Latest / Zone2Speak Podcast / From Archaeology to Adventure: Crafting the Ultimate Bike with Pete Alfano

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From Archaeology to Adventure: Crafting the Ultimate Bike with Pete Alfano · Zone2Speak Podcast

0:12
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Now, let's get into the episode.
1:34
Today on Zone2Speak, I'm delighted to welcome back Pete Alfano.
1:39
The founder of Alfano Frameworks. Pete isn't just your typical frame builder.
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With a background in archaeology and a decade spent teaching PhD students in
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research methods, he brings a rare depth of curiosity and craftsmanship to bike building.
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A fully qualified frame builder and mechanic, Pete turned his passion into a
2:04
full-time workshop in 2025 after years of balancing part-time builds with repairs and servicing.
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His bespoke steel frames, like the Aventura built for gravel adventures with mounts for fenders,
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dynamo routing, and hiking pole holders, are designed to stretch the utility
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of your bike and empower real-world exploration.
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In today's episode, we are going to dig into his design philosophy,
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get practical tips for bikepacking beginners, and explore the balance between
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tools versus speed when the roadside repairs meet the trail.
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Let's start crafting the conversation. Pete, welcome to Zone 2.
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Thank you very much. Delighted to be back. So happy you're back.
2:53
It was so great to meet you at Via Raced.
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I learned so much about you. I don't want to say just a mechanic because,
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you know, being a mechanic, it's a very important job, very important to our community of cycling.
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But you're also a frame builder.
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Yeah, I have quite, I suppose, a non-typical, atypical background to come at
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kind of bike mechanicing and building frames.
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So yeah, like you said in the intro, I trained as an archaeologist and then
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I worked in universities for over a decade teaching research methods and stuff to PhD students.
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And I've always been, yeah, very creative. And the frame building is really
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my, and the mechanical things, I was an outlet to problem solving and getting
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to be creative in that problem solving.
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Yeah, that's really cool. Well, it's a combination you don't see often,
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you know, archaeologist, athlete, slash mechanic, and then doing your own frames.
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So you went from archaeologist and academics to artisan, bike builder.
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How was that journey, especially your research-based mindset?
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Like, how did that shape the approach?
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That you brought into designing and handcrafting steel frames.
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I think for me, the thing I learned from research that I think has carried over
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has been the interest in answering the question that the rider is posing.
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What do you want? Or the question I ask, I guess, is what do you want to do with the bike?
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And then the challenge and the thing that they're posing is,
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I want to do X, Y, and Z with the bike. I want to race V. I want to race Badlands.
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I want to commute every day and have a, you know, ride every day,
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take my stuff while I commute to work, be able to be kind of dry when I get there.
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I want to race time trials, whatever it is, those kinds of, what I really enjoy
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is getting to work my creativity around the parameters of the rider, of the customer.
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And so figuring out how to best solve as many of the questions that they've posed as I can.
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Really i think they're always there's always a compromise to
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be had when you're designing stuff and so you always have this you
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know have an idealized vision and often the
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the rider will come with an idealized vision of a
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of a bike or a type of a way of riding or a
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type of handling and then there's a discussion there where you're talking
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about kind of what materials can do what type
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of handling actually you need to think you know
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if you're a racer racing crit races and short-term stuff
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and you want to move on to longer things you don't want that super
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sharp really quick handling on your 4 000
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kilometer endurance bike because after 23
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hours away the last thing you want is the bike to kind of
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jump up and bite you yeah yeah i guess it's a cross between design and functionality
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and of course i'm speaking for myself like i want a certain design but But I'm clueless,
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so maybe you would need to educate your customer, the writer,
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on like, okay, this design for what you want might not work everything,
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and you might need to compromise on a few things.
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That's what you're trying to say. Yeah, exactly.
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And I think that is the, you know, a good frame builder is as much about providing,
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you know, a high quality product.
