Made it to the Mega!

Last week i got to realise a longterm dream, by taking the SBV to the Megavalanche week at Alpe D’Huez in the French Alps, and though I didn't get to race the bike I got a days riding out of it on the top half of the qualifying course and the bottom half of last years Mega course. The frame held up and worked well. I had a blast riding the final parts of the bottom of the Mega course.. grinning ear to ear.. definetly worth all the effort. With the frame layout / suspension design proven it'll soon be on to the mk2. The next frame definetly needs to be alot lighter! and i may go for some gears too, as though i like the singlespeed simplicity pedalling anywhere other than downwards is pretty brutal.

Finished bike

Paint job

Suspension and double-chain videos

To cut a long story short...

As you'll see it’s been quite a while since I last put up a post, and a lot has happened to the project in that time. My grand plans of documenting didn't quite happen, but I did take lots of photos along the way so I might yet write it all up.

Anyways, the frame has been finish (except paint) and the bike built up. Initial rides have been promising, the fundamentals seem to be right, and so far has held up ok. I haven’t ridden many down hill bikes so can't really compare against anything but feels good at speed and the suspension is pretty plush and soaks up the trail well. The single speed gearing is just about right if a little hard on the flatter sections, and other than the profile hub buzzing away it was pretty damn quite on the rough stuff, so its living up to it's name - s.v.b (silent but violent).

This being my first frame means that with every run there’s always that little though at the back of my head of will it / wont it fail? I’d love to have 100% confidence in it, as so far it’s been a blast to ride.

I had left the frame bare to be able to check the welds after each downhill run, but it’s becoming a bit of a pain having to keep it covered in WD40 to prevent it rusting.

As it’s survived the first few rides seemingly ok I'm going to take a chance and give it a simple rattle can paint job in yellow and black (like the image at the start of the blog). The paintwork should reduce maintenance and protect against rusting. Hopefully it'll stay in one piece once pimped up. I’d love to get it out to the Alps this summer for the Megavalanche week at Alpe D’Huez. Watch this space...