Engineered Bikes!

My new project, Engineered Bikes, is go!  Follow the link to the new blog.

Something's stirring

It has been quite a long time coming, but I will imminently be launching my new project.

I'll be focusing on race bikes, the first product following my passion for cyclocross. 

Watch this space.

Calling it a day...

Any follower of this blog will know that a few months back we stumbled, lost momentum and, despite a few stutters, never quite got going again.

So sadly I must announce that the Such Bicycles venture will be abandoned. This does not mean the end of my foray into designing and building bicycles; just that the focus and flavour of what I intend to put together will change.

Further details will be posted here in due course. Thanks for your interest.

Edit:
Building bicycles again: http://engineeredbikes.blogspot.co.uk/

Flak Jacket for the Kula

The weekend in Afan was very very hard on the poor Kona. Apart from going through a complete set (front and rear) of new pads in a day, I'd also suffered from gear cables that stiffened on day one and all but jammed on the second day. So something had to be done. My plan was to try cleaning the cables out to see if that would help, and then, if that didn't work, splashing out on some Gore professional sealed cables.

So, while poking through my parts box (as you do) I remembered that I had some leftovers from some SRAM Flak Jacket cables. I'd used that kit for full cable runs so I had the sealed ferrules and sealing tube left over. The ferrules were a bit of a loose fit on the Kona OE cables, which may have been a route in for muck, but a but of tape suitably sealed those off.

The task of fitting was really easy, and in the process I manged to ease out the sharp bends from the cable routes to further help smooth cable operation. I'd never tried fitting the Flak Jacket before for a broken cable run - I must admit that I was quite impressed with how easy it was. And it all fits well, so I trust it will be able to keep out most of the trail muck while also providing some resistance to the inevitable attack with a pressure cleaner.


I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out - but I was also quite amazed with how much muck came out of the existing cable outers! The only bit that I wasn't happy with was the end of the rear derailleur cable - I'd already used the rubber boot to seal off the open end of the cable so that will be vulnerable to pulling in muck; Thankfully I had a nice Shimano boot for for the end of the front cable.

Afan Raid

My road racing friends Andrew and Stu invited me to join on a mountain biking weekend in the valley. I couldn't wait and was counting the days - but little did I know that it would so massively exceed my expectations.

Firstly off, I could not have asked for a better group of guys - and, apart from battling a little with names, I felt at home from the start. Then the trails, just totally sick. I don't know if I've ever used that term before but it just makes sense here.

Despite leaving Bath to glorious sunny skies, Saturday morning in South Wales was bleak; heavy showers threatening to make a misery of any riding. So we procrastinated. And it paid off - the rain abated and so at least we didn't get rained on. But the trail was extremely wet - brilliant conditions for me to become reacquainted with this whole mountain biking lark!

So we set off up White's Level, a great up and down course. The climb gains 525m through nice single track - a few little technical sections but mostly just straightforward, flowing trail with a few hairpins - the MTB feels like a tanker compared to the crosser! Then from the top the trail cascades back down the hill to the trail centre; the Energy section being particularly brilliant with the table tops and some rocky banked turns.

I need to grow bigger balls - I found it difficult to resist confidence braking into corners, only to realise I could have carried a load more speed! I'm sure it will come with time, but I still feel a little out of sorts come the descents.

So I wasn't too surprised when I managed to clip a rock the next morning and then put my wheel off the edge of the trail. I emerged bruised, still not entirely sure how I did that, but learning that perhaps over-thinking is my enemy. Later I got happier to just let it flow; not that I quite got the knack, but thanks Steve for constantly nagging me to leave the brakes!

Speaking of brakes - goodness - the Welsh mud is vicious! One set of pads (front and rear) after two circuits of White's on Saturday! Madness.

And apart from the crash (and the annoyingly stiffening knee that resulted), Sunday we hit W2 - a combination of White's and a trail ominously named The Wall. It was a good day on the bike, but hard. Not that I could complain: Simon, who had done zero exercise in the last 6 months, let alone having ever ridden an MTB, gamely took it on and finished it. The dude was simply mega.

So overall, a totally awesome weekend. What I've described of the riding is just the tip of the iceberg. More so, I've hardly talked about the group - suffice to say that they are just stellar bunch. I couldn't have asked for a better crew to ride & hang out with, talk bike-geek stuff, stretching techniques and ponder 21-year-olds.

Ace! Thanks guys!

The Hotel Gym

I hate gyms. Passionately.

Being outside and getting exercise is fun, liberating, exciting. Gyms are just boring. The only diversions are good looking women who tend to look back at you like a sad loser if you're caught appreciating.

So I don't usually do gyms, but my sub-standard performance in recent races, and stupid schedule have driven me to using the most dreaded of all gyms; the sad, deserted confines of the hotel gym.

But all in all it was actually quite a good experience. A good half hour each of running and cycling, looking at flashing lines on the screen, managed to feel particularly good today. I was training! A rare occurrence, I know.

So, hopefully I'll be able to keep up this good habit. Bring on the weekend!

The worst part of cyclocross

Mud. It gets everywhere.

Don't get me wrong. I love cross. It is the best from of cyclesport, ever. But it is hard on equipment. Sure, the Battersea proto is designed and specced to take this sort of abuse, but now living in a top floor apartment I do find bike cleaning a bit, er ... difficult.

So after the Purdown Race today, the bike was a mess. Faced with the problem of how the hell to clean the bike in my "Fight Club" apartment, I decided to head to the car wash. The dudes are the car wash were more than slightly perplexed that I wanted the bike cleaned and not the car - but when they saw the state of it, I think they got the idea.

And they jumped in will full enthusiasm, blasting every last bit of mud off the bike, pulling all the grass out of the cassette and the jockey wheels - they even shampooed it down!

Ok, I am well aware that high pressure cleaning is hardly the best way to take care of a bike, so the next step was getting the bike onto the workstand pronto to properly dry and re-lube it, but what a pleasure to have a clean bike - especially after getting it completely plastered.

Thank goodness for car washes.