Journal | Hunt Bike Wheels

A few weeks ago we featured OpenDev rider Will Johnson article detailing his preparation of riding up Ventoux at 99bpm (which can be found here). We are glad to say that Will's adventure was successful, but it certainly was not without mishaps and a huge challenge for the ex-Leicester Tigers professional rugby player. 

Read below to find out exactly how it all went down (and up) for Will.

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Well, here’s the story of a heartless fat man climbing the Giant of Provence, a fine title for a fairy tale! To recap, a heart arrhythmia and a few operations in 2016 has left me with chronotropic incompetence, which basically means my heart rate barely rises when I exercise. A little annoying to say the least, but in the bigger picture, things could be worse, I’m still on my bike.

Going to go against the grain here, but I am a Hunt employee who doesn’t like camping. There, I said it.

I’m not of the same rugged cloth of our fabled (and former) Josh Ibbett, or either of the Marchment brothers who kicked things off a couple of years ago. They all love it. The cold, the damp, I’m not sure what the appeal is – but they dig it and they dig it big. Luckily, during our visit to Eurobike this year I had company in the ‘hating camping’…. errr… camp. Luisa, our new senior engineer, spent most of her time either moaning about having to sleep in a tent whilst visiting a trade show, or listening to me doing the same. My idea of touring just means stopping at a different hotel each night. A TCR contender, I am not.

This is going to be a quick one. The primary (achieved) aim was for me to vent about the sleeping in a tent thing. Beyond that, I thought it would be nice to show you all some of the pictures I took whilst roaming around (usually on the way to the next meeting). Most of the stuff that took my eye was high-end road stuff, but I tried to capture some of the bikes/things that your regular media outlet wouldn't notice! Not forgetting the occasional ‘Alligator’ (this won our internal award for Most Eurobike Bike of Eurobike).

Enjoy!

Ollie Gray

Hunt Service & Dispatch Manager

It seems like yesterday that we featured world traveller and long distance cyclist, Josh Ibbett's last blog post. However, he is still out on the road and still heading along his planned route. There have been a few variations and at the time of writing, Josh has been in company with his partner Caroline. Heading south has given him time to reflect on his ride across the interior of Canada.  

This time round, Josh's trip has taken a slight turn. The endless landscapes, which those from Canada, the US and Australia can easily relate too, have challenged the Englishman who is more familiar with geographically condensed Europe/UK. It sounds like the pure openness has taken its toll. And rightly so! But in typical Josh fashion, he had made the best of it and stayed true to his 'experience-the-world' mantra rather than riding for the sake of it.

The USA is big! Flying into to New York for my first ever visit to the United States was certainly an eye opening experience. The streets are bigger, the buildings are bigger, the cars are bigger and the portions are bigger! Flying in after a month in culture filled Spain it certainly was a shock. 

Read on for more...

UCI Continental team and Hunt supported, BikeChannel Canyon, will be taking on the pinnacle of British road racing starting this Sunday at the OVO Energy Tour of Britain.

Rolling out of Edinburgh, the Hunt supported team will be racing the eight stages as one of the twenty competing teams. Beating other high noting British based Continental outfits to gain a position on the start-line within the first year of operating is quite an achievement for the young team.

We first introduced Luisa to you last week but finally got the chance to catch her for the dreaded On The Drops interview. Here is a quick refresher on what Luisa will be doing here at Hunt: 

Luisa Grappone hails from the motherland of cycling, pink jerseys and big mountain climbing (aka Italy), but has made the move to Sussex to further strengthen the Hunt wheel development team as our as our full time in-house wheel engineer. With an MSc in Aerospace Enigneering Luisa has a wealth of experience in the bicycle industry and materials engineering, with many years misspent sweating over hot CAD drawings, carbon fibre lay-ups and crunching wind tunnel data.

So here is our latest On The Drops with Luisa. Please Enjoy!

For many cyclists, climbing Ventoux is a dream. The mythical status it holds in cycling and its moon like landscape means that it is more than just any old climb. It has been the scene of huge triumphs in cycling like Contador cementing his victory in the 2009 tour, as well as many tragedies like the death of Tom Simpsons during 1967 edition of the same race.

Out of the thousands, if not tens of thousands of people who ride the peak every year, it is almost undeniable that Will Johnson is taking on this monumental climb which previous to a year ago it would have been thought of as impossible for Will due to his heart condition.

Read about Will's story here.