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Product at the end of it as it is about being able to have a
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conversation with your customer and to
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manage those expectations and to be able to say to people you
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know you can have these things and you you know we need to think about how we
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can get as close to possible as possible to achieving these other things you
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you need to be you know honest and kind of realistic with the with the customer
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about what what is and isn't possible certainly within budgets and things like
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that as I always get under the sticky issue of,
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you know, when people sometimes say, I want to build a bike for my retirement
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present, I've had this conversation a few times, how much will it cost?
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And you're like, well, how much do you want to spend?
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Because, you know, you know, in bike parts, wheels, tires, all sorts of stuff,
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you can spend almost as much as you want, you know, you can find the thing that costs that much.
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Yeah. so it's it's about
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trying to i think for me trying to give the rider value
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for money as well as you know the best bang for
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their buck and the most enjoyable riding experience yeah
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and you are also a bike fitter something else i
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didn't mention and i think also something
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that people need to keep in mind is that when you buy a
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bike and you get a bike fit fit you
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most likely will change a few part so when you're getting
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a custom bike it might be a bigger investment maybe
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never know because like you said you know the the sky's the
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limit you can go as far as as low as you can want but
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if you're doing custom it's going to be customized already for you
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so you you are not going to need those tweaks exactly
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yeah there's no i think the for me one the kind of the the key discussion is
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at the beginning around what what kind of bikes have you ridden in the past
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or are models of those brands what kind of riding have you done in the past
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what kind of riding are you planning to do and then looking at.
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The rider on the bike so how do you
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sit on the bike what's your fit like are there
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any key parts that you really want to include you know some people are really
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have have a vision in their head or have to have 100 millimeter stem because
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i just like the way that looks so that's the thing i have to have or i want
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a laid-back seat post and i've designed stuff around you know specific,
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stems or seat posts or specific types of parts
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and the thing is you get them in the workshop you sit on the jig
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and we can have those bars and kind of hoods set
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up and you can get a feel
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for what the position on the bike will be like before you design it
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and that's the the joy for me is giving them that kind
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of window into what it's going to be like and then delivering the thing it should
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hopefully will definitely meet all of their expectations yeah and tell me a
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little bit about the aventura blueprint i know that frame per what i was looking
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online looks very impressive I don't know if it was also the archaeologist in you,
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explorer in you, because it's really interesting that you can have like the
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hiking poles attachment and all that.
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So it's like full on adventure mode.
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Can you walk me through the thinking behind those design choices?
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Yeah, so that bike was really, I wanted to be able to go off grid and to adventure on.
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Without having to be reliant on
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finding a power bank or finding a
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plug to charge the batteries for my derailleur or
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you know the the dynamo with
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the routing gives you enough power to be able
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to charge a battery pack that could then charge the
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runs of lights in the daytime can then be used to charge your phone
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and your gps in the evening and having that
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that was one of the key things i wanted to be able to
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do and also to be able to carry as
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few spares as possible so i was completely self-reliant when
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i was out and about on it so mechanical gears and
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cable actuated disc brakes means that you
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know if anything breaks one or two cables to replace is even for you know not
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a bike mechanic replacing cable is a relatively easy thing to learn how to do
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and then yeah the the The pole attachment came about because I'm very tall, 196 centimeters.
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And so I have a very big frame.
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So I had this huge kind of space within the frame that I wanted to make a bit more practical.
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And so I had a really good frame bag. And then I was trying to figure out how
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to divide up the space and use
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the frame bag and store the tent and the poles and things for the tent.
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And also thinking about hike a bike. you know
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if you go somewhere and you've got click the
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bike onto your shoulders or carry it up or down a
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descent or an ascent you've got those options there to
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be able to use the poles for stability and balance as well so it was really
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uh yeah i guess as close to my uh my disappear off around the world bike as
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possible really it's really cool it's really cool yeah it's like i never seen
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something like that so yeah yeah it gets a lot of attention it's uh But yeah.
