The UK hill climb season is defined by bikes and tech pushed to the limit of lightness.
The 2023 UK Hill Climb National Championships had no shortage of boutique lightweight tech, weight-saving hacks and sanded carbon on show.
In this video, we take a look at our favourite tech from the day.
00:00 Intro
00:27 Chris Hall’s super light Cervélo R5 disc
03:01 Ben Mackinson sub-£1k Trek Emonda SLR
06:05 The Struggle course preview
09:14 Dannielle Watkinson’s modified Specialized Tarmac SL3
11:51 Jason Holder’s incredible Trek Emonda SLR RSL cheap
14:31 Sam Marshall’s rim brake Pinarello Dogma F
16:19 Outro
#HillClimbDiaries #BikeRadar #Cycling
→ Jason Holder’s AMAZING Emonda SLR RSL: https://www.bikeradar.com/features/pro-bike/jason-holder-trek-emonda/
→ Hill Climb Diaries: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhX4qGpWXV9saA5CHUJuZm5LuZfc8e9Bk
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21 Comments
What's your favourite bike? 👇
This seemed like such a 90s video….in a good way.
To the first bike!!! Man you Running heavy XTR Cranks…. Come one get E13 Carbon Cranks … they loose 130g…. this is huge!
Man BikeRadar is killing it lately
Love the budget Emonda!
LOL we do this climb racing Helvellyn Tri middle distance/Half IM so its towards the end nice 40mile bike section (30mile ish) and just before having to run up Helvellyn for a nice 10mile run 😵💫
uci illegal
Loved the video. Definitely one of my favourite things and in my bucket list.
Props to the guy with the sanded Emonda and a full second-hand build! Absolute legend. The other Emonda – eh… I guess whatever mental advantage you try get might be worth it, but I personally wouldn't go near that bike – yes I know the motto is 'safety third' but still, no. There are far bigger gains to be made emptying your bowels, drinking the right amount of an isotonic solution that morning than making your rear mech and saddle potentially unusable…
Go Walrus!
Here for the sketch.
It's always super interesting watching these videos about those uci illegal climbing bikes. The only question that I ask myself is, why they tend to position their hoods so far up the bar. It's something i've seen a good amount of times now, but only on these Hill climb only bikes. Is there an advantage of positioning the hoods that upright when climbing?
bring back the hill climb diaries!!!
<12 lbs.????
Wow!
Estos ingleses…
how does the fork not wiggle lose on a hill climb without a compression plug? I thought the stem cap clamped down on the headset bearings and kept it all together? Aka, how does one ride a bike sans compression plug?
5:12 No headset expander.
Please, do not ever do this! There are serious reasons why bicycles have an expander. One is that the carbon of the fork is not meant to be compressed toward the middle of the section by the stem. When the expander is correctly placed and you tighten the stem, the carbon of the fork immediately meets a resistance and the applied forced only compresses the carbon between the expander and the inner walls of the stem.
Rim brake, yeah!
Sketch festival!
Love me some sketchy hacks
Second hand cannondales and emondas are the hill climb 👅