The Accursed Race Mason Macro Bike Check

The Accursed Race is a new bikepacking race from the organisers of the Transcontinental race, Lost Dot. It is a 1000mile off road bikepacking race around the Balkans starting and finishing in Skoder, Albania.

Check out the official Accursed Race website here:
https://www.lostdot.cc/race-brand/the-accursed-race

You can see the route in Ridewithgps.com here:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45933668?privacy_code=JUhkM0gUT4d7vnxRMGiHzj7l4qWBTsDI

This video details the Mason Cycles Macro Aluminium Mountain Bike that I used to complete the event.

Thanks to HONE FOODS for supporting my Accursed Race content:
https://honefoods.co.uk

Use the code JOSHIBBETT for a 20% discount on the HONE FOODS website

A big thank you to the brands that support me:
Mason Cycles – https://masoncycles.cc
Hunt Bike wheels – https://www.huntbikewheels.com
Albion Cycling – https://www.albioncycling.com
Tailfin Bikepacking equipment – https://www.tailfin.cc/?v=79cba1185463
Enduro bearings – https://cycling.endurobearings.com

If you like my videos and would like to help me produce more, please consider buying me a ‘virtual coffee’ at the link below, thanks!

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jibbett887

hello welcome to this video today I’m going to show you the bike that I used to take on the accursed race over in the Balkans now the accursed race is a 1,000m bike packing race starting in skota Albania and traversing North through Montenegro Bosnia and Kosovo uh it’s rugged it’s off-road and a mountain bike is a bike for the job so I’m going to show you what I used but before I go any further a big thank you to hone foods for sponsoring my cursed coverage they’re based here in Cambridge here and they make coffees and Gins and things like that um so yeah check out the website and there’s a 20% discount code below if you fancy some coffee so if you regularly watch my videos you may recognize this bike from the Atlas mountain race and it is a very similar setup so I’m running the Prototype Mason macro frame that’s their new 100 Mil travel aluminium hard tail um and it’s the same bike I use for Atlas in natur fact I didn’t change very much at all so a lot of the components are identical however I did make a few key changes now I’ll start with the basics that are that are unchanged since Atlas so I’m running a Shimano XT 12-speed Mechanical group set in actual fact I didn’t even change the chain I used the same uh cassette um everything was working fine so I thought well it’s done 500 dry miles on it I’ll see what I can get out of it and it’s still working good now so yeah good on Shimano for making nice reliable components however the rear cassette did start creaking a bit um I think I just should have greased it a little bit more before I started I’m also running the same SLX brakes again I didn’t use I didn’t even fit new brake pads Before the Race they’re the Shimano scented pads and they’ve still got life in them now 1,000 miles later and it was anything but dry at times on the cursed race so that just goes to show pay for the quality brake pads and they will definitely pay you back over time I also ran a red shift seat post suspension seat post and an ergon saddle again not touched since since Atlas and the wheels and tires uh these are prototypes of the the brand new hunt proven Dynamo uh Wheels again use them for um for Atlas and in natural fact the tires the mes the victoriia mescal’s 2.25 sorry 2.3 FS I should say and they are they did at is too I didn’t touch them um they were pretty they had some good enough wear on them before the race I was going to swap front for rear but I didn’t get round to that in the end so I just topped him up with new sealant I used stand sealant and they were fine the rear is starting to get a little bit low um there’s not going to be too much more left on that but the front’s pretty good so it’s an interesting experiment there’s um well there’s there’s probably a good 1,600 M 1700 Mi worth of racing on there um and they hold up well so um yeah very good experiment and zero punches now some of the changes I did make over my Atlas setup um well the most obvious one is the fork so on first glance it looks looks the same with the the S ultimate Fork on there however this is the 35 mil Stan sanction version uh in on my on my setup for Atlas I was running the 32 mil sanction version and I found them they’re a bit lighter but I found them a little bit more flexy especially with like a big wide handlebar uh so I decided to put the forks off my Mason raw um the 35 mil 120 mil Forks onto this however I sent them off for a service at TF TF tuned um and I got them to reduce the travel by 10 mil just so it fitted the frame so I’m running 110 mil travel and to be honest this is one of the best changes I did there was a lot of rough off-roads on the curse route um like proper