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Let's talk about beginner fixes and pre-ride prep.
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So for someone new to bikepacking, what are the essential fixes or skills you think are.
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Everyone should practice before heading out on their
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first trip are there simple repairs riders can
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or should be confident doing themselves i think that the key the key one is
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punctures i know loads of people who very early you know the same for me very
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early on in my cycling career had rides ruined by punctures that i couldn't
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fix because i couldn't the tire off so i pinched in.
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The tube because i've not practiced changing those tires
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on those wheels and it's a thing that's easy to replicate it's
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quite tiresome thing let your tires down take the
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tires off the wheel put tires back on the wheel they inflate
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the inner tube but it's a thing that is that is
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worth doing and worth practicing because doing in the
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rain at the side of the road is not the first time you
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want to be uh to be doing to be
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doing those things no decent quality set of tire
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levers it goes a long way the park tool tire
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levers and also the decathlon tire levers
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as well actually are probably my two favorites i like
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the decathlon ones because they're yellow and they're easy to find in
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your bag of tools but they are
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yeah a good set of tire levers makes a big difference to
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be able to get the tire on and off and then knowing knowing
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how your gears work so we did a
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a little kind of webinar for via for
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the new for the kind of for the newer riders and for people who
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had any questions about mechanics and things things to think
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about before they they came to race via and i
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think that being familiar with how your bike works is
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a key kind of thing know what what happens if
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i undo this bolt what happens if i tighten up this bolt you know what if my
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seat post is slipping what do i need to do we need to you know you tight this
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is the bolt you need to tightened to do that if my saddles move which bolt is
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it do i have the right allen key to be able to tighten that and the similarly
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with like if your bars are slipping or your stems.
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Gets knocked out of alignment with your front wheel being able
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to loosen and retighten those bolts not necessarily you
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know you don't have to tighten to the exact torque you just
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have to be able to tighten them enough that they're not moving take it to
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a bike mechanic and they can check the torque on
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those things but being able to do those
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things is a key kind of uh
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a key component to be able to relax during your
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ride i think if you know if you're fairly confident knowing how your bike works
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then you don't necessarily have to repair those
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things but you make the conversation with
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the bike mechanic when you get to the bike shop a lot
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easier and a lot less stressful as well and also you
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can phone a friend and say look i know you know how to
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fix this thing my brakes of what can i do
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to get me to the next town safely or
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what should i do my derailleur stops working like do
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you know how i how i get into a gear that
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is rideable yeah good points and on the fixing a puncture of course there are
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differences between tubeless and tube what are your thoughts there i run tubeless
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on almost everything at the moment apart from my.
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Trail bike and my road bike all my other bikes run
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tubeless all my other sets of wheels
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because they're not all attached to bikes at the
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moment i have a collection of a collection of bikes that
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are rideable i could get out and ride immediately and
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there's a collection of other bikes that are uh require bits
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from some of the other bikes to make a whole bike but yeah there's a collection
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of wheels around that that some have bikes some don't that all i think everything
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now over a 32 millimeter width tire is tube i'm running tubeless.
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It sets up really easily. Most of the tubeless systems now are extremely good.
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Certainly, if you're running a bigger volume like a gravel tire in a 40 or a
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50 mil tire or a mountain bike tire, I'd have no hesitation running them.
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In fact, I would be averse to running them with an inner tube unless it was
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in an emergency and I couldn't get there.
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It's a tubeless to seal. I should say, yeah, that if you are running tubeless,
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do take an inner tube with you, or two, because in the unlikely event that you
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get a puncture that you can't, that it doesn't seal,
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being able to put the inner tube in is the fail safe to be able to get you home.
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Yeah, I have everything tubeless and I feel much more comfortable because usually
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for me it's much easier to get a plug in and keep going than having to take the, you know,
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the livers out, take the tire out to find where if there's a hole and then doing the whole procedure.
