Carbon is real too...
Part 3. Early Summer/Mid-Summer. Spring Shake-down of the OPEN U.P.
At AEIGHT we’re known for making bespoke, made-to-measure, one-off steel frames. But we appreciate that not everyone wants this - for some, carbon-fibre is a great option and therefore, last year we took the decision to offer carbon frames, and custom bikes, alongside our bespoke steel and custom alloy options. We offer and ride several brands including ENVE, Basso and now OPEN, and to highlight them we’ve decided to document a year’s worth of riding and racing on board our “stock” options...
In Part 2 of the blog we took our stock bike cyclocross racing - from both sides of the tapes, and we started to experiment with riding longer distances on tarmac and mixed terrain. Now it’s time for the trails to dry up so we can get some proper Gravel under our tyres!
At the end of March we hosted our very first Hotchillee Sussex Gravel Ride, successfully welcoming just shy of 40 riders, and showing them around the finest Spring trails that Sweet Sussex has to offer! We intentionally picked trails that we knew would be dry and fun - perfect for a Schwalbe G-One Bite! The UP is perfect for this kind of blast around the local trails. It’s much faster than a full on gravel bike and is super confident on the climbs. A few weeks later we backed this ride up with an SSX Social Ride - Liam found us some nice muddy trails and we supplied the coffee and cake.
After a second Hotchillee ride I headed out to The Traka (blog here) to support Jesse Yates and ride the short race myself. There’s a full write up in the blog, but one of the highlights for me was getting to spend some time doing recon on the Spanish gravel. I’d taken a pair of Schwalbe G-One RS with me, which is a full on semi-slick race tyre. It was the first chance I’d had a chance to try a full summer tyre this season and it didn’t disappoint - it’s super quick on the center of the tyre, and has bags of side grip when you’re lent over. It gets this grip from a combination of tread, compound and pressure. Something about the bike, tyre and course just worked perfectly and in the 100km race I scraped inside the top 10 in the V40 category - 98km in 3:46, with 1500m of ascent (average speed of 26.5km/h).
A week later we were off to the Gralloch, which is a UCI gravel race in Scotland. Everyone seemed mad keen to either puncture tyres or qualify for the amateur World Champs, presumably so they could donate more money to the UCI, but for me it was all about just riding my bike on some new trails. Pip and I headed up via Kielder, to ride some of the trails from the old Kielder 100 race. We had a brilliant couple of days spinning on a mix of gravel and mountain bike trails and surprisingly the RS hooked up really well. Also this kind of terrain should be putting the OPEN UP out of it’s comfort zone - remember it’s designed as a fast all-road bike rather than an out and out gravel bike (that being the WiDe), But with it’s 40mm clearance it handled everything I could through at it. I think the Redshift stem works well, especially when you’re limited on tyre size - to find out more read my Cycling Weekly piece here.
We then headed along and over the border to Galloway for the Gralloch. The gravel here was big, rough and the speed was high. This is not normally my ideal conditions, but I actually really enjoyed it. We had two riders on my AEIGHT ONE platform, Jesse was on his Fifty-One Assassin and I was on the UP. The thing I liked about the UP was the light weight advantage - with Hope pedals, stock £4k build parts, and alloy wheels it’s a 9kg bike! We’re going to have to see what we can do to make it even lighter in the future (watch this space)! I finished the 110km, including 2083m of ascent, in 4:01:44 (average speed of 27.3km/h).
Our third stop on the trio of Gravel events was Unbound in Kansas, widely accepted as the biggest race of the year. It certainly attracted a lot of big name pros, and when we were doing our research, we agreed that Jesse would do well to finish in the top 50 of the Pro race. This was Jesse’s first trip to the US, and we knew we’d have a lot to learn, so we got ourselves there a week early. There’s a full blog to come on Jesse’s race, but from my side it was a blast to recce a large part of the route on the days leading up to the race. The gravel is mostly wide, fast, and non-technical, with the exception of the “Minimum Maintenance Roads” which caused some puncture woes for many. This included us in the recce, but we spent a lot of time learning, adapting and ultimately overcame all the issues for Jesse’s race.
Being on the bike again was vital to this - just like in Spain, I’m no where near as fast as I’d need to be to race in the Pro race anymore, but I do have a heap of mountain bike and adventure racing skills which I’m able to share with Jesse, and it’s only when you’re actually there riding that you can discuss the finer points. Half the time Jesse knows what to do, but talking it through with someone helps take away any doubt. The big plus for me is that I get to ride the UP in some pretty sweet places, and blasting dustily along the Kansas gravel at 50km/h swapping turns was definitely a highlight of the year! We came away with 32nd place so we must have done something right!
Once the dust had settled I cleaned of the UP, packed up my Hotchillee kit and headed to Surrey for the start of the London to Paris as a Ride Captain. After years of wrenching in a van, it was great to finally do one on the bike, and because I was in Group 4 (where the pace is pretty chill) the UP was the perfect tool for the job. There’s two reasons why the UP works on a ride like this - firstly the gearing (Campag’s 9-tooth is brilliant) and secondly because the bike is very much “All-Road” rather than Gravel. This is commonly misunderstood, especially as the bike first appeared just at the same time as many other brands were starting to offer “Gravel” bikes. The reality is that very quickly those other brands realised that there bikes were outgunned and were set behind the curve, whist OPEN cleverly released the bigger clearance and slacker angled WiDe, alongside the more aggressive UP and continued to offer both bikes. If you want to cover a long distance in a short time, the UP is very definitely the bike for you!
If you’re interested in building your own custom, semi-custom or fully bespoke bike for off-road or road please get in touch via the contact form or the contact details on the website (www.aeightbikeco.com). We have bikes to suit most riders in a range of materials and builds.
Photos by Glen Whittington, Jesse Yates, Richard Smith, and Sven Thiele
Words by Glen Whittington
2024.RIDERS - GLENWHITTINGTON
#aeightracer – Glen’s an ex-racer who still finds time to ride bikes as much as possible - follow his adventures on Instagram. He started racing in 1998, initially specialising in XCO, Marathon and Solo 24-Hour Mountain Bike. He became a mechanic in 2002, working in shops and also for professional race teams. During this time he spent more time racing ‘Cross and Road, and then also TT. In 2013 he built his first bespoke steel frame and then spent several years at Roberts learning the art. Since then he’s designed his own range of bikes, frames and wheels which he now offers to the public, alongside servicing and race support, as part of his ÆIGHT brand - you can find his business Instagram account here.
GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO RACE WITH US?
We’re always looking for riders to be part of our ÆIGHT CØLLECTIVE. The #aeightbikeco is about doing things a little differently - Rather than a jersey being the common theme, we kit our riders out with bespoke steel bikes and handbuilt wheels made in our Sussex workshops, the ÆIGHT WHEELWØRKS and the ÆIGHT MANUFACTØRY. We then support each other at events and races regionally, nationally and internationally - whether that’s for mountain bike, ‘cross, gravel, crit, road or TT - it’s what we call, the #aeightbikeco
The best part is that we’re not asking you to leave your team or club - that includes racing in your club/team kit. We’ve got certain brands that we work with, mostly so we can standardise shared equipment, but your own sponsors and clubs are almost always welcome. We have some strict qualifying criteria but don’t be put off by this – if you’re interested in being part of the #aeightbikeco then please get in touch by emailing your racing CV to eightbikeco@gmail.com
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