The "Hardship" of Testing

One "hardship" of developing a new bike is having to ride it, a lot. So this past weekend was largely spent in the saddle getting some quality miles in.

Saturday was spent out with Andy and Ryan in the Chilterns riding the lanes out to a lovely pub in Stoke Row for lunch. It was a great opportunity for the guys to get a feel for the proto, and for me to get a taste of the Alfine; the Alfine is a great piece of kit and I can't wait to get it onto the prototype. I also can't wait to get my hands on one of the new 11-speed versions later this year.

A good few laps of Richmond Park was the order for Sunday. I had intended to head out to Box Hill, but bad weather and house guests swayed me to stay closer to home. The proto makes a very relaxed road bike; I'm looking forward to taking it out for a tour - I think it is going shine at that.

For this coming weekend it will probably be much of the same, but there are still many more testing outings planned - from loaded touring to a little cross country riding. Tough life, hey? :-)

The Battersea prototype rolls

This has been one crazy weekend!

The build in earnest started on Friday afternoon, but working with relatively unfamiliar parts (discs brakes, Gore Ride On sealed cables, ...) I took my time to make sure I got it all right.

Ryan was over to make sure the graphics were applied to the frame just so, Bryan was on hand to lend enthusiasm and and extra hand whenever needed. Come about 1:30am, the bike was just about right. Come 3am I'd finally got myself into bed, but still hardly able to sleep with anticipation of riding it the next day.

A misunderstanding the night before had me taking my darling to breakfast at Bertie and the Boo coffee shop in Balham (highly recommended, but warning - the place can get chockers for all the prams and the like). At first I was terrified of leaving the bike locked up, but fortunately I was able to just about see it from where I was sitting.

Then home for a bit more fettling before Bryan and I headed out for a nice ride around town, mostly inbetween drinking coffee. Ok, I am the designer, so you'd expect me to say good things about the bike, but I must say it handles much better than I'd expected. Mostly I love the way it feels planted and reassuring without being stodgy. In fact, if anything it feels chuckable. Ride quality is always going to be good on 32mm tyres, but a good deal of that must also be down to the frame. I was aiming at every road imperfection; sure you feel the bumps - but they don't pummel you. This is a bike I can imagine riding all day quite happily; good thing, because I have a 6-day tour planned - for testing purposes, of course!

It was interesting watching people's reaction to the bike when it was parked up. I was very pleasantly surprised how many people would stop to look at it, pointing to various aspects of he design. It has certainly given me a lot more confidence in what we have here.

After getting it back, and realising that I'd set the Avid BB7 brakes a little tightly, I gave the bike a once over to get it prepped for the London Cyclo Cross Team Championships. I was picked to run in the A-team, and was really looking forward to it. My performance on the day was, unfortunately, disappointing as I was troubled by my chest maladies, but the bike performed faultlessly. It proved an absolute hoot to ride, I was just a bit disappointed that the course didn't include more technical sections that would provide greater challenge to the bike! That said, the long downhill with a gentle, muddy sweep at the bottom was an absolute hoot and the brakes were a boon into all the tight corners.

I still need to get many more miles in on the bike, but my impressions so far are positive, I think we have a winner here. A rack and guards will soon be fitted and the bike tested in both real world, and some less than real world conditions. Geometry will remain the same, I'll just be tweaking some of the tube sizes, and altering the rear dropouts slightly.

But all that aside, not much comes close to the feeling of rolling out on a bike that you've created yourself. Thinking of how, just a few months back, this concept was just an in-progress CAD drawing gives me such a rush. And this is just the beginning!

The proto has landed!

Yesterday I get a call from the mailroom, "We have a package for you, but it feels like it's empty"

Needless to say, I legged it down to the mail room at full race pace.

It took ages unwrap the frame, and even longer for it to sink in that Such Bikes is no longer just an idea, but has been translated into metal in my hands. Apart from very minor finishing issues that took me 20 mins at most to resolve, the frame looks great - very well finished. Certainly something I am proud to put my name to.

My friend Ryan, firmly part of what is Such, finished off the branding this afternoon - so at the moment the intention is to get it all together and then finish up the build later in the week, and then debut it on Sunday racing in the London League Cyclocross Team Champs.

I can't wait to feel how it rides; not just on the rough stuff, but also through the cut and thrust of the city with a backpack, chasing through the lanes and ambling fully loaded on an epic.

Why I hate integrated headsets

Today I stripped and cleaned my cross bike in preparation before the next race. The last event at Herne Hill was incredibly muddy and so the oily bits took a pounding.


The frame has the usual accumulation of water and muck, but pulling out the integrated headset confirmed why I despise the confounded things! The top cartridge bearing (left) was perfect - all contact surfaces still perfect thanks to a good smearing of waterproof grease on assembly. The bottom bearing was a mess. It was jammed in place by a horrible brown paste - a mixture of the fitting grease and the fine mud.

The bearings themselves, being reasonably good quality, were fine. The problem is the grease/mud grinding paste that had worked its way between the frame and the bearing. Chris King has a great explanation of exactly why these headsets are evil, but in short, this muck gets into the seat between the frame and the bearing. With use it will cause the bearing to slowly damage the bearing seat; depending how much the bike is ridden in this state, this might at best need the bearing seats to be recut - at worst it makes the frame a throwaway. Sure, keeping it clean helps, but who really wants to be stripping out the headset after every wet ride?

Perhaps traditional cups don't look as good (though I don't agree with that), but at least the worst a bearing failure can do is wreck an easily replaceable bearing cup. And this is why Such frames won't use integrated headsets. Ever.

Waiting waiting waiting!!!

All the parts for the prototype (bar the gear cables) have been procured and are littering our little flat. Everything is here apart from ... the frame!

It's killing me, and it is killing Andy. It's crazy. I cannot wait to see the frame. It was dispatched on Saturday, so it must be about a week away.

The suspense - it's murder.

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