Marc’s FiftyOne Assassin OG series USPS

This week’s Bike of the Week is a limited-edition FiftyOne Assassin with a retro paintjob that recalls an unforgettable era in Tour de France history. And it’s certain to get people talking…

Marc is a Signature Cycles client who loves cycling; he is also a solid golfer and uses the bike to balance his performance on the green. But here we’re talking about red, white and blue. A fan of pro cycling as well as an accomplished rider himself, he has great memories of the early 2000s when the American US Postal Service team was crushing all comers at the Tour de France.

When Marc got notice that FiftyOne was going to release an Assassin gravel model with this limited-edition team-replica paint scheme, he reached out to get his hands on one of them with the speed of Lance Armstrong going up Alpe d’Huez.

The Irish-based manufacturer, founded by former pro cyclist Aidan Duff who was racing himself during this time, wanted to celebrate the decadent decade of the nineties and pay a unique tribute to the bikes, brands and colours of the era that shaped cycling into the sport we know and love today.

The USPS paint job is part of the FiftyOne OG limited edition series. Each OG model is meticulously painted at FiftyOne’s atelier nestled in the heart of Dublin, and anyone who purchases one of the 25 available will have the chance to choose their own number from one to 25, which will be painted onto the frame (subject to availability). This presents not just a chance to own a high-performing gravel bike from FiftyOne but also a piece of race history designed to evoke – or perhaps provoke – the heady days of the Armstrong era

The name Assassin is itself taken from Tour de France legend, when in 1910 the eventual winner, Octave Lapize, is reputed to have screamed at the organizers from the top of the Tourmalet: “Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!”

The Assassin model is a fantastic carbon gravel bike that’s been used by Signature’s own Abraham at the Unbound 200 and the Rift in Iceland. The frame is more than capable of racing at the highest level and also provides a very comfortable ride for long endurance events. As FiftyOne says, despite the menacing name this is a progressive gravel bike with a massive breadth of capability and compatibility whether you want to race, explore, tour or shred. It’s perfect for Marc, who has great access to the gravel roads in Bedford NY, roads that we all enjoy heading to in order to experience proper gravel. These roads can feature a beautiful champagne gravel surface but they also feature singletrack rocky sections. The Assassin can take care of all of that without blinking an eye.

We built it for Marc with SRAM’s flagship gravel-specific group, RED XPLR, with the Zipp XPLR cockpit for continuity – and period-correct white bar tape of course.

We are very happy that Marc has acquired this unique bike and we look forward to the flashbacks it’s going to give us every time he comes by for maintenance.