All purpose
Words by Steve Shapiro. Article from Ride Magazine May 2015.
Another new category of bicycle is emerging, one that might even be pitch-perfect for South African riders.
Every now and then, men of passionate genius and zealous creativity get together to produce a functional artifact unrelated to pure profit or superficial transient pleasure – but which is destined to become a significant and game-changing icon. Such is the all-South African, all purpose bicycle, the fruit of cooperation between emerging bike builder David Mercer and that champion of challenge, Stan Engelbrecht.
David’s enthusiasm for this genre knows no bounds: “They don’t fit any specific niche – it really is the ultimate do-anything bicycle, and I don’t think there has been a better time to spec them. He says that while pure touring has remained the destination-based function, the blessing of so many dirt-road options has opened up a new, more challenging adventurous dimension. At their most efficient they will differ from traditional touring and cyclo-cross machines.
Some manufactures are producing bikes of its ilk internationally, and the steel framed AWOL from specialised is a good example. Racks for panniers restrict the use of carbon fibre frames, and even if there are carbon frames with rack eyes he does not see cyclists “thinking of putting racks on a bike are going to be looking at anything ultra-lightweight’.
As far as geometry goes compared with road bikes he sees a slightly slacker head angle and variability of road conditions would push riders back. The rearward bias is useful for tackling uneven terrain. His preference is for a slightly steeper seat angle and longer chain and seat stays to accommodate racks and knobby tyres, and to make the whole machine more stable.
The wheel base is longer than a standard cyclo-cross frame but substantially shorter than a traditional tourer. Although the BB height would be similar to a road bike, the bigger tyres would raise it automatically. Tubeless tyres are the future, and the future starts soon.
He is also prepared to stick out his neck with the prediction that rims will be following the MTB trend to greater width David’s steel forks have eyes for front racks, but he has built bikes with carbon forks that don’t (Stan’s bike in one).
The concept is not entirely new. What is different, however, is the tested breadth – the range of this particular exemplar. It is cyclo-cross based touring bike, but also a very successful road bike and a staggeringly efficient (even if un-expectedly), very fast ‘mountain bike’. Perhaps it is not for everyone and some of its applications will require skill and experience – so it won’t erode the bottom-line imperative of the industry, but it will make a lot of people think.
And anyone with the proverbial ‘half brain’ will immediately grasp how compatible it is with the Southern African landscape.
Stan recently rode his all-purpose machine cross-country from Cape Town to Windhoek. He brought it back easily by bus because of its ingenious splitting facility. Then apart from some pretty useful commuting, he rode the same bike very effectively in the 24-hour MTB race at Oak valley.
He is the best known for his photographs of ordinary people on ordinary bikes, for promoting non market -based cycling in general, and for organising the first gravel road Tour of Arae (in the Karoo), late last year. Stan has done a considerable amount of less- than- luxurious touring in Europe and Africa, but taking to him you soon realise a persistent equipment disappointment, an bad luck when bikes were ‘liberated’ or more significantly, when cross ocean transaction failed to realised hoped-for expectations. When he and his photographic collaborator Nic Grobler started touring together they were looking for something more versatile than a mountain bike. They explored what the local market had to offer –putting fatter tyres on to road bikes – but soon realised that they needed something closer to MTB, as Stan puts it: “So I could do rougher stuff. You can take a road bike onto gravel but suddenly there’s a bit of single track and you want to try that.” Research took him to cyclo-cross bikes, but phoning around for local importers drew a blank.
“Everyone I spoke to said no, they didn’t think there was a market here:
‘No one will ride those bikes; it’s not a sport that’s practised here.” Cyclo-cross, on fat- tyred roadish bikes, is an intense, short-course winter sport over rough terrain, and while there are glimmerings of interest locally and a few specific bikes are trickling in, it is very far from fashionable. Stan in every event was not looking for that kind of action; it was the touring potential that got him going. Via Britain he imported a Far East-built offering and found the frame shoddily built, wit indifferent kit. He did a tour on it, but later, even where the frame was replaced with an aluminium alternative, he remained unhappy. He built up and played around with various Cannondale road frames and, although these were a source of some pleasure to him, it was the acquisition of a titanium Lynskey with rack mounts that made him believe he had arrived.
He took it to Europe, and on his third night in London it was stolen. The loss had him go back home spend “three or four months being grumpy “…and out of pocket. Then, a couple of years later, a birthday came up and he decided to splash out and buy himself a ‘proper’ cyclo-cross bike.
The bespoke frame builders were all very expensive but he found a US maker, a youthful company with “a bit of vibe – cool interesting people, with a real world view”.
It looked promising, but it turned sour. Perhaps it was the distance: he’d emphasised his requirements, which called for a longer rear end – inter alia, to eliminate heel clip and to cater for rack-gang panniers. And there were countless smaller problems where it seemed as if the builders had ignored his directives. There was a to-ing and fro-ing of frames. “You check these things before you send a frame all the way to South Africa – what a waste of resources!” he asked for his money back and he got it. Then he found out that David Mercer was building the kind of bikes he wanted.
David had exploded in the South African scene with his range of bespoke (and now also ‘production’) steel-framed masterpieces. In the short time he has been in it, he has been able to produce special bikes for just about every niche in the market. There is a queue of zealots and aficionados waiting for their mercers. Among the steel bikes he has built were several earlier versions of the cyclo-cross tourer concept – one for himself, which he took to Bespoked: The UK Hand built Bicycle Show in London last year and which, in spite of his modest denials to the contrary, came pretty close to being acclaimed. As David’s experience grew and Stan’s frustrations increased, the scene was being set for a most significant collusion and the bike that is the result of these interactions finally finding each other. The tough-tested results tell the story: 2 000km of fierce desert riding to Windhoek in about a month, of which fewer than 200km were on tar.
When Stan discovered that David built his first bike a few months before his own US deal became messy, he was disappointed: “if I’d known i would have waited.” But as soon as he received his refund, he emailed the nearby-bike builder and said: “I’m ready – bring it on.” He had, he reiterated something very specific on his mind, “but I wanted to be able to discuss it with someone. My brief with Dave was that I want a fast-handling touring bike or I want a cyclo-cross bike that can tour.” That included rack mounts, but also a steeper head angle than is traditional on touring bikes.
Now this was a team effort, and among the important decisions was to increase the chainstays by two centimeters, but to tighten up the front end.
In some respects, the set-up is pretty standard with a MTB, clutch assisted, 10-speed cluster and 46-34 up front. His preference was for easily serviceable, cable-actuated disc brakes. Then, carbon fork and handlebars. The result, according to Stan, is perfect. David’s personal preference (on the bike he used for touring in Scotland recently) is for cantilever brakes, and his own cyclo-cross tourer differs from Stan’s in the same way their riding styles and requirements differ – but that’s part of the privilege of working together with the frame builder. Both bikes weigh in at about 11kg unloaded, and that is pretty respectable.
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