Author Archive

Great riding, climbs, weather

Deciding on stock of the amazing new Fizik R1 Uomo and R3 Uomo cycling shoes from Fizik. Full range of shoes and saddles including the new Kurve range of saddles available to try now!

First day training around Kailua-Kona

Probably the best all round racing bike we have built

The super-cool Team Sky replica helmets have now arrived in the top end Sky Vertigo and cheaper K10 Team version and in stock as well as all colours of the Kask C50Vertigo top-of-the-line helmet (white with red/blue/silver/lime highlights) which has been receiving fantastic reviews in various magazines and online.

Also received new stock of the ever-popular Kask Time Trial helmet in carbon black and silver with clear, mirror and red visor options available and a special offer on our most popular carbon/white Race version from 2009 (a few left in stock).

Range is up here to order online currently with 10% off promotion.

Just back from a fantastic training camp in Lanzarote with “Guru Coach” Filipe along for the first week of technique and long swim sessions in the pool as well as really structured cycling and running sessions.

The most interesting and useful sessions were lactate testing sessions on the time trial bike to work out wattage for Ironman pace and similar on the running track to work out Ironman marathon run pace. Individual write ups on those in due course as they were really interesting. Fantastic to be able to transfer lab results into “real world” advice to use in racing.

Thanks to Filipe for the best structured training camp I’ve done so far in my athletic career – every session had a purpose and done properly and sensibly; no “junk miles” or sessions done just for the sake of mileage (even having done nearly 35 hours on the bike, 10 in the pool and 10 running). There was lots of relevant technical advice especially in the pool (massive difference even in a week) as well as invaluable advice for pacing on the bike and run transferring lab testing and data into the real world am privileged to have have been able to use the facility whcih of course is only of benefit with Filipe’s knowledge and expertise to interpret the results. Most of all we had a really enjoyable time!

A selection of photos from the week below! Link to Sophie Whitworth’s blog write up on the training camp here (one of our sponsored athletes).

Our first delivery of “BikeBoxAlan” boxes arrived today. Exciting to have 5 new boxes turn up which will be available to rent out from Henley and Shiplake (soon to spread across the country I imagine!).

We chose BikeBoxAlan since they have a fantastic reputation for really good build quality which will hopefully pay off in the long run. Customers want the most effective way of protecting their precious cargo and these seem to be the best around. Importantly for a lot of people bikes with integrated seat posts will fit in the boxes too (most time trial bikes and high end road bikes have these nowadays). Also nice to be supporting a leading British company developing great products.

First test is four of the boxes off to Lanzarote for their first trip then some to South Africa to start their worldwide adventures!

Visit www.bikeboxrental.co.uk for our rental services page and www.bikeboxalan.co.uk for details of the boxes.

We built our own Ceepo Katana custom bike which was on display this year at the Triathlon Cycling Running Show at Sandown Park. Alongside the black Ceepo Katana were a white Ceepo Katana and a white Ceepo Mamba which we were also asked to build for the show to put on display. A few photos shown below.

A customer recently came to us main requirements were:

• Just getting into road cycling after a period of time off competing in other sports and work commitments
• Budget of around £1500 for complete bike and setup
• Looking to use for training and racing with aim to do long distance sportives, triathlon/time trial use and road racing

Our first step was to size the customer up and look at suitable frame geometries and build options. Filipe spent some time sizing up and assessing flexibility to determine an optimal bike setup position given current flexibility and lack of time on the bike as just coming into the sport. This determined a correct size frame (in this case a 58cm top tube was ideal) and ideal stem length and saddle and bar heights for optimal position in due course plus a more comfortable position to start training over the winter.

Having gone through many different options including building custom building bikes from frames (deals online) and from various manufacturers the Felt F5 was identified as ideal given:
£1500 budget would allow a nice carbon frame, decent 105 groupset and decent Mavic CXP22-based wheels ideal for training. This option gives a great frame and one of the best value groupsets around as well as a decent pair of training wheels for the winter which then could be upgraded once into racing seriously. Also unlike many manufacturers this bike build came with a standard chainset (not compact) which is more suitable for stronger riders as well as more of a race geometry which in this case was suitable for a fit and flexible athlete.

The Felt F5 was ordered, arrived two days later and setup and built properly by Filipe. This included greasing and adjusting the wheels (and truing slightly), greasing and fitting bottom bracket, greasing cables and headset properly and adjusting. The standard stem was also changed for a 13cm (from an 11cm) to adjust to the optimal position. To begin with we flipped the stem to allow a higher handelbar height for winter riding which can then be flipped for summer racing once used to the position (and for clip on time trial bars for time trial and triathlon racing). The package was then rounded off with a complete set of Lezyne accessories (saddlebag, tube, patch kit, tyre levers, multi tool and pump) as well as matching bottle cages and even a matching Kask K10 helmet!

All in all a very happy customer especially since from first visit to pick up of bike was less than a week and has a great all round package for many happy hours of cycling ahead!

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