Donhou Top 10 // No.7 - Kibosh Racing DSS4 (2017)

Donhou Kibosh DSS4

It was a funny position to be in because it was the year before discs on road bikes became big time, there was a big “will they, won’t they?” allow discs in road racing. Are they too dangerous, will they cause injury, or even cause accidents? and all this was getting thrashed out in a typically hearsay fashion in the media. This was going to be our next model, discs were our thing and if we could have a steel disc road bike out on the race course before the flood, that would have been a score (plus it would have been a very @kiboshracing middle finger too!). But its for an amateur race team, they were still paying a reasonable % for these and none of us could afford to build a bike that perhaps this or next season could become illegal. I have to admit personally it felt like I’d buckled a bit and as discs became mainstream I had a new doubt, I was thinking, are we going to have to start offering rim brakes to become a new niche?? Isn’t that a step back??

The DSS4 is an incredible bike, the guys love how confidently it handles, it carries its speed so well and encourages faster cornering speeds, something which the Kibosh guys like to be known for. We got to build a couple more once discs had the green light and this time round they had discs, so everything was back in balance. 


The reason this bike makes it into the top 10 is that it was just great to be involved with @_neil_phillips_ and the Kibosh guys and develop this bike together. The Kibosh ethos resonated with Donhou, hell, James Hunt is Kibosh’s greatest inspiration and theres been a photo of Hunt on the Donhou workshop wall since the beginning. When racing was about guts, not incremental gains, post (and pre race) beers and letting it all hang out. It was a great experience, the guys came down and helped build their own frames and it was really special to be able to have guys you believed in go out and get race wins and podiums on bikes you’d made.

Donhou Kibosh DSS4 headtubeDonhou Kibosh Columbus badgeDonhou Kibosh You aint pro broDonhou DSS4 seat clusterDonhou Kibosh DSS4 chain stay