The Vatternrundan is a 300km race around the second largest lake in Sweden, on or near the longest day of the year. Riders go off in groups of about 60 at a time, in 2 minute intervals and this year nearly 23,000 rolled up to the start line between 8pm to 8am to follow the midnight sun.

The Swedes do make something of a thing of midsummer. They celebrate it as a national holiday and general excuse to eat herring and drink lots of Akvavit (Scandinavian spirit).

300km of Swedish Madness.

You may be more familiar with Will Johnson from his exploits on the pro rugby pitch, and rightly so... as  a long-standing former member of Leicester Tigers first 15 and now, we're honoured, he is on the Hunt OpenDev Team. Will is a truly high appreciated contributor as he provides invaluable feedback on prototypes as well as where we can improve wheels designed for the most powerful riders. So with his input we designed the new Race Aero SuperDura wheels.

Like most of us who ride in day-in-day-out, Will may never be lining up for the Tour, a Monument or pull on a Polka-dot Jersey... and that is completely fine. Cycling allows us all to enjoy and push as hard or as little as possible. In this article, Will definitely found his limits and it can even be said he pushed a little beyond them. Sometimes, we need to step out of our comfort zone and see what we are made of, not matter if its a Sunday century or lining up for a national championship.

“Grinduro is a ridiculous event. Nothing about it makes sense. Thanks for blowing it... I’ll be back..."

Adam Craig

When you read something like this the day before you set out for a race, how should you feel? This 'ridiculous event' was exactly where I was heading... not exactly confidence building. 

There has been an explosion in the popularity of gravel riding. Once existing on the fringes with gruelling events like the Dirty Kanza 100 and the Rouge Roubaix, gravel has now become its own and developed well beyond the days of riders modifying their 'cross machines or mountain bikes. And gravel events are no different. Grinduro has been a product of this hype and caught the mixed surface, drop bar, wide tyre fever. Combining the format of enduro mountain biking but on a course suited to this new breed of go anywhere bikes... the race is only a small percentage of the course. The rest is a trip around a spectacular route.

For the first time, Grinduro has stepped out of its birthplace and taken to the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. The event provided the perfect stage for the HUNT Team to test out different wheel combinations, gain insight into wheel technology in this emerging category and put the wheels through some seriously muddy conditions. 

While race reports provide great information and insight into the race, I am sure there are many, many more out there telling a very similar story... so here you are, the "Doodle Do's & Don'ts" of Grinduro Scotland.   

The Team. Post Grinduro, caked in mud, wet and cold but still smiling! Top Effort.

The BIKEChannel Canyon team were pushing hard at one of the largest meetings on the British domestic racing calendar The Road Race National Championships. Thursday included a individual time trial looping from St Johns to Kirk Michael. Harry Tanfield finished with a 5th place in the elite TT, even managing to finish ahead of a number of world tour pro from Sky and was very close to the lead testers Alex Dowsett of Movistar and creditable winner Steve Cumming from Dimension Data.

There is no shame in us admitting that a good proportion of us here at HUNT | TheRiderFirm and you the HUNT riders/customers are suckers for road racing. With the Tour starting tomorrow and the British Road Champs just passed, it is no coincidence that we'll all be pouring over stage profiles and making office predictions before each stage. We were also at the British National Champs with the BIKE Channel Canyon Team to work closely with them on new wheel ideas, feedback and do our soigneur duties with bottles & gel hand-ups at the feed zone.

Sunday was a serious test for all the the riders who had to take on one of the hardest courses in British Nat Champs history. The 193.7km road race route took inspiration from the famous Isle of Man TT as well as the iconic Snaefell mountain climb with nearly 1500ft of ascent on just this climb, plus many other lumps around the course. Youngster Harry Tanfield made it into the early break and held this own in the fast-paced dozen or so riders. Dexter Gardias from BIKE Channel Canyon also mixed it in the leading groups with Cav and other World Tour riders as the race progressed with constant attacking and finished a very creditable 16th in the Elite men's which included at least 10 world tour riders (that we could count anyway). The BIKEChannel Canyon team once again put in a stunning effort.

See below a photo journal of how things went down on the Isle of Man. Check out the shot when Alex Dowsett's bike hits the timing board!

World traveler and bike packer, Josh Ibbett, has just spent the last six weeks in Europe mostly riding through the Iberian Peninsula. At the time of writing he has caught a plane to New York and now managed to ride up to the Canadian boarder at Niagara Falls. We managed to check in with Josh and catch him for a journal entry on his experiences so far.

Enjoy.