ENGINEERED ESP £2450 £5855
Original price As built (frame only) (approx)
AS BUILT WEIGHT 5.1kg FRAME Engineered ESP FORK THM Carbones Scapula CT GEARS Fixed gear with Rotor INpower cranks, KMC chain BRAKES THM Carbones Fibula WHEELS Mack hubs, Yishunbike tubular rims FINISHING KIT Deda bar, MCFK stem, seatpost and saddle
For this year’s hill climb season I wanted something different and while a fixed geared bike sounds a bit old school, on the right course with the right rider, nothing beats them.
A hill climb bike can be a brutally simple machine, no brake or bottle cage mounts and no concessions for comfort, so for this build I had to go fully custom. Bristol-based specialist Engineered Bicycles fitted the bill, and after a couple of meetings with designer David Fong we had a plan. The frame would have no paint, as paint often adds 200g, instead it would be polished aluminium. The final tweak would be a carbon seat-tube, which may not have saved much weight, but did make the frame look cool.
Coming in around 1200g, I had to spec the frame with the lightest components I could find, including the lightweight Rotor INpower cranks [1], coupled with its NOQ 38T chainring [2]. I also looked to Germany for carbon specialists MCFK and THM. If you’re unfamiliar with these brands, they make some of the lightest, most exotic components around, with serious performance too. Coupled with my own 1000g tubular wheels the final build weighed in at 5.1kg, not bad for a bike with an alloy frame.
Since then I’ve been delving into the world of gear inches and gradients, trying to find the perfect ratio for each race. I think I’ve had about a 50 per cent success rate as some hills just aren’t suited to one gear, but it’s made the season interesting.