The best part of working in a bike shop is you get to meet all sorts of folk. Commuters, leisure cyclist, amatuer racers and in this instance, ultra endurance athletes! Mark is a friend of the shop and in early 2023, he announced he had successfully entered The Transcontinental Race. If you joined us for our inaugral Towpath Talk, you will have heard his and Kris' whacky stories while crossing the continent. This was no task for the faint of hearted, Mark's goal was to build a reliable rig that was essentailly his home for the two week period that the race covered.
Touching on wants to start with, he needed a bike that was comfortable and fast, so he managed to source a Sonder Camino frame to build onto. We had talked about the best option for groupsets and Shimano's GRX came to be the top choice. 1x11 gears meant he had a wide enough range to tackle the mountains before him but with less moving parts that a 2x set up which meant he had one less thing to worry about from a mechanical point of view.
Our main goal was to build him a reliable set of wheels. Ones that were strong, light and with a dynamo hub. From experience, we recommended the SP Dynamo PL-7, for it's affordablitity, robust but light build and effiecient power output. Matched with DT Swiss' 350 hub and Halo Vapour rims and Supernova E3 Front and Rear light, we had a solid wheel build to send Mark on his adventures.
Tying up with Deda Elementi TT bars, Pro's 3.5mm Gravel specific bar tape for comfort, carbon Ritchey stem and seatpost, Mark set out to test ride the living life out of the bike. With a few tweaks here and there over the following few weeks, he was buzzing over the final product.
Our team members are experienced with off-road, road, endurance and mountain biking meaning we can offer our expertise to help guide you towards the perfect build, no matter what type of riding you are doing.
Super commuter or ultra racer, we can help build the perfect bike
Make a custom build appointment today!
