The Montelimar

From Audax frame

The Montelimar is the result of the minor crisis I went through in 2009. It was designed as a long-distance bike for taking a certain amount of punishment and not necessarily for speed. To take 700c 28mm tyres with enough clearance for mudguards. The angles on the seat tube and the head tube are somewhere between 72 and 73 degrees and the bottom bracket drop is 60mm. The chainstays are oval and once again they ended up slightly too short.

The oversized tubes make the frame fairly stiff. It's really good when the roads are rough and in hilly terrain but at first I found it too rigid. However with the Panaracer Pasela 28mm tyres I learned not to inflate to 9 bar/130 psi as is the custom here in Germany (people think you're half cracked here if you ride a racing/touring tyre with less than 6 bar/87 psi) and that improved the comfort and the handling of the bike no end.

The bike comes into its own with a load in the front or on the rear where I hardly notice the extra weight. So I decided I'd have a go at making a front rack, which above all would support the light. The support on the brake-bolt interfered with the front-brake too much so I'll have to alter it but otherwise I was quite happy with my first rack.

From Audax frame

While the frame was lying around finished but unpainted, I made a pump-peg out of a pump stud and a cut-off from a mudguard stay.

From Audax frame

It has been an invaluable experience testing this bike on long rides in various terrains as well as commuting to work on it. It boosted my confidence in my meagre framebuilding capabilities and gave me the bike I had always dreamt about.

Wanting too much - my leap into long distance cycling

In 2008 I dreamt of riding my first long distance brevet on one of my own frames. So I set to work on a frame similar to the one I had made for my dad and registered myself for the 1400km Brevet London-Edinburgh-London in 2009. However my circumstances changed at the end of 2008 when my contract as an IT-technician ran out.

At first I thought I would have more time for cycling and framebuilding (a thing I’d love to do fulltime) but as 2009 wore on the opposite was the case. I had commuted a 66km round-trip to work regularly and now I had to do all that cycling in my free time. My original justification for framebuilding as an opposite pole to the frustrations of IT-work was also vacant.

As the year wore on I had a number of colds and tummy-bugs. I was desperate to complete the 2009 Brevet Super Series in Brandenburg but didn’t finish a single Brevet for illness and family obligation reasons. My frame wasn’t getting anywhere either because I was obsessed with creating something way above my level of expertise.

In retrospect this whole experience was very valuable. Feeling I had somehow failed at work I wanted to prove myself what I was capable of in other areas. Brevet cycling is very for showing you where your psychological limits are. Every event is a confrontation with yourself that you have to deal with efficiently so that you can continue and enjoy your ride. This ranges from how prepared (fitness, navigation, strategy) you are, what you brought with you (and now have to schlep up the hills), what you didn’t bring and now have to do without, by what ideals you chose and built your bike and most importantly how you deal with others (their speed, their lack of experience, their annoyances) on the ride. Framebuilding (or perhaps any craft) is similar. You constantly have to be aware of your limits and work within them and most importantly look at your results with those limits in mind. In doing so you build the foundational skills and your limits become extended.

At last I gave up on the idea of riding LEL and finishing the frame in time and that’s when things started to look up. I finished the bike in time for the 2010 Brevet season and completed the Super Series on it. I hadn’t underestimated what a pure buzz and extra motivation it would be to riding on my own frame. Sort of like going on a big adventure with a good friend whose shortcomings you can’t see because the comfort they provide by just being there far outweighs any faults they have.

From Audax frame