Ocasta

It was possibly a stupid thing to do. Twelve months ago I was fitter and owned a whippet of a XC bike with gears. Last Sunday the Solitude and I went racing. My first ever bicycle race. I forgot that in the six weeks I had owned it I had been out for just two rides with the lads. I forgot that these had been around fast, swoopy northern Swinley forest and that the race was in the short sharp hills of the southern part. I didn't stop to think if I had the right gearing.

With optimism to the fore I signed up for the race - fun category, only two laps. I wont go off too fast I reminded myself. I went off too fast. It didn't seem like it at the time. Fifteen minutes in my heart was pounding, my lungs overworked. Down - this bike is so well balanced. It flatters my limited skills. I could keep pace with the few riders near me. Level - I take it easy, slow down the heart rate. Up - I wish I had the capacity to attack the hills but I don't. Pain and patience, nearly the end of the lap. I could always stop.

The first lap draws to a close. I am alone. All thought of stopping at the end of the first lap evaporate.

It's all about pacing I remind my self. No problems to the first step hill. Dismount and push. I pass some lad struggling at the back of the juniors race. It gives me little satisfaction. Top of the hill. Going well on the single track, tricky climb ahead. I will make it. Twisty, slow, upwards. It hurts. I keep going. The top of the hill! My lungs explode. I stop. Breathe, rest, suffer, rest. Back on the bike. Pacing is the key I tell myself. Well that and fitness. It's too late to do anything about that. I stay on the bike for the next hill. A great downhill ahead. My concentration is meandering. I find just enough to pick a smoother line than before. It conserves my limited energy reserves. The end approaches. Off and pushing once more. The junior I passed earlier passes me. Oh well.

The end is an anti-climax. My first race over. No cheering crowd, no friends to share the moment. Just me and a sense of achievement. I left; hot, sweaty and tired with many lessons learnt. Stupid idea? Of course, but I'd do it again in an instant.

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One thing I should say about the frame before moving on to the build is to congratulate Alex on a brainwave. With my height and the fact I like a fairly upright position (with high handlebars) the frame was going to have a fair sized head tube. This in turn leads to a high top tube and low stand-over (exactly the situation with my Rocky Mountain Slayer). In a moment of inspiration he came up with the idea of the small cross-brace (between the down and top tubes) he could put in a seriously sloping top tube. The end result of this is great standover height.

Having sorted out the bike frame all I had to do now was decide what bits to put on it, decide on the colour and buy the bits. Hmm, what colour? I decided to leave that decision for later.

I wanted to keep the total cost under some sort of control so decided to try and source as much as possible through ebay and other online channels. Knowing I wanted to use the bike for a variety of purposes I wanted some flexibility and comfort in the handlebars. I'd seen and read a good deal about the Jones H-Bar. Knowing that these are fairly rare here in the UK I decided to buy these new. As it has turned out, I have seen a couple of pairs available second-hand, but none with the curved extensions that I chose. With the H-Bars upfront I thought it would look good to have a titanium seatpost to match. I ordered one from Moots in the US since the exchange rate was still favorable. Unfortunately I got hit for VAT and charges so it was more expensive than I hoped. However it does look and ride great. I still hadn't decided on the colour.

With the bulk of my budget blown on two items I needed to get smart on the rest. Brake levers, brakes and cranks all regularly make e-bay appearances and I think I got good deals on all of these. I would have needed a miracle to find a pair of 29er wheels second-hand in the UK so decided to buy a set of Bontrager Race. A good, but not great wheel set with a reputation for being flexy. If this turns out to be a problem then I'll relegate these to road duty and get something more robust. Having said that at 170lb-ish I don't put a lot of stress on wheels.

So now I had all the bits, and frame completion was getting near. I had to concentrate on the colour. I could have almost any colour on the RAL colour chart. The trouble was I kept thinking of pastels and RAL is weak when it comes to pastel. I'd had a yellow bike and didn't want one again (same for orange). I definitely didn't want black and blue would be a safe but boring choice. Pearl Orange looked good on the chart, but wasn't available. What was I going to do?

I looked at as many bike photos as I could find in the singlespeed and 29er forums on mtbr. One colour kept catching my eye - a colour I would never have dreamed of picking. That colour was pink. There are many pink singlespeeds and this year quite a few manufacturers have produced pink downhill bikes, so I was not alone in this fascination. I looked through the RAL charts again and ruled out the purpley pinks and the salmon pinks. Then I headed for the lightest one remaining - RAL 3015. Alex was as surprised as I was with my choice and asked for confirmation several times over the final weeks, not wanting to have to clean and re-coat the frame after I threw up my hands in horror on seeing the real thing. He needn't have worried. Although the final colour is darker (and pinker) than I expected I think it has come out looking great. It takes some people a little time to get over the pinkness of it though.

