HQ.

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 9.jpeg

Black Inc’s FIVE spoke wheels were specially requested by Wiggins for the build and we fitted them with white tyres to match the bike,” says Vires Velo.

They’re Schwalbe Pro One x Spartacus tyres released earlier this year. 

> Check out Schwalbe’s Pro One x Spartacus white tyres

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 13.jpeg

“It was fortunate that CeramicSpeed launched a Gold OSPW (Oversized Pulley Wheel System) earlier this year which made for a fitting upgrade on the drivetrain,” says Vires Velo. 

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 6.jpeg

The bike is fitted with a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 12-speed groupset with 175mm cranks.

> Read our Shimano Dura-Ace R9200 groupset review 

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 18.jpeg

The saddle is a white Fizik Arione R3 and the handlebar tape matches. 

2022 Factor Ostro Vires Velo Karl Kopinski Bradley Wiggins  - 7.jpeg

This isn’t the first butterfly bike that we’ve covered on road.cc. Back in the early days of the site, we featured the famous Damien Hirst-designed Trek Madone ridden by Lance Armstrong during the 2009 Tour de France. It was eventually auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York for half a million dollars.

> Lance Armstrong auction: Damien Hirst 'Butterfly Bike' goes for $500,000

2022 Bradley Wiggins pic Gareth Winter - 1.jpeg

Pic ⓒ Gareth Winter

The overall result of the Vires Velo bike is spectacular although, with all that white, we hope that Wiggins doesn't mind putting a shift in with the cleaning products.

viresvelo.com

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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15 comments

Avatar
steaders1 | 1 year ago
0 likes

Road.cc you need to correct the typo in the headline and change the e for a u

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mdavidford replied to steaders1 | 1 year ago
0 likes

I know he was born in Belgium, but his name's not spelled Bradluy.

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tigersnapper replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

That's Brum not Belgium.

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mdavidford replied to tigersnapper | 1 year ago
0 likes

Fair enough - if it was Belgian it would probably be Braadluy.

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Rendel Harris replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

mdavidford wrote:

Fair enough - if it was Belgian it would probably be Braadluy.

Not sure what it would be in Flemish but probably similar to the Dutch, where it would be something like Bredeweide (broad meadow, which is the etymology of the name Bradley).

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steaders1 replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

change the e for a u making chuck not check!

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RobD | 1 year ago
2 likes

I'm usually a believer in if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all, but ouch, thaty's a bit painful to look at. The clash between the yellow of the butterflies and the gold decals is really unattractive, The wheels and tyres just look awkward and a bit silly, and as much as I usually really like a colour matched stem, with the white tape and the effect of the yellow and gold making the frame seem off white it doesn't work for me.

Fair enough on Wiggins though if he's happy with it, I hope he's got some suitable matching kit.

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Dogless | 1 year ago
3 likes

I wasn't expecting much from a bike designed by Wiggins but this has exceeded all my expectations in how tasteless a bike can be. Absolutely gopping.

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Secret_squirrel replied to Dogless | 1 year ago
2 likes

Jebus.  Looks like a wannabe hipster fixie.  Is Wiggins sporting a waxed moustache these days, or still in Hillbilly beard mode?  Why didnt he go the whole hog and have 1 5 spoke and 1 wire spoke wheel?

I have an unreasonble perfectly reasonable hatred of all low spoke count "mag style" wheels unless on a BMX.  They all look pants.

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steaders1 | 1 year ago
1 like

Good bike but with naff wheels and a horrible looking paint job. What were they thinkng?

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Welsh boy | 1 year ago
0 likes

Oh dear, money doesn't buy taste does it. 

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Global Nomad replied to Welsh boy | 1 year ago
0 likes

not having money doesn't buy it either......

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Kapelmuur replied to Global Nomad | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yes, how does a bankrupt pay for a  custom made bike?

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mdavidford replied to Kapelmuur | 1 year ago
0 likes

Kapelmuur wrote:

Yes, how does a bankrupt pay for a custom made bike?

In PR value.

Technically, though, i'm not sure he has been bankrupt, has he? I thought proceedings against him were dismissed? He later had companies wound up, but that doesn't make him bankrupt.

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Rendel Harris replied to mdavidford | 1 year ago
0 likes

Yes, he cut a last-minute deal with HMRC and the petition was dismissed by agreement.

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