mountain biking and just having a stiffer Fork chassis really made a difference and I definitely used that extra mil extra 10 mil of travel so that was a really good change and um yeah I’m glad I did it and I’m I’m happier carrying more weight for that extra stiffness uh the other change I made was to the cockpit so you may remember on the atlas um I I had a few issues with the bars being quite sort of narrow in the middle not much clamping area so I changed across to these data bars um they’re nice and wide they’re a little bit straight for my liking but I soon got used to it I would prer a bit more sweep um and I put the mini daa blast um Tri bars on there I didn’t want a fullon arrow setup but just something to rest my arms on and again that worked really well um no real problems um and I’ve reverted back to the the eron um I think they the GS2 grips um which I used for Silk Road last year in this funky green color um they’re an ex team kind of grip I think um but I just I really missed the bar ends in Atlas and um yeah the long climbs on the cursed race um with the with the long climbs I was really grateful to have that extra hand position and they worked really well for me now onto the luggage um it does look very similar to my Atlas setup in actual fact I use the same um tailin flip top Tu pack that’s the larger volume one I did actually have a new tailin R&D division bag made for this um the old one was getting a little bit um worn around the edges so this is a fresh one custom made for the frame um and I also had a um a new it’s a it’s not uction it’s a an R&D sample um tailin cargo pack um with these big big pockets on the side which I’ll show you in more detail uh later on but yeah these um these could well be making production soon so it was nice to put them through the paces and it worked really well you may also notice a pier on the side here now I didn’t actually use this for the race however because it was no fly to get to the event I ended up driving to Zurich then taking two trains to anona then a ferry to dures and then cycling to the start so I used to impan just to carry all my other stuff um like casual clothing uh for around the race and also my folding bite bag um so when it came to the race I took these off and then I was off into race mode nice and quickly for lighting and electronics I just use my trusty kite system now this has done numerous events now really sturdy lasts really well uh and I’m I’m a big fan of them um so yeah I’ve got the mountain bike um beam pattern light on the front it’s got a really really widespread and when you’re tired at the end of the race or at night uh it really just does help ease the pressure on your eyes and there’s no excuses for not riding at night with that on it’s like riding in daylight I’ve also got the rear light on the back here so that’s always blinking just a bit of Peace of Mind for um you know if you hit the road sections uh and you don’t have to worry about turning things on and off and I’ve also got the USB charger in the side pocket I used that just to charge my Wahoo and then I had a power bank which I used just to keep my phone topped up um or i’ just take a socket and every time I stop to the cafe or somewhere I just top that top it up that way I also have a second light here uh it’s an exposure light and it’s just on the Sater black bracket um I didn’t actually end up using it but it’s always good to have two lights in natur fact you need two lights to take part in these races so that was there as a backup other upgrades on the bike I’m I’m a big fan of inero bearings uh as you probably know by now so i’ got the xd5 bottom bracket there’s xd5 bearings in the rear wheel and the same jockey wheels that I used in the Alex race again not bother touching them still running smooth no wear so why bother changing them for hydration I just had two 1 L bottles um so these are the zal Magnum bottles they’re the best one L bottles I can find and yeah was enough for me didn’t really run out of water the the down Tre one does get a bit covered in mud at times um but it wasn’t too bad it’s easy to wash off there’s plenty of TAPS available in the Balkans most Villages have a village Fountain um so yeah I didn’t need to carry too much uh water um and plenty of water fell from the sky at times as well so yeah that was uh that was my my strategy for there and it it worked really well so that was my bike for the accursed race in the bulans um worked really well for me really pleased with the setup and it’s one I’m going to use going forwards maybe I might get a production frame soon with some paint on it um but I think this this raw frame has a bit of character for now so I do kind of like it we we’ve been on some pretty cool Journeys together um so yeah works for me hopefully there’s some inspiration for you to use on your bike setups so thanks for watching and uh see you in the next one