Check out this custom Titici Relli – ready to tackle Badlands

Tonight's Bike at Bedtime is this sweet-looking gravel machine that belongs to Sam William Andrews, a gravel rider who has been quickly making himself a name in some prestigious gravel races across the UK and abroad. Now, the Briton has updated his weapon of a bike for the tail end of the season, which is to include the notoriously hard Badlands race in Spain. But before Badlands, let's have a closer look at the details of the bike, shall we? 

Let's start with the frame, which is a custom Titici Relli. Titici hails from Asola, Italy, and entered the bike markets with BMX and mountain bike frames in the 80s. It then moved on to building bikes around its "flexy" concept, which incorporates different vibration-absorbing tube shapes into the bike frames. 

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Sam's quite a tall guy, so his Relli frame is size XL. The first thing most folk notice about this Titici Relli - and other Titici bikes - is the very, very thin top tube. The plate-like shape is aero, but Titici also says it reduces vibration by up to 18 percent. The Plate Absorber Technology (PAT) allows the specially shaped horizontal tube that tapers off to become a single sheet of carbon and at its thinnest part, the tube is only 10mm tall. 

Moving down to the seat tube, we have the Arch Absorber Technology (AAT) system. This should, similarly to PAT, reduce vibration to the frame working as a shock absorber, strategically curbing shock impulses between the bottom bracket and the saddle nodes. 

With the distinct shapes of the frame covered, we can move on to the look of it. The paint job is not just any stock design. The hand-painted frame took six months to finish, and the beautiful purple with a silvery frosted effect is the work of Tony Spray, whose name can be found near the bottom bracket.

In terms of components, Sam has the bike rolling on the newly released Hunt 42 Limitless gravel wheels, wrapped in Goodyear Peak gravel tyres in 40mm width. 

The saddle is Prologo Scratch M5 and the rest of the finishing kit is all Deda, including the nice flat-top handlebar. 

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In terms of shifting, Sam is relying on a mullet setup, mixing up mountain bike rear end with road front. The oval 46T chainring is by Garba, attached to SRAM Force crankset. 

The rear mech is SRAM GX1, which has enough range for the 10-50T Eagle cassette.

Sam still has a few races before his season concludes at the UCI Gravel World Championships in October, and next on the list UCI Houffa Gravel Race in Belgium, followed by the Badlands in Spain and Kings Cup gravel champs in the UK. 

If you want to follow Sam's off-road racing, his Instagram can be found here. 

Remember to also check out our other bike at bedtime features - they're full of dreamy builds like this.