You are reading a single comment by @Skant and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Skant
A few small updates, a twin Orlowski and a bike trip:
My friend got his new frame and fork delivered just in time to throw a build together for the trip.
Not too many changes to mine: I fitted gp4000sII tyres for the Nocturne and can't bring myself to take them off, what a difference fast supple tyres makes. I applied the Tester novatec axel mod to the front hub so I no longer have to carry a wrench. For the trip I added another bottle cage and a 23t cog for spinning up the mountains. 48x23 for the way up, 48x17 for the way down.
We drove down to the Pyrenees with the bikes in the back. We managed to get in three days proper riding and wanted to concentrate on the mountains rather than the valleys as we'd both done enough riding through bread baskets and flat lands. When we finally arrived in the Spanish Pyrenees after 48 hours in the truck we were greeted by thick cloud rain and cold and almost didn't get on the bikes but decided to put in a few hours. We rode two cul-de-sac climbs and descents, Artiga de Lin and Bassa d'Oles, both spectacular and largely traffic free roads weaving up the sides of the two mountains.
Day two we rode a more well known popular climb, the Guardader d'Arres, which snakes up 1,500m out of Spain and drops down into France in full tour fever. This climb has perfect surfaces and km markers but again the weather was not on our side until we dropped back down into the valley to loop back around the mountain to the car.
Day three, everything was perfect. We'd driven east the previous evening and made camp about a third of the way up the the Lac d'Aumer climb.
We rode from camp up to the first of three lakes, suffered a puncture and walked back to fix it then rode to the top on the most spectacular closed roads with dead-man drops to one side, switchback after switchback, past crystal lakes and in bright sunlight. One of the best days I've ever had on a bike.
Had a blast and the bike performed admirably, shocked a few roadies too: shouts of "Zut Alors! Le fixie" followed us down the descents. The gearing was light enough to keep it spinning pretty freely on anything up to 10%, beyond that it burnt a bit. Coming down was awesome apart from the front rim getting super hot but really I was just wishing I could freewheel and let it fly.
In short: I'm gonna need to buy a road bike and return next year.