Hillclimb Bikes

Well we have threads for every other type of bike...

Nothing like the hillclimb season for a bit of shed science Weight Weenie, the functional bikes not porn not anti porn that get thrashed up hills for 2-5 minutes every weekend in September and October.

Fixed or geared, but if geared there must be at least one impractical modification (e.g. no bar tape, sawn off drops, little ring only) that makes it obviously a hillclimb bike. Reader's wives encouraged, along with weights if possible.

Mandatory viewing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDyLObj8W1U

Some good reading on Tejvan's blog:

http://cyclinguphill.com/marginal-gains-hill-climb-bike/

Kenway's bike from last season, very trick:

Tejvan's 2015 machine:

Evans' really rather boring looking bike (but still 4.9kg!)

Jack Pullar's from 2014

Pullar's bike from 2012, when he won. Clearly the more you saw off, the more likely you are to win.

PJ's, pre carbon fork:

Jim Henderson's winning bike from 2003

Rich Bussell's winning bike from last season:

All too Shiney, apart from PJ.

Get involved @Borek @altyris

I love this thread already. Top marks Warby. I'll pop mine up after the brutality of Walcot :/

This thread's been a long time coming... very excited to see the forum's ridiculous homebrew weenieism

22 pages of my own Weenie journey

Joe Norledge from Bike Radar's build from last year with the remit of building a 'practical' hillcimb bike.

Courtney Blockley-Campton's:

Jack Pullar's from Monsal today:

[No headset top cap], just tightened the stem up real tight.

Is that hillclimb legal? Crazy.

thats very 'you'

Why wouldn't it be? Not like the stem is gonna come loose.

How long are the hills you climb?

2-5 minutes is the norm. There's a few over 10 minutes like Cat and Fiddle, Horseshoe Pass.

Will pop mine up when I get the hacksaw out on the bars :)

6.4kg with heavy pedals.

Best gram-for-£ saving has to be the £20 98g Chinese carbon saddle, which I'm actually finding very comfy this year. Another good one is 150g Veloflex Record clinchers from off-of-here, I think they were like £25 or something mad. Excellent 1250g aluminium clinchers that I can use everyday from Slow Build.

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Women’s winner Lou Bates set a new course record at Monsal, and has a pared-down hill-climb machine. The saddle is a carbon-fibre model with no padding and Bates has used modified time trial bars on her Cervelo R5. There’s a single-ring Rotor chainset and Shimano Di2 rear mech.

From here: http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/compare-super-lightweight-hill-climbers-bikes-288240?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social

The topcap is only there to get the right tension on the bearings so makes sense to ditch it to save every gram!

Some great bikes on here. +1 on the cheap Chinese carbon saddles. I've got one for my track bike. The equivalent from a big name brand would be horrendously priced!