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For me it's much tougher, you know, it's hard, I don't have much upper body strength.
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And on the tubeless, it's really less resort to use a tube.
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Yeah, I think exactly that's how I would approach it.
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I think the thing is the plugs are always quite nerve-wracking, I think, aren't they?
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Because you're not going to deliberately puncture your tire to use a plug.
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So normally, the first time you have to use your tubeless plug is when you're
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by the side of the road with a puncture that won't seal.
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So there's this nerve-wracking moment of reading the instructions
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on the side of the uh the tubeless you
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know the plug packet going like okay what do i do with this once you've.
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Done it once it's fine but um the first
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time is is always very nerve-wracking because yeah
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you're not going to deliberately put a big hole in your in your
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nice new tire just to make sure that you know how to seal
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the um seal a hole yeah yeah and
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i think if people i mean not everybody has it but if there
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is an old tire that you can play with it not that
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you want to do that but it does help to get the nerve
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you know out of your system and then you're like
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oh okay it's actually not that bad and also when
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i did that i realized also that i
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liked a certain tool more than another to
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do the plugging yep yeah everyone
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has and that's the other thing is you'll have a favorite once you've done
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it once or twice and tried a couple of different ones you'll have
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a favorite a favorite brand in the same way that
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you can end up with a favorite you know if one has a favorite brand of pump or you
18:01
know tire levers in the tube yeah there's always you
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know you'll have your go-to kit that you you ideally have and make sure that
18:09
you carry with you yeah how about tools versus the speed like if you're out
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on a remote trail how do you decide what to fix right there versus what to pack
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up and take to a shop later.
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If you can, obviously, because sometimes I guess you just need to call a taxi.
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Yeah, sometimes there's a long walk involved. I think that some people.
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It partly depends on what your ambitions for the ride are, I think.
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Like with the Avendora, the toolkit with that was fairly extensive because I
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wanted to be able to repair stuff myself.
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One of the reasons I picked the mechanical disc brakes was that they run on
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traditional brake cables,
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so carrying two spare brake cables is a very small pack versus carrying a whole
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bleed kit to bleed a hydraulic brake system and some spare hose in the right
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length and some olives and barbs and all that other stuff.
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You might as well take the whole shop with you, get like a cargo bike then.
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Exactly. And I think that's the kind of the challenge is that,
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yeah, you can end up being, for me,
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like I could fix everything potentially at the side of the road,
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but I'm not going to carry an entire workshop's worth of tools with me.
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So I normally go with tubeless repair kit, one inner tube, tire levers,
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pump, set of allen keys, and some chain lube of whatever chain lube I'm using.
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And that's kind of it. Check, check, check. I have all that on my kit.
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Okay. Good. That's what I love to hear. Now, if I can do it, it's another question.
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Yeah. But I think that kind of covers you for pretty much everything.
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I mean, if you want to carry a spare quick link, you can. but you probably need
19:59
you'll need a chain breaker of some description which quite a lot of tools do come with now,
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but chains are pretty reliable like you you're going some to break a chain it's
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pretty unlikely to break a chain I have done it it is possible but.
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I think I've only broken one in the last 10 years of fairly heavy cycling.
20:20
And that was, I suspect, as much due to a kind of interaction with a rock as
20:26
it was due to the chain breaking itself. Okay.
20:29
And so, yeah, it's pretty unlikely, but it is worth, I would certainly say,
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like if you're doing there or a specific event, carry a quick jump with you
20:38
because it's useful to get you out of trouble. Okay. Sounds simple enough.
