The next build.
I’m happy to confess that I love building bikes almost as much as riding them, and thanks to a miserable start to the year I’ve been more than happy to tinker with bikes and swap components around on my bikes whilst the planet tries to remind us we’ve broken it by dumping more water than Noah would know what to do with on the trails.
Fixing and tweaking is good fun but nothing beats the process of building up a brand new bike. Starting with a load of bits and a tool box, finishing with a smooth running vision of perfection that you can’t take your eyes off.
Possibly the most exciting bit is deciding what you want. For example, at the moment I’m taken with the idea of a lightweight short travel full suspension bike. So hours are spent looking at different manufacturers line ups for frames that fit that criteria. Angles, shocks and weights are compared, frames are ruled in or out, colours considered (This can come first in truth). Eventually a handful of contenders are decided upon. Now I need to decide what to hang from them. Which forks match what frames, what wheels, finishing kit, bottle cage bolts, the lot.
It goes on and on until I’ve got it, the bike I want to build.
I then go and move the bikes that currently reside in my house around like some 3D puzzle, hoping that a bike sized space will appear that means I can fit another one in somewhere without it becoming too much of a fire risk or poking me in the ribs in bed.
Defeated I start moving various bits of bikes and components back to their original resting places, discovering bits I forgot I had.
Why, I’ve nearly got enough bits to build a new bike, it’d be a shame to not use them and it’d help clear some space…