Andrew is a seasoned crit racer, and not just that. He’s also an incredible coach, one of my best friends, and the bike fitter here at Stoker’s Studio. This year, he joined the Clif Family Crit Team and was supplied with this stealthy Enve Melee to take on his race calendar.

Fittingly, this was the very first bike ever built at Stoker’s Studio. Andrew dropped it off the same day a mountain of tools arrived, and it was great to take a break from setting up the shop to actually work on a bike.

The team build kit features 12-speed Dura-Ace and a set of world-champ striped Enve 6.7s. I’ve been seriously impressed with Enve’s new Innerdrive hub system, which uses a ratchet-ring mechanism paired with a clever bearing layout for low drag and high durability. And loud. Paired with the 67mm deep rear rim, these hubs scream. The bears on Town Mountain will hear Andrew coming long before they see him.

A few notes from the workbench: Melees had some early issues with seatpost slippage, but their new textured “grippy” seatposts appear to solve that. During assembly, I also noticed an extra dust seal on the upper headset bearing, something small, but important on bikes with fully internal routing. That kind of detail means your headset bearings stay cleaner, longer.

Andrew’s cockpit is built for speed: a 130mm stem and Enve aero bars measuring just 35cm at the hoods. One thing that really sets his bike apart as a race machine is the use of sprint shifters, perfect for those teeth-gritted, elbow-out final efforts in the drops. He’s grown so used to them, every drop-bar bike he owns has a set—including his new Enve MOG.

Getting to build bikes for your friends is always special, and I can’t think of a better first build to go into the workstand at Stoker’s Studio. Best of luck to Andrew in this year’s races!