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!