20:44
Anything else you would recommend that it's
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practical efficient roadside repair or
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that those are the basics anything else you really just have
20:52
to yeah i think if you're
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running mechanical gears having a kind of having an
20:58
idea of how your derailleur works how to
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get it to stay in a gear if it's slipping is useful
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and i think if you're running electronic gears as
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you know i would say probably the majority of people that
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like a big event are nowadays then play
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with the app before you go know how the app works and
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how to connect your bike to the app and how
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to do like a how to do a reset to refine to
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rejoin the the shifters to the derailleur to
21:29
your own shram or shumano yeah to do all the linking up of stuff just it's very
21:35
unlikely but the last thing you want is to be stuck because you've had like
21:39
the shifters the derailleurs have crashed or you know there's been some hardware
21:43
fighting you have to do a hard reset and you you don't know how,
21:47
and the app is pretty good about talking through stuff most of the time.
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Have a play with it before you go would always be my advice.
21:55
Yeah, makes sense. And how about at home?
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Are there basic tools and repairs that you think people could do at home? I think a chain checker.
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Pads. Yeah, yeah. Break pads.
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Break pads and changing your chain, I think, is an entirely reasonable and pretty
22:16
straightforward thing.
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If you buy a chain checker, you can measure the wear on your chain.
22:21
And then from there, if you know what number of gears and what brand of derailleur
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groupset you're running, you can buy a replacement chain.
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And the easiest way to make sure your chain is the right length is if once you
22:33
take the chain off your bike, line it up on the floor next to the new one,
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make sure it's got the same number of links.
22:40
And then you just take off the end bit. Makes sense.
22:45
Yeah. Yeah. But it's lots of
22:46
bike shops. Bike shops and mechanics will happily talk you through stuff.
22:51
If you're kind of of the curious kind of side of things and you want to learn
22:56
how to do more stuff, most bike mechanics are overly keen to share their knowledge.
23:02
And will tell you how to do stuff, maybe even if you don't want to know.
23:05
But other than that, yeah, I'd say, like, know how your gears work and know
23:11
how to change your disc pads.
23:12
So what tools you need to take the pin out? it varies some are an allen key
23:16
some are flat-headed screwdriver,
23:19
And how do you take the pads out and put them back in?
23:22
And remembering not to put cleaner or lubricant on your disc brakes. Yes.
23:28
Yes. It might be making a noise, but please, please, please don't put WD-40 on it.
23:34
That's something I have seen people do. Really?
23:38
Well, yeah, because people want to get rid of the noise and then,
23:41
yeah. It's great. That doesn't make sense, but no.
23:45
Yeah. Yeah. There's a logic in there, but it's just not quite.
23:51
Yeah, yeah. There's a second step to the process where you're like,
23:54
did you think about what the WD-40 does? Yeah.
23:59
So, yeah. I mean, if you've got a little bit of emery paper,
24:01
that will get rid of your disc brake sweep most of the time.
24:03
Okay. So you take the pads out and rub it on emery paper.
24:07
It just takes the top layer off the pads where the contamination usually is,
24:11
and then you can put them back in and touch wood.
24:14
Most of the time they work. kind of quiet they'll be quieter sounds good any
24:18
other tricks of the trade to share no uh no always be nice to your bike mechanic.
24:27
Always be yeah always be nice to bike shop always be
24:29
nice to your bike mechanic you can find i think from having conversations with
24:33
lots of riders at beer and other places i think finding a bike shop that you
24:38
can you can trust and that you feel teach your bike well is really important
24:43
and finding a bike mechanic who still does the same is key.
24:47
I think it's very much like the car, you know, when you rock up and you get
24:50
a good feeling about your car mechanic, you know it's probably in good hands.
24:55
Yeah. Yeah. Once a year services to everybody. Service your bike once a year.
25:02
Take it to the bike shop and pay them to do it and it'll cost you maybe a couple
25:07
of hundred quid but they'll strip it completely and rebuild it.
25:10
They'll bleed your brakes, they'll check all your bearings and You know, if you're riding a lot.
25:16
If you're doing 100 kilometers a week, that's 5,200 kilometers a year.
25:23
Most people, lots of people will be riding more than 100 kilometers a week.
