Adventures in Surrey - Part Two

White Downs

Saturday the 23^rd February had gotten off to a slightly stuttering start with Box Hill but after packing up the bike it was off to White Downs Lane for the second climb of the day. The hill isn’t all that far from Box Hill so I was still feeling pretty switched on when I got to the car park at the top after a very short drive. White Downs didn’t strike me as a particularly pleasant climb.

The only bit of colour on White Downs Lane. Even this seemed slightly creepy

For sure the low temperatures didn’t help but with it’s high banks and bare trees it seemed a very stark place. I was looking forward to getting it out of the way and moving onto the next climb before I even got out of the car.

 

Not a very cheerful car park to start a ride from

After another sub zero descent to the start I found I got into a decent rhythm (well, for me anyway) quite quickly. I obviously hadn’t cooled down too much from Box Hill and the initial part of the climb is a fairly easy gradient and even has a brief bit of down hill thrown in. The climb starts in earnest with a couple of sharp steep bends and then you have a nasty looking 18% grind to the top facing you. This was the point at which my pace slowed and I started selecting lower and lower gears. Like all of the climbs in Surrey this proved to be a busy bit of road, the traffic no doubt helped by a fat biffer slowly winching his way up to the top on a bicycle. My low gear grind wasn’t helped by the banks on either side of the road which made it difficult to figure out how far the top of the climb was. It was with some relief I noticed that the gradient started to ease slightly and I could shift into a higher gear before rolling back to the car.

That’s about all I can say about White Downs. It was a bit like going to the dentist; necessary, painful but thankfully over fairly quickly and forgotten about almost as fast. It wasn’t even as if there was a nice view from the top to take pictures of.

Leith Hill

Leith Hill proved to be only a short drive away and it didn’t take me long to get to the car park at the top. Once there I finished off my breakfast and rolled down to the start. Because I has planned an early getaway from the Travelhovel in Guildford and didn’t want to take on any climbs with a big meal sitting heavily in my stomach I decided to try a breakfast cereal bar. I can’t remember what brand it was but this marvel of modern food processing was purchased from that well known purveyor of all fine foods; a petrol station. I reasoned it would be quick to eat, light, and still full of calories. I sadly discovered that it was also so dry it was like eating a cork ceiling tile and utterly devoid of any flavours you would normally associate with breakfast. Ah well, I’ll know better for next time.

Riding down to the start of the climb was typically bone chilling but it was at least a more open bit of road with nice sweeping bends and more fun to get up to speed on. Like White Downs Leith Hill starts off at a more gentle gradient before getting steeper nearer the top. I’m not sure if it was the cold, tiredness or my strangely synthetic breakfast, but I was feeling a bit down on energy at the start of the climb. Where I should have been pushing a decent gear around I just felt a bit flat. By the time I reached the final section of the climb, which can’t be any more than about 10%, I had resigned myself to the ‘seemingly endless grind’ to the car park at the top as Simon Warren describes it. However, whilst my speed didn’t go up I did feel the pedals start to go round a little bit easier as the climb continued. I had managed to ride (albeit slowly) through the rough patch at the base of the hill and start riding with a bit more purpose. It wasn’t the most graceful ascent of Leith Hill but I managed to arrive in the car park at the top feeling slightly more with it that I was expecting.

 

A much needed pitstop at the top of Leith Hill. Shame the food wasn't up to much

After a quick breather in the car park checking out the many exotic looking mountain bikes being ridden to the local trails it was off to my final climb of the day at White Lane.

White Lane

On my way to Titsey where White Lane is located I was struck by how many people were out jogging, power walking and cycling. Because it was a bit of a trek back to Titsey (the one problem with not doing the climb the day before was the time and travelling it would add onto my day on the Saturday) I think I realised why so many people in Surrey are so keen on healthy outdoor activities. The driving I had witnessed during my time in Surrey was some of the most aggressive and ignorant I have ever seen. With so much stress and anger evident on the faces of Surrey’s motorists I can only assume it is the heart attack and hypertension capital of the UK and everybody is exercising on doctors orders. Now, I drive a lot for work so have seen pretty much all manner of stupidity on the roads but I can safely say I will only return to Surrey under duress. Lovely place and very pretty to look at, just a shame it is seemingly full of arseholes.

