{"id":9833,"date":"2021-10-31T23:25:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T22:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spanner.org.uk\/?p=9833"},"modified":"2021-10-31T23:25:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T22:25:48","slug":"andy-endurance-racing-on-a-custom-spanner-bike-140mm-hardtail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?p=9833","title":{"rendered":"Andy – Endurance Racing on a Custom Spanner Bike 140mm hardtail!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The right tool for the job?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Andy doesn’t like to follow the herd – where most people might think a 100mm carbon hardtail would be the best option for long distance racing, Andy prefers to tackle the descents on something a little more substantial!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lovely day for it!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He got in touch as he was looking to update his favourite racing rig – an all purpose NS Eccentric steel hardtail frame. He loved the fit, and the way it handled, but coming in at 34lbs(!) he wanted to take a little weight out of the equation, and perhaps tweak a few things here and there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tweaking the design.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

He had, of course, come to the right place. After talking things through we came up with a plan to keep him cruising along for mile after mile. The frame would be based on the NS Eccentric dimensions but with a little work to make sure we could fit in a 34 tooth chainring along with short chain stays and decent sized tyres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When your local events look like this you can see the benefit of something a little more beefy – perhaps not 34lbs beefy though!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Plate chain stays were the ideal solution to the clearance requirements, with the rest of the frame being designed as a light-ish weight all rounder. The additional leverage of the longer forks meant we couldn’t go crazy with the weight reduction as the frame still needed to handle the downs with confidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that we just added the little personal touches that really make a custom frame your own:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Just to remind people of who you are and where you’re from!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

‘Make me a light, fast bike…’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward through the usual fabrication time and we handed the frame over to Andy’s favourite bike shop, Pedals in Edinburgh, they said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘It’s all come together really well, the frame is bang on too. Straight, well finished and seems nicely welded’  <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Aww, shucks, you’ll make me blush!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedals took Andy’s request for a light, fast bike and added plenty of fine components to compliment the frame. All that was left was for Andy to hit the trails:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘She is fast, stable and light! Ticks all the right boxes, I did a 5 hour plus ride on her today and found it very comfortable. With a 34 tooth ring on the front and 10-51 cassette on the back, there are plenty of gears for every occasion!’.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Initial impressions were favourable! But the proof would be in the racing pudding – Andy was kind enough to keep me updated over the year…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thought I would give you a quick update on my racing on the bike you built me. I had a gravel race in the lake district where it was the perfect fast, mile munching, machine and I finished well. <\/p>

Two weeks ago I did a 115km mountain bike race in Kielder and placed 7th, with only 37 of the 120 starters finishing the race it was hard going!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A well earned 2nd place, good work chap!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Boy am I glad I don’t do these events, hats off sir!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday I did a 10 hour mountain bike race in the South West of Scotland and I am very happy to say that, with the perfect bike, I achieved a second place in very tricky conditions! I’d swapped the fast rolling tyres for some grippier rubber and the bike turned from a mile muncher to very stable and confidence inspiring machine. <\/p>

I still drool over a Yeti Arc in carbon but the bike you built me gets more admiring glances on a start line than any stock race machine!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Well you can’t say fairer than that – it’s always fun coming up with the recipe for someone’s dream machine. And even better to see them doing so well on it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’d like to discuss your ideas for ‘the one’ then drop me a line and let’s have a chat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you’d like to follow more of Andy’s rides you’ll find him over here: @andy_davidson_endurance_racer <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The right tool for the job? Andy doesn’t like to follow the herd – where most people might think a 100mm carbon hardtail would be the best option for long distance racing, Andy prefers to tackle the descents on something a little more substantial! He got in touch as he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,14,5],"tags":[16,11,12,6,43],"class_list":["post-9833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bikes","category-gallery","category-news","tag-29er","tag-hardtail","tag-mtb","tag-news","tag-spanner-bike"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9GLNb-2yB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4328,"url":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?p=4328","url_meta":{"origin":9833,"position":0},"title":"Steve’s Spanner Bike Titanium Hardcore Hardtail – Licketysplit","author":"andrew","date":"6th May 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Another day another fine addition to the exclusive Spanner Bike club. Steve had ridden Dan's SYD (see here) and instantly fell in love - he's only human! But he couldn't help thinking a little nip here and a little tuck there might just make things even more perfect. He also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bikes"","block_context":{"text":"Bikes","link":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190505_101015-1-900x675.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190505_101015-1-900x675.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190505_101015-1-900x675.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/20190505_101015-1-900x675.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9655,"url":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?p=9655","url_meta":{"origin":9833,"position":1},"title":"Jeff’s Custom Spanner Bike ‘Descendant’ Titanium Hardtail","author":"andrew","date":"22nd January 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I am totally delighted with the bike, It's very playful and comes into its own on winding single track!As a bonus it's also the most comfortable hardtail I have ever ridden! And you can't ask for a better review than that. Jeff approached me as he had a yearning to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bikes"","block_context":{"text":"Bikes","link":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/11_QH-900x570.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/11_QH-900x570.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/11_QH-900x570.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/11_QH-900x570.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4264,"url":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?p=4264","url_meta":{"origin":9833,"position":2},"title":"Dan’s Spanner Bike SYD 2.5 Titanium Hardcore Hardtail","author":"andrew","date":"24th December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Another happy customer... Here's a tale of Christmas cheer about one young man who's been so good this year that Santa decided to reward him with a very special present ;-) Dan approached me as he had been let down on a delivery from another manufacturer and needed to source\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bikes"","block_context":{"text":"Bikes","link":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20181216_122558-e1545633397743-900x442.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20181216_122558-e1545633397743-900x442.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20181216_122558-e1545633397743-900x442.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/20181216_122558-e1545633397743-900x442.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":505,"url":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?p=505","url_meta":{"origin":9833,"position":3},"title":"New Arrival – Love You Long Time!","author":"andrew","date":"3rd July 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"So - here are the built-up\u00a0pics at last.\u00a0I did build her up and go for a test ride not long after the frame arrived, but that reminded me that the front end felt really high, so I wanted to get it set up properly before taking any pictures! 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I'd had some design ideas flying around my head for a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bikes"","block_context":{"text":"Bikes","link":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/DSC_0323-900x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/DSC_0323-900x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/DSC_0323-900x600.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.spanner.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/DSC_0323-900x600.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":382,"url":"https:\/\/spanner.bike\/?p=382","url_meta":{"origin":9833,"position":5},"title":"Spanner’s Love You Long Time by XACD","author":"andrew","date":"14th October 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"And number two rolls off the production line: Based on this drawing: This time I'd been reading up about the latest hardtail thinking around geometry and tube sizes. 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