By S. Jones Images: Callum Philpott
Few brands manage to combine the key elements to make the perfect bike. Whether it’s the component parts, the fine lines that enhance and embellish a chassis with good suspension integrity or simply the chemistry of angles; these are the basics that lead us to bond with a bike, a brand. Image and attitude might be the others.
Chemical is a new UK brand based in Derbyshire founded by Dan Lewis, a man with strong background in design and marketing. It’s interesting – and a little less delicate than with some one-man companies – to discuss Chemical with Dan, as he initiated the brand as he tells us “quite similarly to how I would have tackled it had someone come to me with a design brief.” He’s precious about it but not obsessed, eager to improve rather than quick to argue that what he has done is faultless. You don’t have to walk on tip toe through a conversation about this bike.
But then he’s got so many things right about Chemical, about this, the Adrenal 160mm. In fact I was convinced I’d been caught napping and that I’d missed a brand. Chemical have got everything in place it seems, it’s certainly not a company that have made a load of noise and had nothing ready to sell. With a range of colours and sizes at a good price they are offering a well presented bike. But does it deliver?