25:27
Yeah. And so it soon rockets up once you're out on the bike regularly.
25:33
So yeah, the bike deserves love.
25:35
It does. And it's a good point that you brought up because a lot of people,
25:39
myself included, sometimes I don't remember or I don't know.
25:42
Like sometimes if i go to a you know gravel race and
25:45
it's really rough and muddy and wet like should i take it
25:48
for service or is just a wash okay yeah if
25:52
i just had service because i have a big race but then that big race
25:55
kind of gets everything dirty like
25:58
do i take to service again i mean it's a lot of money what do
26:01
we do yeah i think with those ones i'd say
26:04
if you've had it fully serviced before the race clean
26:08
it lubricate your chain check your brake
26:11
pads for wear you're probably fine unless
26:14
you notice a strange noise or something is behaving
26:17
in a way you don't want it to you're probably
26:20
you're probably okay if most bike shops offer kind of graduated servicing so
26:27
they do a kind of basic check over and then they'll be like normally like a
26:30
silver and a gold service or similarly named at different price points so they
26:35
should you know if you've got a specific problem.
26:38
Post-race i would and take the bike shop
26:41
and say you know front brake is doing this weird thing and then
26:44
they've seen it before so they're on you know i'd be very surprised
26:46
if they charge you for a full service they're probably just going to say to
26:49
you but we'll have a look and we'll uh you
26:52
know we'll do what needs doing that's good to know
26:55
but if you're not listening to any weird
26:58
noises nothing's cracking you can just clean up
27:01
yourself and yeah yeah yeah
27:04
yeah don't pressure wash your bike never yeah
27:07
i lost the power meter over a yeah yeah over that yeah yeah don't don't pressure
27:13
wash the bike it's not just the seals on the bearings and the electronics not
27:17
designed for that so yeah clean it uh it's open water or bike cleaner and water
27:23
and then sponge and oil that But yeah,
27:26
we'll lubricate the chain depending on what your chosen type of lubricant is, wax or...
27:33
Wax or wet lube and yeah try and keep your disc rotors clean if buying a can of disc brake cleaner,
27:41
which is spray on the rotors is is a
27:44
worthwhile purchase if you're going to clean the bike if you can spray
27:47
that on and wipe it off with a clean cloth and wipe
27:50
off the excess and that should prevent any contamination now
27:54
for people that can't wash their bikes
27:57
at home and do depend on those gas stations for
28:00
the pressure washer what do they do can you just spray like
28:03
the fork in the back of the frame or yeah i
28:06
would spray it from distance so don't
28:10
focus the jet on any of
28:13
the bearings so the bottom bracket the wheel hubs if you
28:16
want to spray the tires and kind of the top half of the frame kind
28:19
of be all right but just avoid places where like the
28:22
headset the wheel bearings the bottom bracket
28:25
the rear deraille and or front deraille you've got
28:28
to avoid those things and you should be able to get the most
28:31
the rest of the dirt kind of off but yeah don't sort
28:34
of uh don't chase the dirt away like you
28:37
would if you were cleaning the car or the patio otherwise yeah yeah
28:40
of the power was yeah you
28:44
just push it just pushes all of the grease and lubricant out of the bearings
28:49
or we'll get between the waterproof seals and get into the electronics and so
28:54
what you're doing is you're just pushing all of the dirt and all of the good
28:58
sort of lubricant out of the bearings and they'll just rust.
29:02
Wow. Okay. That explains a lot. Okay. You're too far away from me to see your
29:07
bike, so it's fine. I'll never know.
29:10
Never know. Yeah. You mentioned that where you live, it's like a gentle terrain
29:16
and there are hidden breakaways, quiet roads to be discovered.
29:21
What are some of your favorite local routes or riding experience that you enjoy
29:27
and that maybe have inspired the designs on Alfano frames?