Right, back to the cycling. White Lane is a short, fairly steep and narrow climb. The only place to park up and set up the bike was in a layby across the road from the top of the climb. The layby was quite exposed and the wind was blowing a little harder and I can honestly say that as I started the descent to the start I was the coldest I have ever felt on a bike. It was a relief to be turning around to ride back up as at least I would be generating some heat.

I was hoping that White Lane would be a little quieter on a Saturday but sadly that didn’t turn out to be the case. It is clearly a cut through for locals and on such a narrow bit of road the cars did get in my way a bit, especially going up. My main problem however seemed to be a complete lack of pace. I couldn’t figure out was wrong as I was out of the saddle trying as hard as I could to get some forward momentum up. It was only as I reached the halfway point of the climb that I realised that I was in too high a gear. My morning was starting to catch up with my and I hadn’t been thinking straight at the bottom of the climb. Once I saw what the problem was I was able to make smoother and easier progress up the remainder of the hill. I didn’t get any quicker but I didn’t think I was going to blow up.

 

The view from what felt like the coldest spot in England to get changed. I can only apologise to the bus load of people who had to witness a fat man turning blue as he changed in the layby.

Once I’d reached the top of the climb it was time to change and start heading home. After stopping to buy something decent for breakfast of course. And yes I did make the mistake of stopping to buy it from a petrol station.

So, that’s Surrey done. I now only have three climbs to complete in the South East and a total of 65 remaining. It almost sounds a manageable number although I’ll be happier when I’ve got that down to below 50. I’ll feel I’m making real progress then.

One of the things I wanted to check over the course of the weekend was my level of fitness and to see how much work I have to put in before tackling some of the truly nasty looking rides in the North of England and beyond. I’m not quite where I want to be just yet but I can feel fairly happy with my efforts; in the space of four hours I managed to tick off four climbs and deal with all of the associated driving, fiddling with bikes, and setting up of cameras that goes with it without feeling too tired. In many ways it is all of the faffing and work involved with getting to the climbs that presents the biggest challenge and in that respect I seem to have my approach pretty much sorted these days. I just need to get a bit better on the whole riding bikes uphill thing that goes in the middle.

I’m also pleased to say that after several months of just not getting on with the Uncle John I now have it set up pretty much how I want it to be. I’m also finding it a fun bike to ride. For some reason I didn’t gel with it at first but since getting back from Surrey its been the bike I’ve ridden the most. Something has obviously clicked.

　

My next lot of climbs will be coming to you from the Midlands and Yorkshire and I’ve thankfully got a few weeks in which to prepare. Some of this preparation will be on my new fixed gear bike which is proving to be a very good training tool. Its just a shame it is so terrifying on the descents!

　

Adventures in Surrey - Part 1

York’s Hill

The plan was quite simple. Drive to Surrey on a Friday. Take on two hills in the afternoon and then a further three on the Saturday bringing my tally of climbs up to 35 and getting my 2013 campaign off to a positive start.

On the 22^nd February I packed my bike into the car and headed off to that there Surrey. North Devon to York’s Hill is a bloody long way and by the time I reached the climb I had been in the car for about 4 ½ hours. The weather forecasts all week had been saying how much colder it was going to be in the South East of England compared to the South West but, even with that knowledge, the first blast of icy air as I got our of the car was a nasty shock to the system. It was about 2.30pm when I got to the car park at the top of York’s Hill and as I set the bike up I was informed by a pair of cheery walkers that I had just missed a sideways snow shower. They were of the opinion I had the best weather of the day for my ride. Lucky me, that just left the freezing wind, greasy tarmac, potholes and patches of snow and mud to deal with.

