Ascari's King Blue Is for Classic Bike Lovers: Boasts Handset Rubies for "Exotic" Charisma

Folks, the moment my eyes beheld their first ever Ascari bicycle, my brain threw me back to a time when cycling was about style, function, and status. Don't get me wrong, a modern bike can still be all those things, but they just don't build them like they used to; style is no longer on the agenda.

Well, ever since 2011, style seems to be back on the friggin menu! I mean, just look at the King Blue, really look at it, and once you do, leave your comments as to how you feel about this luscious two-wheeler. As for the things you can't see, that's what the next three to five minutes are all about.

To give you an idea of what we're looking at, we need to consider the sort of minds and hands running the show, Ascari Bicycles. This cycle designer and manufacturer began when Helio Ascari and his wife, Maria Thereza, decided to craft handmade bikes with techniques that have been used and "proven" for ages. The result is machines constructed from materials like steel and Chromoly with touches of copper and brass, all of it crafted from scratch with sweat, smashed fingertips, swear words, and a whole lot of love for the timeless two-wheeler.

Honestly, only a group of people with an insane love for bicycles could put together an example quite like the King Blue. Here too, Ascari goes to town with steel, shaping the frame tubes and tuning the bike's geometry to riding roads, maybe a smooth dirt road at best. While you may be tempted to show this bike off to your MTB friends, it has no business leaving the city landscape. Heck, at $10,000 (€10,300 at current exchange rates) a pop, starting, the only time you should be riding your Blue is on Sundays and special occasions.

In my opinion, the bike gets its name from that blue frame color coat and the fact that you should feel or look like royalty riding it. Maybe it's marketed to kings; who knows. Considering one finishing touch on this bike is a pair of handset rubies on the brake levers, the latter sounds like a valid assumption.

To balance that shade of dark blue, Ascari then calls upon the attractiveness of "exotic" woods and leather to yield a bike that won't just be fun to ride but invites you to stare at it while drinking your espresso and eating a blueberry muffin, or whatever it is you treat yourself to. A few final cherries on this cake include those brass fenders, a kickstand, a handlebar-mounted water bottle cage, and a cargo rack on the rear, suitable for matching cargo bags. Speaking of matching, this bike has another name, too, the Ralph Lauren Edition, and was even on display in one of their stores. More details include those toe clips and straps and an air pump built by Ascari themselves.

Now, this bike is the kind you can just sit back and let burn a hole into your visual cortex. It doesn't bother the eyes, has more classic looks and feels than some actually classic machines, and above all, you can own one. Time to start exploring more of what Ascari can achieve: coming right up.