Tech writer Hannah Bussey's Kuota Kebel

Hannah's former team bike's been put out to pasture and is now a cherished mile-muncher

CABLE SYSTEM Back in the day I would have gone to great lengths to source the Gore Ride-on cable system for my brakes - once they were discontinued in 2012, they became like gold dust

TUBING PROFILE If it wasn't for the overzealous Kuota decals on every spare inch of frame, the raw carbon finish and tubing profiles wouldn't look out of place on a frameset today

BB THREADS The threads for installing the bottom bracket are to this day probably the smoothest I've ever come across, seamlessly smooth, and never with any cross-threading concerns

TELL-TALE SIGNS Seeing all the cables at the front end does give the bike's age away, with no hydraulic hosing, and analogue over digital gear shifting

When the Kuota Kebel W a was issued to me circa 2007, it wasn't met with the excitement that you might expect. I had made it as a pro-am rider and this was a free team bike-it should have been happy days, right?

I was apprehensive to enter into another relationship when I had just started going steady with another bike brand, having recently experienced the heartbreak of having my previous race bike driven into a low barrier while on the top of a car.

I remember asking a friend, at that time a professional cyclist in Belgium: “What if I don't like the bike?" His response made reference to "opportunity and being grateful” albeit wrapped in slightly more colourful language.

My concerns proved completely unfounded. The Kuota Kebel is still one of the best I have ever ridden.

At the time, amidst the ubiquitous heavy lacquered block colours (mostly red), the raw 12k carbon-weave finish was a pretty futuristic look.