eep! – a blog

Yesterday I managed to find the only few hours of fair weather so far this weekend and rode down to the Zero G bike shop in Bedminster for a test ride of the achingly beautiful Trek District. There has been a ton of hype about it online, mainly I think as a result of it’s somewhat intriguing belt drive system and also perhaps, because this bike has taken what feels like an age to get out into the wild. But it *is* now available, costs £600 and I’ve got the chance to bag one on cyclescheme if I want to for about £30ish per month.

So anyway, I rode the 56cm medium, which seemed to be the right size for my 5’8″ (172cm) height. I had the saddle about 10cm out of the seat clamp, but probably should have gone a bit higher on reflection. As I’m not sure what I’m going to write about it, so I will just categorise as a go and you can post any questions in the comments…

Looks – admit it, half the reason for getting a single speed is because it is pretty. And make no mistake, this a very pretty bike indeed. It looks every bit as good as the photos you’ll have seen online, and simply is a very striking bike. It was the one in the window display at the bike store, so I think that says enough. The only thing I spotted which let the side down a little was that the bottle cage screws on the production bike were in plain metal whereas the official pics show them in orange. Can’t really complain that much though! The frame is an aluminium number with a carbon front fork, painted to match, so if you are hoping for super skinny steel tubing, then you’ll be disappointed and I know this is a bone of contention for a lot of single-speed purists. But whether it upsets the purists or not, it brings me neatly to…

Weight – this is a very light bike indeed. Considerably (and upsettingly) lighter than my road bike in fact. But with no gears and mechanics to drag it down, it isn’t a surprise.

The ride – I didn’t get far as I was a bit nervous about the rain coming down at any moment, but I just went for a spin up North Street and back. The bike pulled away nice and swiftly and I can confirm that the belt drive has no slack in it at all – no different to a chain, except for the spooky silence that accompanied it when I was pedalling. I would need to get more used to the upright riding position which came as something of a shock to me compared to the road bike, but I also found the angled handlebars (pic here by arsbars) left the steering feeling a little twitchy. It is however nice and quick to ride and when I got out of the saddle and pushed it a bit, it did feel very swift indeed. My biggest gripe about the bike altogether though was when it was freewheelling though. I may well be completely spoiled by my road bike, but I found the freewheel to be very clicky and it just didn’t roll as a well as I was expecting, despite the fact that it was on 700c x 25 tyres.

Overall – so would I buy one? Well it’s difficult to say. This is the first single speed I’ve ridden, so I don’t know how it compares to the rest of the competition and I would like to try a few other things including the Kona Paddy Wagon, Specialized Langster and the Giant Bowery.

I think if I were to get one then the following modifications would be in order:

• Swapping the twitchy handlebars for a flat or preferably a bullhorn set, even though I’ll end up paying through the nose for a nice matching set.
• Swapping the pedals for a set of Shimano PD-A530 with an SPD on one side and flat on the other

Finally, afterwards I got back onto my beloved SCR1 and rode it home and it did make me wonder why I’d need another bike, as I still love it to bits. So not a clear cut decision at all. More test rides are needed I think!

Got a question? Post it up in the comments!

Quick CD review (yes actually bought on physical media!).

I picked up Walking on a Dream for about £7 the other day having heard the brilliant single ‘We are the People’ on the radio a few times over the last couple of weeks and rather liked it for its “Sunset at a festival or other hazy alcohol filled summer evening” feel. I’m sure you’ll get what I mean:

Anyway, it would be great if the whole album carried on in a similar vein, which I suppose it does to a certain extent, but just not as well. ‘We are the People’ is the forth track on the album and it’s fair to say that tracks 1-3 (Standing on the Shore, Walking on a Dream, Half Mast) are also really good too, but the rest just aren’t as involving, they are perhaps a bit more introverted and frankly, just less tuneful.

So, in summary, as long as you are prepared for that the wonderful “Hazy festival sunset” moment to only last four songs, then go ahead, but sadly the rest of the album whilst ok, doesn’t match the promise of the opening four tracks. So if you can get the CD for cheap, go ahead, but otherwise I could have easily lived with just downloading (legally!) the first four…

So I have a slightly obssessive relationship with my bike and it turns out that I have a similar thing for my blog’s stats. And the thing that the two have in common is that quite a lot of my (piffling) traffic stems from people searching for the Giant SCR1 bike. So now that I’ve ridden over 250 miles on it, I feel I am in a position to comment on/review it. So if you are here from Google or wherever else, I hope this is of some use to you. Read on…

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