His carbon Santa Cruz Hightower frame is rusty — by design

Like most kids, I had a bad habit of leaving my bike outside in the rain. “I’ll put my bike in the garage later,” I told myself. Inevitably, it would sit for days, and then I’d wonder why my drivetrain and pedals were covered in rust. Jan Sazavsky doesn’t wonder why his bike is rusty — in fact, he worked hard to make it that way.

I spotted Sazavsky’s patina’d Santa Cruz Tallboy on Instagram a year ago and recently connected with him over email to learn about the project.

“I needed a longer travel, more solid bike for local trails and bike parks as my skills got a little better recently,” he said. “I didn´t want to spend too much, so I checked local used bike servers and this lime green Santa Hightower LT 2019 came out.”

An example of Sazavsky’s auto and bike designs.

That’s right — this carbon-fiber Hightower frame used to be lime green. Sazavsky is into automotive styling and tuning, and he’s fond of the ratrod/patina style for its look and feel. For the Hightower bike, which he dubbed Satan Rust, he removed the frame protection and decals, applied degreaser, and sanded down the parts and frame with 400-grit sandpaper before applying a special type of paint.

“This was the first time I used paint that works based on genuine rust / oxidation process,” he said. “I actually intentionally wanted it to look neglected and the patina to be continuous, so I didn´t even separate the frame and the fork, nor the seatpost or handlebars. I just removed wheels, cranks and the rear triangle since I wanted to check the linkage bearings.”

Close-up of a rusty bicycle part, showcasing the corroded metal and intricate details of the spokes and brake rotor in the background.

Looking at the photos, it’s clear that Sazavsky didn’t miss a single detail. You can see cracks around the cable ports beside the headtube, which itself sports a scuffed-up Santa Cruz headbadge. The fork lowers, and even the brake calipers and crankset get the full rust treatment. The chain is one of the only parts of the bike that’s rust-free, which is ironic because it’s usually the first thing to rust on a bike left in the rain.

I was surprised how quickly Sazavsky was able to complete the bike. “It didn´t take more than two working days maybe,” he said. “The energy spent was low and the fun-to-effort ratio was very high.”

A Cannondale Ratrod

Sazavsky is a designer living in Prague, Czechia, where he rides both mountain and gravel bikes regularly. “I was always into bikes since I was a kid, and perhaps more into working on and tuning them than actually riding them,” he said.

In addition to the Satan Rust, Sazavsky designed a Cannondale Ratrod for his wife. He tells me he’s particularly fond of the brand.

“I still think they were one of the most innovative companies in the bicycle industry, and even if their solutions were not always reliable, the ideas were brilliant,” he said. “Those ’90s aluminium frames handmade in USA, Hollogram cranks, the Lefty and Headshok, damn.”

A top-down view of a bicycle handlebar with a dark metal frame, positioned above a railway track with scattered rocks and wooden planks in the background. The handlebar features a small red adjustment knob and a gear shifter on the right side.

Close-up view of a bicycle's rear wheel cassette, derailleur, and chain, with leaves and gravel in the background. The focus is on the intricate mechanical components, highlighting the gears and chain arrangement.

It’s clear that Sazavsky enjoys what he does, and he’s damn good at it. So I assumed others would be banging down his door, asking him to rustify and ratify their bikes too.

“Has anyone asked you to do a custom bike finish for them?” I asked.

“Not yet :),” he replied.

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