A weekend in the Peak District.
Not long after the Solitude was finished, I was invited to join some friends on an off-road ride for a weekend. They were on a fund-raising off-road, land’s End to John O Groats. I couldn’t afford the time for the whole trip, but they agreed I could join them as they rode through the Peak District. Alex had put rack mounts into the frame and I fitted one to carry my gear for the weekend. Once I met up with the others, the rack and gear were stowed in their support camper van, leaving the bike luggage free for me. Loaded with my weekend’s gear the bike was stiff and handled really well. The only time I was really aware of the extra weight at the back was when climbing out of the saddle.
Once free of the rack and luggage and out on the trails, I really enjoyed riding the bike. Whatever Rohloff say, you CAN miss a gear and it happened a few times over the weekend – it goes into 14th, so you know it’s not right! Hopefully, as I get more used to the changer this shouldn’t happen so often. The forks worked really well, stiff over small stuff yet loosening up on bigger hits. The reduced travel worked well too, with all the climbing we had to do.
People said I may have issues with the high front end, but it never caused me any problems – I don’t want a ‘head down, arse up’ position on the bike.
Update January 2007:
It was the failure of my rear mech on last year’s Salisbury Plain Challenge that started me down the road to gear Nirvana and my Rohloff. What a difference too. This year was possibly muddier than last, though the rain stayed away and it was very mild, so keeping warm was not an issue – just finding the energy to keep the wheels turning!
The gear worked well, though I did miss a gear at one point and actually managed to lose the chain too. I was near the finish and trying to squeeze past a couple of guys riding abreast. I caught some low branches and I guess one must have snagged the chain and dropped it off the rear cog. It only took a few seconds to put back on. I thought maybe the chain had stretched and slackened, but there was only about 1/2 inch play. That was the only incident really. The rest of the time it all worked very well and I didn’t need to stop at all to clear off mud from the running gear, unlike so many of my co-riders, many of whom were having problems with chainsuck and jammed gears.
The yellow ‘THE’ guards in the picture didn’t do the job well enough for me so they’ve been relegated to the back of the shed. They are fiddly to fit, heavier than Crud Guards and as demonstrated by my muddy cod-piece, don’t work as well.
The next challenge for my Rolly-Solly? I’m going to ride one of Trailbreak’s ‘Sportive’ events. So, I’ll be stripping all the Crud Guards off the bike, raiding my assorted collection of ‘bits’ gained over the years to fit 1.5 slicks and a nice big 48 tooth front ring onto it.
Update 2:
In November 2007 the bike was stolen from my workplace. Fortunately it was recovered in February 2008, a little worse for wear and missing the Hope Mini Mono’s. I had already got funds for a replacement through insurance, and when the bike was stolen, Alex Baker, who designed the frame and arranged for Lee Cooper to build it got in touch to say that Lee was then working for Coventry Cycles. I sent them the original drawing and Lee built up a second frame, with a few mods. This replacement – my Qubic – was finished in May 2008 and only a short time later the Solitude was recovered. Worse for wear with swapped out mismatched brakes and a bent disc, I stripped the bike and sent it off for a respray, then Pedal On rebuilt it with new brakes, so I now had two, very similar machines.