29:32
So there's a huge time trial scene
29:35
in the uk that's our our
29:38
kind of bread and butter of racing i guess for most keen road cyclists these
29:41
time trials closed road racing is few and far between here so turning up on
29:47
a sunday morning or in the evening that most clubs will run a local kind of
29:52
thursday night or wednesday night 10 mile time trial and you just rock up and.
29:57
Race turn up flog yourself 10 miles and get back off the bike again and you get a time,
30:03
and you turn up a race on a sunday and they uh you know
30:06
charge you five pounds you get
30:08
a race number you give your race number back at the end and you get a cup of
30:11
tea and a bit of cake and off you go it's great it's a really welcoming and
30:18
from the outside it can seem quite intimidating but it's always run by volunteers
30:22
that tend to be the partners of the people who are members of the club,
30:27
all members of the club themselves, and they're all just really enthused to
30:30
get people riding and racing time trials.
30:34
And so, yeah, the time trial is a couple of time trial routes local to me that
30:37
inspired the kind of my time trial bike that's on the website, the Dazzle Camouflage.
30:43
And then, yeah, around here is very much shorter sections of kind of bridleway
30:49
or gravel interspersed with kind of country lanes.
30:53
So you have to do lots of hunting for longer sections of gravel,
30:57
certainly if you want to be off the beaten path a bit.
31:00
And as such, yeah, my bikes, I think I like an element of adaptability to them.
31:06
I like to be, you know, I want it to be fun when you're riding on the road because
31:11
you kind of have to, certainly in the Midlands, for a proportion of your ride.
31:16
And then still be capable when you get onto the rougher stuff,
31:19
when you go onto the gravel, to be able to sort of push the limits of the bike
31:23
and push the limits of yourself as much as you want.
31:26
And, you know, you don't have to travel too far to find, you know,
31:30
peak district from Leicester is only an hour and a half in the car.
31:34
Nice. hour and a half on the train up to derby you
31:37
can be out in the peaks i was up in northumbria racing
31:41
last weekend the land between and
31:44
phenomenal a highly an amazing race rich
31:48
rothwell the organizer did an incredible job the race is brilliant
31:51
and the scenery and the riding is absolutely
31:55
incredible and the i took
31:58
the aventura it was it behaved
32:01
really well i squeezed the 2.4 inch
32:04
tire into the front no two yeah
32:07
57 mil renee hearse so yeah wow and
32:11
then 47 mil on the back so that
32:14
and that was not very
32:17
much clearance on the rear but the fork the fork curved okay nice
32:21
yeah that that was that was cool and
32:24
yeah i think a lot of the time the bike you've got is
32:26
fine you just have to practice uh practice descending
32:31
or practice climbing me yeah now that
32:34
you mention can you share why
32:38
would you go bigger tire on the front and smaller
32:41
on the back grip uh i
32:44
was going to match them but i couldn't fit the matching tire in the rear these
32:49
tires were a gift from a friend so i was keen to use both and yeah i fitted
32:56
the one on the rear but it was there was some there'd have been less frame left
32:59
than i'd have liked by the is the right.
33:02
Yeah, you can go, people have done, go smaller on the rear, big on the front.
33:07
Nobbler tends to be more grippy on the front, tends to be the way people will
33:12
go for some gravel stuff because you have that grip turning into the corners and things.
33:17
And when you're descending, you're
33:18
getting that grip. Whereas if the back slides, you can control that.
33:22
You know, it's very easy to kind of lock the back wheel on a loose descent.
33:26
You don't want to lock the front wheel because the front wheel will be steering you.
33:31
So yeah a grippier tire on the front and with this it was also an added bonus
33:35
of having a little bit of extra cushioning so i was not i was running a rigid
33:39
fork there were other people there on,
33:42
suspension forks and suspension stems and i was running a fully rigid kind of
33:45
front end and so having the bigger tire at the lower pressure provides that
33:50
little bit of kind of suspension,
33:52
cushioning at the front as well cool and now that you're full-time at the shop.
