Building Katie Kookaburra's Next Winspace

Cycling advocate and YouTube sensation Katie Kookaburra has been a big fan of Winspace since she took delivery of her SLC2 in 2023, so when she reached out to us to build her next Winspace we were only too happy to help!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Katie, check out her hugely entertaining channel here and in this video she talks about how she got into cycling.

By 2023 Katie was looking for a bike that could support her growing cycling ambitions. She needed a high performance but good value bike and in particular a package that was lightweight and well suited to her love of climbing! She found the Winspace brand and the SLC2 and immediately fell in love with the way it rode.

Fast forward to 2025, and with even more cycling experience beneath her tyres, Katie was setting her sights on bigger adventures. As her ambitions grew, so too did her curiosity about disc brakes and electronic shifting.

Most bike shops only sell the off-the-peg bikes they receive part-built in boxes. Very few allow customers to swap components such as saddle or tyres for something they're more familiar with and fewer still offer truly bespoke builds. Here at Winspace UK, every bike is made to order from individual components and can be completely customised, so when Katie started to describe what she needed, it was music to our ears!

• Gearing suitable for road riding that gave her access to the 30/36 climbing gear she knows works for her (that's 30 front, 36t rear 😀)
• 165mm crank arms
• The ergonomics of Ultegra road shifters

To achieve this we sourced a mix of 4 different Shimano groupsets: Ultegra, GRX 600 and 800 series parts:

• GRX610 46/30, 165mm chainset
• GRX825 12sp di2 front and rear derailleurs
• 11-36t Shimano cassette
• Ultegra 8170 di2 shifters and brake calipers

As with all our builds, we tailored the fit to Katie by setting the bar height exactly where she needed it and trimming the steerer for no excess spacers above the integrated carbon bars.

This was Katie's first bike with electronic shifting, hydraulic brakes and 30mm tyres. She was a little nervous about it at first, especially as she was about to take the bike on a ride across Japan!

See Katie's epic ride across Japan along with her first impressions of the bike here.

See a short video of the build and first ride here.