Wednesday 18 November 2009

The 2010 Fleet

Its taken a few weeks but finally the 2 bikes i will be racing and riding in 2010 are coming together.

First is my much awaited Titanium singlespeed... to date there is only 2 of these frames in existence but with alot if interest they may see production.. build kit see's all PRO Components top end carbon toys.. the new forks are all carbon and weighing in at a svelte 600g!!!







This will be my main race bike.. it'll see alot of marathons and 12's .. hopefully the odd stage race too:)

Next bike is a bit more specialist... born out of a standard IO 2010 frame this is my 'Half Fat' bike built primarily for Arrowhead 135 in February and will then be my epic multi day bike..

On borrowed Snow cat rims.. thanks Shaggy... the bike runs matching wheels spaced at 135mm front and back, this is only made possible by the forks. Sandman in Italy supplied the fat forks which not only allow my 135mm spaced front wheel but also give near infinite clearance. Just in case anybody wondered the front and rear wheels are identical so they can be swapped in the case of a mechanical but also allow different size cogs to be used on the 2 wheels... quick release with chain tensioners allows a quicker change.

Big Thanks to Conti for their biggest tyre the Diesel 2.5

The bike is set up for comfort.. Jones bars giving alot of hand positions... or alot of different places to hold my bike while i'm pushing it through snow!

Mechanical disc brakes for the low temperatures.

Chainring made by Dan of Homebrewcomponents in America... Dan is also supplying the chainrings and cogs for all my bikes and will get some good images in a seperate blog when they arrive.

Last of all is a handmade product created in the Alpkit Factory by chief seamstress Nick... thanks Nick.. made from recycled Alpkit Gourdons it completes the bike.







Saturday 7 November 2009

Time Off

Things have been quiet on the blog front.. partly as things have been quiet on the biking front.

Think i have had a tough year.... all the races and rides i did were sizeable and all seemed to be in the worst possible conditions so when it gets to this time of year and the racing dies off its a good chance to have some down time.

This isn't to say i have been vegetating for the past month or so.. the exact opposite... i'm now working 3 days a week at Ride Cycles on Scotswood road in Newcastle ( come and say hello if you are passing)... i've now got a new clothing sponsor for next years madness who i will post in more detail about in the next week or so.. and there are a few new bikes on the horizon for next years campaigns... I've been riding alot of fun stuff too.. new Gisburn trails are great even in the pouring rain..

I'm very excited about my new 2010 builds and although they aren't finished a few sneaky highlights are below...











Time to start training for real is coming up quickly and i can't wait.