Is this the place to say "Woohoo! New bike!"

[GrahamG]

Wasn't sure where to put this so....

Woohoo! New bike! Hewitt Alpine Audax frame built up with mix of Shimano/Campag and Hewitt wheels.

Here's a pic after it's first run:

..and just for Bonj, here's the 'before mudguards' shot..

 

[Aperitif]

Nice bike Graham - looks like it would fit me! Bit of a shocker that red stripe on the saddle bag though...

 

[wafflycat]

I do rather like Hewitt bikes..

 

[Joe]

Looks good!
What bars are they?

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Looks nice.

ok...let me ask a dumb question...what is so great about Hewitt bikes?

 

[wafflycat]

Hewitts have an excellent reputation for producing high quality frames, reliable, fit for purpose, well made, well finished at a decent price for quality, off-the-peg and custom, touring/audax frames in particular

Edit: and in an entirely subjective mode, they just *look right*

 

[Wolf04]

Sweet

 

[Scoosh]

Is this the place to say "Woohoo! New bike!"
Whether it is or not - it looks good and I hope you have many happy miles/hours together in true harmony with nature and ....... you can guess the rest

 

[Fab Foodie]

That is a very nice steed indeed. Great choice!

 

[Shaun]

Looks smart Graham, and those mudguards will get plenty of abuse in the coming months ...

Are you quite a tall chap? (just going on the size of the head tube)

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Noodley]

Nice looking bike - and if you ever get bored of it, I think it would fit me!

 

[Keith Oates]

Like the bike and in this case the mudguards look just fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Aperitif]

Nice looking bike - and if you ever get bored of it, I think it would fit me!

Yes - but I said it first Fletch - get back in your cell...

 

[ChrisKH]

Nice.

I haven't built up my new one yet. I turned up in the garage at 10.30 pm last night, opened the box and looked at all the bits and walked away again. I'll post a picture when it's done.

 

[GrahamG]

Looks good!
What bars are they?

FSA Omega Compact They were on a tourer when I went for the fitting and they looked just the thing for my small hands with a shallow enough drop so it's not a major adjustment going into them.

Looks nice.

ok...let me ask a dumb question...what is so great about Hewitt bikes?

I reckon that a lot of people rave about them because of his fitting service - great fit + quality bike is always going to result in a very happy customer, especially those of us who struggle to find something comfortable because we simply don't understand what 'good fit' entails!

Looks smart Graham, and those mudguards will get plenty of abuse in the coming months ...

Are you quite a tall chap? (just going on the size of the head tube)


Cheers,
Shaun

It pissed down on the first ride... oh such a wonderful summer

I'm only 5'10". You might also notice that the top tube is a little shorter than normal too. Reason for both of these is that I have long legs (33") and short body, then to exacerbate things I have short arms too (every suit jacket ends up needing 1-2" taking off the sleeve!). After quite a comprehensive fitting session, that geometry is what Paul and the framebuilder (can't remember his name, he just popped out from the back for 5 minutes) decided would work best for me whilst still giving the necessary ride qualities. IIRC, there's a good 25-30mm difference between the seat-tube and top-tube measurements.

It's amazingly comfortable fit-wise, and also just frame-wise - even with 23's on, it really does just glide over the bumps and potholes like nothing I've ridden before (I've had alu frames and some high quality steel jobbies over the last few years, never tried carbon though).