To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Rapha Cycling Club, Rapha and Factor have teamed up with legendary graphic designer David Carson to create one of the most distinctive capsule collections cycling has seen. For our customers who appreciate performance, culture, and design in equal measure, this limited RCC collection is something truly special.
The anniversary capsule goes far beyond traditional cycling kit. Alongside Rapha apparel, the collection includes hoodies, musettes, caps, socks, and the centerpiece: a strikingly designed Factor MONZA finished in David Carson’s unmistakable visual language. Rapha has a long history of collaborating with leaders in art and culture over its 20-year journey, but this partnership stands out for its creative ambition and cultural weight.
David Carson’s influence on graphic design is difficult to overstate. Best known for his groundbreaking work on Raygun magazine and his book The End of Print, Carson helped redefine visual communication in music, skate, surf, and youth culture. Bringing that bold, experimental style into the traditionally conservative world of road cycling gives this RCC collection its edge.
Applying Carson’s design to the Factor MONZA completes the story. The bike becomes not just a performance machine, but a rolling canvas, uniting art, racing heritage, and modern cycling culture in a single build.
Factor’s creative director Jay Gundzik described the collaboration as deeply personal. Carson’s work was a major influence on him as a young designer, and the opportunity to translate that vision onto a bike frame was a rare career moment. From the outset, Carson was given full creative freedom. Rapha provided brand elements such as photography, typography, symbols, and colors, and Carson deconstructed and reimagined them using his signature collage driven approach.
Rather than working in a traditional top-down process, the collaboration unfolded in parallel. Carson established the overarching creative direction, while Rapha’s and Factor’s in house design teams interpreted and expanded on that vision across apparel and hardware. Despite teams being spread across multiple continents, the result feels cohesive, intentional, and alive.
Bringing a 2D graphic concept onto a 3D carbon frame presented its own challenges. Gundzik led the effort to ensure the MONZA frame felt like a natural extension of the kit while still standing on its own. Color matching between fabric and carbon fiber required painstaking refinement, and every graphic element had to be precisely mapped around complex tube shapes. Doing that consistently at production scale is no small feat.
This is where Factor’s paint and production expertise shines. Their team, led by production artist Jay Liao, developed a detailed decal and paint process to ensure each MONZA meets the same exacting standards. The result is a frame that delivers visual impact without compromising the craftsmanship Factor is known for.
The RCC x David Carson x Factor MONZA is more than a limited-edition bike. It represents what happens when cycling performance, cultural history, and fearless design come together. For riders who want something that stands apart both on the road and off it, this anniversary collection captures that spirit perfectly.
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