In the little black book of pain Simon Warren mentions the poor state of the road surface on the hill and I suspect it has deteriorated a bit since he wrote about the it in 2010. I quickly realised on the way down that I had a nice grippy mountain bike at home with disc brakes and fat tyres and that I would have been better off sticking that in the car rather than my Uncle John. Slithering down a 20% gradient on rock hard tyres whilst trying to dodge wheel eating potholes wasn’t a pleasant way to try and warm up.

Of course the descent from hell did at least mean that I arrived at the bottom full of adrenaline for the journey back to the top. This helped initially but as I have learnt in the past, long hours in the car followed by a short steep climb is never going to end well and as I climbed further up what is actually a very short climb my cold legs had a hard time turning a decent gear. Lets just say it was a struggle, a short one, but a struggle nonetheless. It is always the shorter climbs that give me problems. I’m just not punchy enough in my riding style, preferring instead to ride my way into a climb. York’s Hill is short and very steep and so you either have to attack it head on at full speed or accept that you are facing a slow grind up in a low gear.

 

Reaching the top of the climb was a blessed relief as it meant I could get back into a warm car and enjoy some comfort before the next climb of the day which was meant to be White Lane. After spending rather too much time sticking my bike back in the car I then managed to get slightly lost on the way to Titsey were the next climb is located. I think my long day of travelling was taking its toll on me and by the time I found White Lane I really didn’t feel up to riding it. It isn’t much longer than York’s Hill but is used as a bit of a rat run by locals and in cold overcast conditions I didn’t fancy taking the climb on feeling as fatigued as I did. I decided it was best to come back the following day and take on the climb in a fresher state before finally heading home. Hopefully there would also be fewer impatient drivers charging up and down the hill.

With that decision made I headed to my overnight stop in Guildford. Yet another Travelodge beckoned and what turned out to be an awful nights sleep. The Travelodge in Guildford is on a busy main road and all through the night badly driven chav chariots with drain pipe exhausts cruised up and down relentlessly. To add to the noise created by cretins in cheap hatchbacks there was a particularly noisy party of lads who were in Guildford for a night out. With the bright lights of London so close I can only imagine they set their standards very low when they decided on Guildford for an evenings amusement. I think they managed to wake the entire hotel up when they arrived back at their room at 2.30 in the morning. I managed to get my own back when I left for Box Hill at 7am. Their room was next to the door which lead to the lifts and stairs and it is amazing how much noise you can make with a bike as you wheel it out to the lifts;anybody trying to sleep off a night of excess would have thought I was wheeling a mobile set of tubular bells through the corridor.

Box Hill

The Saturday morning started off feeling colder than it had been the day before and when I got to the top of Box Hill there were snow flakes drifting about on the air. The temperature in the wind was meant to be about -2 but as I descended to the bottom of the hill the windchill got considerably worse as my speed increased. I was hoping to really nail the descent at high speed but for the first time ever I had to slow down because my face was hurting so much with the cold. It wasn’t a very pleasant start to my day and I was only too happy to get to the bottom and start generating some heat as I climbed back up. Well, I say happy, once again I had failed to properly warm up and the lower part of Box Hill, which is by far the easiest section, was proving to be more of a challenge than it should be. The first climb of the day is always a bit of a leg stretcher but I do really need to work out a better warm up strategy than just plunging to the bottom of a hill in top gear. As it was I found myself pushing a very low gear around and having trouble getting on top of it. I also had the annoying rasp of a rubbing rear brake to distract me and just before the first uphill corner I stopped briefly to disconnect the brake. I wasn’t going to need it when riding uphill and couldn‘t be bothered to adjust it properly at the road side.

 

A sign you have arrived in cycling Mecca

As I cursed and faffed at the side of the road a chap out for his morning run got in front of me. My brief pit stop had seemingly allowed my legs to finally catch up with what the rest of me was trying to achieve and I was pedalling more smoothly when I got back on the bike but was still down on power. As a result the guy out for his morning run acted as a slow speed pace setter for me until I decided it was time to start riding with a bit more purpose and finally passed him. As I rode further up the hill I did start to warm up but it doesn’t rank as one of the fastest or most stylish ascents of Box Hill.

