Rob Britton’s Factor Ostro Gravel

One of the enemies of the front derailleur is mud. Another is innovations like the Classified hubs. As an old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So are classified hubs a friend of mud?

Photo by Logan Jones-Wilkins

With the Classified hub, the tidiness of Britton's drivetrain jumps out. Just one big 50t ring, and one classic looking Shimano road cassette

Rob Britton, a former Tour of California stage winner, took his Classified hub to Unbound and put that to the test. Britton has been riding the internal shifting Classified hub for the past two off-road seasons and Unbound was no exception. With a 50 tooth chainring up front, two teeth more than the 48 tooth rings most SRAM and Shimano riders were riding,  Britton was hoping to have a straighter chain-line and lose the front derailleur which can cause a number of mishaps in Unbound.

Photo by Logan Jones-Wilkins

The paint scheme on Britton's Factor Ostro was, if I say so myself, was quite nice

Outside of the Classified hub, Britton was riding a Factor Ostro Gravel frame. Among the pros, the Ostro has become a popular choice, with Adam Roberge, Dylan Johnson, Jan Bakelandts and Team Amani choosing the aero-optimised frame for their gravel exploits.

Notoriously, Unbound 2023 was not a question of aerodynamics and the Factor frame, while not being the worst, was also not ideal for mud clearance. Nevertheless, besides frame tire clearance, the question of making it through the mud is a one with many variables and classified solves one of those: the fear of a broken front derailleur.

While Britton was trailing through the mud after a couple of stops to shed mud and create clearance, he was able to use his depth of fitness and experience in gravel racing, bike packing and World Tour level racing to come across the line in 16th.

Photo by Logan Jones-Wilkins

Britton's front end was lead with a 40cm Black Inc. one piece cockpit and hoods that have a slight tilt inwards. That is paired with Schwalbe G-One RS 40mm tires

Aesthetically, Britton’s bike is one of the top of the lot. From the simplicity of a smaller cassette and one big chain ring, the Black inc. one piece handlebars on the front, and the Canadian theme paint scheme glossed onto the aggressive geometry of the Ostro, the bike leaps out amongst the crowd of hundreds of bikes in the Unbound expo. Another neat touch is the saddle, a sleek low profile piece of tech designed by Reform Saddle out of British Columbia.

Bike Specification