Now I had the bits and had chosen the colour and waited patiently for the frame to be ready. First Alex sent me the photos of it when he collected it from the builder and then from the powder coated. Ready! Unfortunately Alex was on holiday for the next few days so I had one more weekend to wait. The timing was good. I had just finished one job and wasn't due to start my new one for a week - time to build and ride it. Tuesday, it arrived. By Wednesday morning I had it all built up. Quickly arranged a ride with a friend and off we went.

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Some time ago - back in April, although it seems like a lot longer - I decided that my second bike wasn't getting enough use. I had bought it three years previously primarily as a commuter bike and I was no longer commuting. What I wanted was a bike I that could be used to commute, but that was more capable (with my limited skills) of being ridden off road.

My previous commuter bike had been single speed and I wanted the new bike to be the same. However I wanted to be able to run gears at some unspecified time in the future. Additionally, I have been following the 29er movement that has been developing in the mtb community for the last few years and thought I would like one of these. With my height and expected use it made a lot of sense.

These two requirements quickly narrowed down my choices of bikes. My first choice was the gorgeous titanium Airborne B-29. Unfortunately the SS version (the Dreadnought) is not available in the UK and there are question marks about the tyre clearance of the frame. In addition the waiting time seemed longer than I was prepared to wait (funny in retrospect). My second choice was the Fisher Rig. While the Rig is an absolute bargain there was some nagging doubt that made me feel that a Rig would not be a long term bike for me - I would want to replace it with something else too soon. Other choices were the rumoured On-one 29er, but that seemed unlikely to appear before 2006 - and the newly announced Niner One-9. While this is a great looking bike it had yet to be delivered and the company and bike quality were unknown.

Having eliminated these off the shelf options I looked around the custom builders. Surprisingly a custom built frame from a US builder seemed very reasonable and realistic (with a stronger pound back then) and the likes of Wily and DeSalvo produce beautiful looking frames. However initial emails received no answer. That left me to try the UK makers. I don't know why I didn't try them first. Probably a simple matter of there being more US frames posted to the net. I knew of three UK builders: Ferrous, Robin Mather and new kids on the block Solitude Cycles. Alex at Solitude is active on the various SS and 29er forums around the net and was quoting attractive prices. These combined to make Solitude an attractive choice (even with no frames yet delivered). My first, tentative email was quickly replied to and discussions about my wants followed swiftly.

Alex's replies to my ignorant questions were both honest and informative and I felt comfortable with trusting his advice. An important element when ordering a custom frame. There is no changing your mind once the build is started. After many emails I received a design for my approval.

One month after I started my search for a new bike, with my final queries answered, the design was agreed and the long wait began...

Some time ago - back in April, although it seems like a lot longer - I decided that my second bike wasn't getting enough use. I had bought it three years previously primarily as a commuter bike and I was no longer commuting. What I wanted was a bike I that could be used to commute, but that was more capable (with my limited skills) of being ridden off road.

My previous commuter bike had been single speed and I wanted the new bike to be the same. However I wanted to be able to run gears at some unspecified time in the future. Additionally, I have been following the 29er movement that has been developing in the mtb community for the last few years and thought I would like one of these. With my height and expected use it made a lot of sense.

These two requirements quickly narrowed down my choices of bikes. My first choice was the gorgeous titanium Airborne B-29. Unfortunately the SS version (the Dreadnought) is not available in the UK and there are question marks about the tyre clearance of the frame. In addition the waiting time seemed longer than I was prepared to wait (funny in retrospect). My second choice was the Fisher Rig. While the Rig is an absolute bargain there was some nagging doubt that made me feel that a Rig would not be a long term bike for me - I would want to replace it with something else too soon. Other choices were the rumoured On-one 29er, but that seemed unlikely to appear before 2006 - and the newly announced Niner One-9. While this is a great looking bike it had yet to be delivered and the company and bike quality were unknown.

Having eliminated these off the shelf options I looked around the custom builders. Surprisingly a custom built frame from a US builder seemed very reasonable and realistic (with a stronger pound back then) and the likes of Wily and DeSalvo produce beautiful looking frames. However initial emails received no answer. That left me to try the UK makers. I don't know why I didn't try them first. Probably a simple matter of there being more US frames posted to the net. I knew of three UK builders: Ferrous, Robin Mather and new kids on the block Solitude Cycles. Alex at Solitude is active on the various SS and 29er forums around the net and was quoting attractive prices. These combined to make Solitude an attractive choice (even with no frames yet delivered). My first, tentative email was quickly replied to and discussions about my wants followed swiftly.

Alex's replies to my ignorant questions were both honest and informative and I felt comfortable with trusting his advice. An important element when ordering a custom frame. There is no changing your mind once the build is started. After many emails I received a design for my approval.

One month after I started my search for a new bike, with my final queries answered, the design was agreed and the long wait began...