I was hoping to really gun it up Box Hill but it was starting to dawn on me that spinning up it and conserving energy for the other three rides was probably the best policy. Tackling multiple hills in one day does lead to a bit of a dilemma; even if you feel that you have good form you have to balance the desire to ride hard with the physical requirements of loading and unloading the bike several times in one day, navigating and driving to multiple locations and riding up several other hills. Throw in a rubbish warm up and freezing cold conditions and the need to conserve energy and not blow up completely becomes all important. I was also aware that I had the fearsome White Downs climb with an 8/10 ranking to follow. More of that in my next blog update…

　

5 Climbs to Open 2013

I've just arrived back home from Surrey where I've spent two days ticking off 5 more climbs bringing my total to 35. It was bitterly cold with traces of snow and if I'm being honest I was using the trip as  an early season fitness test (not very it turns out) as much as a chance to bag some more climbs.

A full write up complete with shaky, poorly edited, videos and random photos will follow in a few days but for now my thoughts on the five climbs tackled are:

York's Hill - Would have been more fun on a moutain bike. And smoother.

Box Hill   - A nice, if very cold way to start a Saturday. Not the fastest ascent ever but I did have three other climbs to consider.

White Downs - Starts OK, gets brutal, and narrow.

Leith Hill - Started out OK, turned into a bit of a nasty drag to the top which coincided with my energy levels waning.

White Lane - Bit of a rat run for local drivers. Would have been more manageable if I'd started out in the correct gear. Doh! Damn cold at the top and there is only an exposed lay by to get changed in.

Thats all for now. I have a small Fiat that looks like a mud bomb has gone off inside it that needs to be dealt with and a load of video footage to sort through. Watch this space for a comprehensive update.

Oh my God…its full of speed

Sorry for the terrible misquote of a classic Arthur C Clarke line but that’s kind of how I feel about my new fixie. After a bit of faffing around with the brakes (which are proving to be very important so I’m glad I spent some time getting them right) and some hassle in finding the right bottom bracket my On One Macinato is finally finished, road ready and…well, bloody scary if I’m being honest.

My whole life I’ve ridden bikes with a free hub on the back wheel. I’ve ridden single speeds before but never a fixed gear and, well…lets just say that the modern free hub is a greatly under appreciated bit of engineering. But more of that later.

The Macinato is a lovely looking bike and is actually the first where I’ve actually bothered to cut down the steerer tube. For a £150 frame and fork it’s a nicely made bit of kit. The chap who runs my local bike shop confirmed everything on the frame runs straight and true. I built it up for bad weather training rides but its going to be a shame to get the nice sparkly red paint all mucky. There is no clearance for mudguards so I’ll also be getting mucky.

 

It looks so benign propped up against the garage door...

I built up the On One for some hard core hill climb training and to develop a bit of extra suppleness and power in my pedalling. I figured a fixed gear was the best way to do it and as I had most of the bike in the garage in various piles of spare parts it has proven to be a pretty cheap bike to build. The only major expense apart from the frame and fork has been getting a decent quality rear wheel built by my local bike shop and even that wasn’t too expensive. I’m beginning the see the attraction of fixies; they’re cheap. I’ve kept the gearing fairly low for the time being with a 40t chain ring on the front and a monstrous 20t sprocket at the back. If that sounds low it is because this bike has been built for going up hill. I’m finding that a low gear is also ideal for learning how to ride fixed.

