With the British national hill climb championships ahead of them, riders were testing their modified bikes at Claverton Down, on the edge of Bath in the United Kingdom.
This special bike — built on a Focus Izalco Max — ignores all conventional road components in the pursuit of weight savings for the super-short and super-intense effort of British hill climbs.
Also read: British hill climbing bike — Robert Borek’s Cannondale
This bike tips the scales at less than 5kg/11lb.
This hill climber is based around a Focus Izalco Max frame, which was claimed to weigh 720g in a size 54cm, including bottle cage bolts.
This frame is smaller, and those bolts have been removed. The matching fork adds a further 295g.
The cut-down carbon handlebar has no grips. The pair of Litepro Ultimate brake levers are claimed to weigh just 32g each.
The principal hand position for climbing uses the KCNC BE1 bar ends, said to weigh 23g each. The bars have Specialized bungs, and the right-side bar-end is topped with a mechanical time trial shifter.
The brakes are Fouriers CNC, with titanium hardware, and no cable ends.
The climbing bike uses 22mm Vittoria Crono CS tubulars.
The Dura-Ace crankset has a single 42-tooth chainring.
The all-carbon-fiber saddle is supported by a minimalist aluminum-topped carbon seatpost that — I was assured — has been cut off just below the top tube/seatstay junction. The seatpost is secured with a JRC Kumo clamp, in place of the original Focus part.
An Edco 10-speed 11-25 cassette works with the Dura-Ace mechanical rear derailleur fitted with skeleton style jockey wheels.
The front end has an Uno aluminum stem with shortened Mount Zoom flat carbon MTB handlebar. The GPS unit does look bulky alongside all the obsessive weight-savings modifications.
Both hubs are American Classics that the rider had spare from a previous set of wheels. The 20-hole radial front wheel is screwed in place with low-profile nuts. The rear has 24 J-bend spokes crossed twice.
The left Dura-Ace crank incorporates a 4iiii power meter, and the rider uses Xpedo pedals, likely the Thrust Ti model.