34:00
What's next for you are there any upcoming builds that are pushing boundaries,
34:05
what are you up to what am i up to at the moment just working on i've got a
34:11
couple of there's a couple of bikes in the works i mean so talking with a couple
34:15
of people about some bike designs that is just approaching retirement buying
34:21
uh that's going to be quite a fun project hopefully,
34:23
looking at building a kind of all as many
34:27
components sourced from around the uk as possible
34:29
so he wants to kind of reynolds steel so stainless reynolds steel and then find
34:35
local manufacturers who make wheel hubs and headsets and bottom brackets and
34:39
things so we can get everything to be as uk based as possible and he wants to
34:45
run a campagnolo group set but everything else will be made in the UK.
34:50
So he's got a collection of bikes and runs Campag on two or three of them.
34:56
Big Campag fan, and so that'll be a fun project.
35:00
Yeah, and it's nice because Reynolds is...
35:05
An hour from here from where i'm based over in
35:08
birmingham so it's now on the train uh to birmingham
35:11
and so in theory i can go you know
35:14
i could go and pick up the tubing which i think is really nice go
35:17
to the factory yeah and collect the tubing and
35:20
then there are there are some other builders i'm friends with
35:23
and kind of people who make components and things so hubs
35:26
and bearings and things that we can go in there go
35:29
and collect all those things from as well so it should be a fun project and
35:32
then i'm working on a project looking at
35:35
trying to build a travel bike something that folds
35:38
in a manner not dissimilar
35:42
to a very famous brand beginning with
35:44
b who i know but so
35:48
personal question has was using one of
35:51
those small wheeled folding bike and wants
35:54
a big wheeled folding bike or a big wheeled bike that breaks
35:57
down to easily to allow you to take it
36:00
on the train within the kind of size restrictions and
36:03
requirements of the various train
36:06
companies because i know in spain it can be a problem certainly
36:09
in the uk it's a huge problem if
36:12
you rock up without a bike reservation you can be waiting for ages to get on
36:18
a train oh wow okay yeah here you need a bike reservation on the fast train
36:24
but the regional train you can just you don't even need to pack your bike no
36:28
so here most trains you don't need a reservation.
36:32
For all of them but if you don't have a reservation and there's already like
36:37
two bikes on the train they won't let you the most trains won't take more than two bikes which is.
36:44
That's insane not really the ideal yeah and but if you can pack it down into
36:49
like a bag or you can fold it up then in theory it goes on the train it doesn't
36:54
require a bike space So you'll feel much easier to transport around that way.
37:00
And then third and final one is some 32-inch wheels.
37:05
Nonsense that i'm working on a 32 inch
37:08
wheeled hardtail mountain bike that is
37:11
a longer term project for bespoke next year for the
37:14
handmade bike show that's in manchester early next year so that's a cool so
37:21
that's a new concept yeah so 32 inch wheels are just becoming a bit of a thing
37:26
now maxis and a couple of the maxis have released some tires which i've got a pair of.
37:33
And a couple of the brands i think are rumours to be following fairly close
37:36
behind and so as a taller rider a 32 inch wheel bike is very appealing because
37:43
i can have a smaller frame so instead of having a giant head tube i can run
37:47
a kind of head tube that looks relatively normal,
37:51
and also 32 inch wheels good for rolling over
37:54
stuff lumps and bumps and things so a hardtail
37:57
32 inch bike should allow me to do some very
38:00
silly gravel and off-road racing cool well you
38:04
have to come back and tell us how that bike show went and
38:08
yeah thank you so much for being part of don't you speak again and i'm sure
38:14
we'll be hearing more from you soon yeah thank you no it's a delight as always
38:19
uh yeah and you know where i am if you need me thank you and that's all for today's episode.
38:25
I want to thank the listeners for tuning in. Your support means everything.
38:30
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