 

Source of both terror and exhilaration in equal measure

The bike handles beautifully and rides smoothly on the 25mm tyres I’ve fitted. Its been a while since I’ve ridden anything that feels so direct and sharp to be honest and without the weight of multiple chain rings, cogs and shifters I suspect my training rides are going to be fun. Well, I’m sure they will be once I’ve learned the right way to ride a fixed gear bike. I would consider myself a pretty experienced (if not necessarily the fittest) cyclist but trying to get my head around the new world of cycling I now find myself in has been rather confusing. Now, I know it is possible to slow down a fixie by applying backwards pressure on the pedals but I live on top of a hill and, as someone who is used to coasting down the steep bits whilst applying the brakes, I’ve very quickly learnt rule number one in fixed gear riding the hard way; Don’t Stop Pedalling! Ever. I don’t think the ‘feet up in the air whilst the pedals spin like a food blender' look is considered particularly cool in fixie circles. I’m starting to get the hang of not easing off on the pedalling but it does feel quite alien at the moment. Mind you, riding a fixie certainly gives you a good work out on the hills so it should be a good training tool. The bikes acceleration is also pretty good with such a simple drive train so getting the bike up to speed doesn’t take a lot of effort.

The secret of a good training ride is finding a nice spot for lunch

 



The new fixie should also help me build up my stamina. During January I became aware of an uncomfortable truth. Spending last year cycling up steep hills has completely ruined my ability to make long, sustained efforts on the flat. Even my training rides last year consisted of me thrashing myself up various local hills and then coasting down the other side. Great for short term power and getting familiar with the granny ring but pretty much useless for building base fitness. Once I get the hang of it the fixie will be pressed into service on some fairly long training rides. I’ve also started doing some longer training rides on my heavy old touring bike in recent weeks. The Macinato will be used on short punchy weekday lunchtime rides and my old Thorn Sherpa (officially the heaviest bike in the world. Fact) will be used for training at the weekends. I’ll find out in a couple of weeks if my slightly more structured approach to my training pays off in a couple of weeks time when I tackle the remaining hills in Kent and Surrey. That reminds me, I must give the Uncle John a clean and service at some point before I use it again. Can’t be seen on Box Hill with a dirty bike, what would the resident MAMILs think?

Bit of an update

It dawned on me the other day that it has been a month since my last blog post. This wasn’t intentional but I’ve been busy trying to sort things out for the year ahead. Rather than the piecemeal approach to taking on the climbs that I took last year I need to be more organised and tackle climbs on a regional basis in 2013. This is why I now have a huge map of the UK covered in marker pen and sticky labels to look at and a wall planner. Never before in my life have I felt so anal about something that I’ve needed a wall planner but apparently that point has now been reached. Mind you the planner is still in its packaging so maybe I’m a bit more laid back about this whole thing than I initially thought.

 

My planning for 2013 has started, honest

So far I have sorted out when I will be riding the remaining Kent and Surrey rides. They should hopefully be dealt with on a flying visit to the South East in late February. I say hopefully as the weather can still be a bit variable in February so I need to take the fact we are still in the depths of winter; Box Hill in the snow could be awkward. Mind you I do have some studded tyres in the garage…

In April I’m planning to spend a week taking on the remaining climbs in the Midlands, including the fearsome road up to Riber Castle, and a couple of the Yorkshire climbs. May will see me hopefully finishing off Wales and so on as I make steady progress up the country. The plans past May are still a bit unresolved at the moment but are rapidly taking shape.

On the training front January got off to a good start. Despite the appalling weather I’ve been getting up the local hills faster than ever before and feeling smooth on the bike. The only problem is that riding up lots of hills has left me good at winching myself up short sharp gradients but hopeless on longer rides. I’m going to need to build some longer easier rides into my training schedule or I’m going to be found wanting on the longer climbs. Keeping a decent smooth cadence on flatter rides just seems to confuse my legs at the moment which is rather disconcerting.

The only other problem has been that every single road I ride along seems to be rim deep in mud, bits of undergrowth and gravel. The winter weather hasn’t been kind to the roads of North Devon and despite wearing recently fitted mudguards my trusty old Surly Cross Check looks like it has just been fished from the bottom of a river. My Uncle John has only been out for one ride so far this year and it took me a while to get used to it; it feels a much stiffer and flighty bike than the Cross Check.

Hopefully getting my fixed gear bike finally sorted will help me sort out my pedalling issues. The On One Macinato is pretty much finished. Sorting out the chain line was a bit time consuming but the bike is pretty much there. I’ve struggled to get the brakes set up how I like them and that is the only thing holding me back at the moment. Hopefully an upgrade to better quality cables this weekend will let me take it on it’s first proper ride. So far I’ve only been up and down the street outside my house on it to check nothing will fall off. With spongy unresponsive brakes it has been a bit of a daunting bike to ride. My initial impressions of the bike are that it is sharp handling, responsive and potentially quite fast (with the right gearing) and I’m really looking forward to finally taking it on some decent rides. I just need to remember not to stop pedalling when braking or cornering as having to dig a pedal out of your calf muscle every so often quickly gets annoying.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll have a bit more to report back on with regard to the new bike soon. To be honest until I start getting stuck back into the climbs I feel like I’m just treading water.

2013 is here - Time to get busy

Tis the season to be jolly in the garage

Some people like to spend the festive season eating and drinking too much. As I was working between Christmas and New Year I decided to spend what free time I did have more productively. There are only so many garish Christmas specials I can watch on telly so I have been busy in the garage servicing my bikes and building up my latest training tool.

I decided to get the build of the On One Macinato underway as I need to start using it soon. As it is destined for a hard life with a lot of winter riding I decided a sensible first step would be to waxoil the frame. Waxoil is smelly stuff and fairly unpleasant to spend time with in a small garage so after leaving the garage to air out for two days after applying a liberal coating to the inside of the frame it was safe to start installing the headset. I’ve gone for a Hope headset as I was able to get it at a decent price and even a simple bike can get away with the odd bit of bling. Like many home bike mechanics I fit my headsets with a mixture of proper and improvised tools; fitting the crown race took a lot of brute force and swearing but the rest of it was a doddle.

 

A little bit of understated bling for what is actually quite a cheap bike

I’ve decided to do the decent thing and actually cut the steerer tube down to an acceptable length. I now have a suitable workbench and a clamp on guide for cutting steerer tubes so I really don’t have a excuse to not do it when I build a bike anymore. I have tried to avoid getting all medieval and taking a hacksaw to my bikes in the past but the whole process seemed to go OK and I suspect the Uncle John will be receiving the attention of my hacksaw blade before long.

My local bike shop has been helping me put together the drive train. I’m going to start off with a 40 tooth chain ring and 19 tooth rear cog. I suspect that gearing may be a little high for some of the steeper North Devon climbs but then the whole point of the bike is to build something that will help me up my strength so maybe that won’t be such a bad thing. The chap who runs my local bike shop also knows a thing or two about building wheels and has put together a lovely back wheel for the Macinato. A fixed back wheel is a lovely looking thing with a sparse clean appearance. To somebody like me who has only ever ridden bike with freewheeling hubs the fixed back wheel is also a slightly frightening concept. Not being able to freewheel will take a bit of getting used to so I’ll be fitting flat pedals for the first few rides. I’ll also be equipping the bike with two brakes. I know it is trendy to fit a fixed gear bike with only one brake (at the front) but I’ve been a dedicated avoider of fashion my entire life and I like the idea of two brakes. I do after all live at the top of a hill. The SRAM Rival brakes from my failed rebuild of my old Bianchi will be handling the stopping duties.

 

There is something very satisfying about watching a bike come to life. It now has wheels and just needs a bottom bracket to be ready

　

My venerable old Surly Cross Check has also been receiving a bit of attention. I’ve been meaning to get it resprayed as the paint is looking really scruffy after three years of hard use. However, there is still a bit of life left in the components currently fitted to it despite the scuffed look of the chain set and derailleurs. As a result the mudguards have gone back on and it will be pressed into service as my all weather training bike. Fitting mudguards is always a thankless task and seems to take longer than logic would suggest it should.

If I got it resprayed right now I would only end up putting the old stuff back in it which would be missing the point of trying to revamp it a little bit. I also want to keep the Cross Check as a spare bike in case the Uncle John develops any problems that keep it off the road; the schedule for next year is already shaping up to be a hectic one and I want to make sure mechanicals won’t get in the way of completing the remaining 70 climbs.

Planning for the year ahead

With 70 climbs still to go and a lot of leave to use up before the end of June I’ve started to plan my attack on the remaining hills. So far this has largely involved trying to get holidays booked and buying a large map so I can see where all of the climbs are in relation to each other. Actually it is a bit more complex and there is a lot of route planning and accommodation booking to do in the next few weeks.

 

Behold, the map of fear. Actually I still need to add a few more climbs to it...

If everything works out and I can get the training in over the next couple of months it is possible that I could reach the 80 climb mark by the end of June. I learnt a lot last year about what I’m able to do, how the travelling impacts on my ability to get up some of the climbs and just what my weaknesses are. I think tackling another 50 of the climbs by the end of June is a realistic target, albeit one that is going to require a fair bit of discipline to achieve it. If I can manage it I can take my time over the final 20 climbs in late summer and early autumn. That’s the rough plan anyway. Now, I’ve got some more sticky labels to put on my map…

　

Plans for the winter

In December I usually take some time out from cycling. The weather is bad, the days are short, the traffic gets worse and I’m normally pretty busy doing other things. This year I also need to give my right knee a rest and start planning for the next 70 climbs so December will be a busy month.

December is also the month when I spend hours in the garage getting angry and shouting at tools and bicycle components as I attempt to service and upgrade my bikes. This year will be no different with my Cross Check needing a bit of a rebuild and the Uncle John needing a few tweaks to it’s setup. I haven’t quite got the riding position sorted out yet and I feel a bit cramped when going down hill. The Cross Check I feel more stretched out, more in control and just more confident all round.

I’m also going to be spending some time putting yet another bike together. This bike is going to be rather focussed in it’s form and purpose and I’m building it purely for winter training. Normally I’d spend the winter slogging through the bad weather on my old Thorn touring bike. This winter I’ll be riding a fixed gear bike. Don’t worry, I’m not about to buy skinny jeans and grow some dubious facial hair and then spend my time hanging round trendy coffee shops. I’m building a fixie because over the course of the last few months I’ve grown rather fond of the lower end of my bikes gears. I know from riding a single speed mountain bike that having only one gear on my bike will force me to attack every hill I come to and a fixed gear should also help me smooth out my pedalling a little bit; I’ve tried every technique under the sun to get up the hills more efficiently this year with a result that I sometimes spend too much time deciding how I want to pedal rather than just getting on with the job of riding up hill. Training on a fixed gear will hopefully get my top end power back; I’m not sure whereabouts I lost it but I don’t seem to have the kick I need on the steeper sections at the moment.

I was also persuaded to build a fixed gear bike by the fact On One were knocking them out at a stupidly low price on their website a while back. For £149 I managed to buy a Macinato frame and fork. First impressions of the frame are that the quality is pretty good. The welds are neat and the frame is quite lightweight. The fork is actually heavier that the frame and the paint on both is OK in terms of quality although it does look like a paint sprayed over bare metal finish which will no doubt look a bit tired after some hard use.

 

The Macinato is very good looking for such a cheap frame

The bike is being built to a budget that befit’s the low price of the frame. Most of the components are already lying around in the garage. All I need to add to the pile is a drive train and a back wheel. My local bike shop will be building the back wheel for me. I’m not sure whether the owner of the shop was horrified or impressed when I told him I was intending to build a fixed gear bike for riding around North Devon. I didn’t dare tell him I’m intending to take it over Exmoor at some point. I haven't ridden a fixed gear bike before so the first couple of rides could be interesting.

 

A sure sign my winter riding is going to be hard

Anyway, that’s my plans with regard to the garage. I’ve also decided to start planning next years rides early and there is now an improbably large map of the UK on my wall. Time to get out the marker pens and sticky labels…