XXVI.ONE/AEIGHTRACERBLOG – DRY JANUARY
- Aeightracer
- Feb 24
- 6 min read
7 1 % O F T H E E A R T H ‘ S S U R F A C E I S C O V E R E D I N W A T E R .
T H I S J A N U A R Y , I N S W E E T - S U S S E X , I T W A S C L O S E R T O 9 8 % ! . . .
January, for me, started at 10am on the 1st, with the first of many muddy rides that set the tone for the next seven weeks! Four of us gathered for a 97km, 6 hour fully off-road blast, starting in the Forest Row area, heading up into Dry Hill, across to the North Downs, before cutting back through the Weald. It was my longest ride since I got ill in November, and was exactly what I needed to kick start 26.
With the rain lashing at the workshop roof, it was time to get my head down and finish brazing my latest ÄXE frame order for a customer. The ÄXE is my answer to the Ultimate English Hard-Tail mountain bike, perfect for the Downs, exploring places like Exmoor, the Lakes, or the Dales, trail centres like Bedgebury or Swinley, and ideal for local, national, and even international level XCO races. It’s effectively the evolution of the bike I’ve built for myself for over 25 years of riding and racing - race on Sunday, shread on Monday!
By the second week of January the farm was deep under water, and the commute home had the dog worried about our lack of snorkel! I fitted mudguards to our Fifty-One Assassin Gravel bikes to make both Pip and my commutes home slightly less depressing - it’s amazing what a difference that does for your moral! I was busy servicing bikes again after the Yuletide break, including a nice Cervelo which was straight off to do a lap of Taiwan.
And, I did a few small jobs on Noemie Thomson’s new race bike, before she came in to check her bikefit - I recommended a couple of options which we’ll review in the next few months. It’s rewarding to work with racers, and you always learn plenty which is helpful in all our servicing.
Next up in the stand was Jesse Yates’ Fifty-One Assassin, which he was taking to Rwanda to do a lap of the country, in a race which was imaginatively titled, Race Around Rwanda! I quietly (in my own head) questioned his choice to take a bike equipped with mountain bike gears to an event which was only 50% off-road. However when I took a look at the route, 19000 metres of climbing made me keep my (wrong) opinions to myself! This was no easy task - Jesse raced the 1000km course with his brother, and the pair came home in 2nd place. A great result and a strong start to the year. The mountain bike gears, and Schwalbe G-One RX Pro tyres proved to be the right choice.
Back in the UK, Pip and I were racking up the winter miles, constantly washing muddy bikes and kit. My friend Cameron is a coach and is currently building up his base of clients, so I agreed to spend the next few months working with him on a coaching plan for gravel racing. I pointed out that I don’t own a powermeter, haven’t really trained for about five years, half my bikes don’t have computer mounts, and I don’t even have a Strava account, but Cam didn’t seem that worried! He set me a plan that would use heart-rate for the time being and I got to work. On the first session I didn’t realise that in 2026 Training Peaks tells Wahoo what it is that you’re supposed to be doing and displays it on a little screen in front of you - so I spent 10 minutes with a sharpie writing the plan on my stem, like I used to do the last time that I went “training”!
Once I understood a bit more about the witchcraft of wireless data transfer, nothing could stop me - out I headed into the night for my second training session! 30 minutes in, and halfway through the second of four sets of hill repeats, I was in the zone. I just needed a slightly harder gear, but it wouldn’t shift? A glance down, confirmed that where there had once been a trusty old cable, was now a mech which was controlled wirelessly by a shifter, which had precisely one less charged battery than the one charged battery required to make it function. It was sub-optimal doing sets three and four on a singlespeed, but this wasn’t quite as bad as the flat ride home, where I executed my cool down at about 120 rpm!
With a fresh set of batteries on board I went out into the night again two days later. I smashed the session, almost hit all the numbers but was left confused. Why had this Zone 2 ride with some short Zone 3/4 bits been so hard? I explained to Pip that I felt good, but I was really struggling to hit Cameron’s numbers... was I still fatigued from illness, was I old and slow? Pip asked if I was sure I was sticking to the right numbers, to which I replied, “yeah of course, I’m not stupid”. Pip asked to have a look so I begrudgingly showed her the data. “That’s a very high heartrate for zone 3/4...” she pondered. “It’s not high enough”, I said, “he wants 170-190!” “Yeah”, Pip said, “170-190 watts, NOT bpm!” Apparently the range on the Wahoo isn’t bpm - that’s why Cam sent me a table with each session to roughly convert watts into bpm. Who knew? Not me!... It had been a steep learning curve for something which I had assured both Pip and Cam that I knew all about! I can only imagine Cam looking at the data on the computer and thinking, what the actual fuck is he doing!?
Back in the workshop I concentrated on fixing bikes! I built an ÄXE several years ago for a friend at Bedgebury Forest CC, where I also do a bit of skills coaching. We did an annual SUPREME Service on his bike which involves a strip of the drivetrain, bb, hubs, and headset. On a mountain bike we also offer a 200-hour fork service which we carried out at the same time. Then we bleed the brakes and set everything up from scratch. Later that week we did a similar service on Olly Curd’s S-Works Tarmac, getting it ready for the Portsdown Classic.
The final thing we had to tick off before the end of the month, in amongst some slightly more successful, but equally wet, training sessions, was a redesign on an HMŔ road bike paintjob. The third steel frame I ever sold to a member of the public in 2020 was a great project where the client wanted to replicate his original Raleigh 431 Panasonic, in a completely up to date 853 package. We got it sprayed to match the original paintwork, but with my logos instead. Six years on I’ve adjusted the bike to suit a more recent bikefit, and fully integrated the hoses. This is one of the great things with steel - it’s easily modified. I worked on a design which used the original colour palette, but just brought things up to date a little and took it down to Fat Creations - it’ll be there for around a month and I’ll post the photos when we’re done.
A successful end to the month, and a useful way to spend 31 rainy days!
Photos by Glen Whittington
2026.RIDERS - GLENWHITTINGTON
#aeightracer – Bike Rider / Framebuilder / Mechanic - Glen started racing in 1998, initially specialising in XCO, XCM, and Solo 24-Hour Mountain Bike. He became a mechanic in 2002, working in shops and also for professional race teams. During this time he spent more time racing ‘Cross and Road, and then also TT. In 2013 he built his first bespoke frame and then spent several years at Roberts learning the art. Since then he’s designed, tested and now sells his own frames/bikes to the public as part of his ÆIGHT brand - you can find his business Instagram account here.
GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO RACE WITH US?
We’re always looking for riders to be part of our ÆIGHT CØLLECTIVE. The #aeightbikeco is about doing things a little differently - Rather than a jersey being the common theme, we kit our riders out with bespoke steel bikes and handbuilt wheels made in our Sussex workshops, the ÆIGHT WHEELWØRKS and the ÆIGHT MANUFACTØRY. We then support each other at events and races regionally, nationally and internationally - whether that’s for mountain bike, ‘cross, gravel, crit, road or TT - it’s what we call, the #aeightbikeco
The best part is that we’re not asking you to leave your team or club - that includes racing in your club/team kit. We’ve got certain brands that we work with, mostly so we can standardise shared equipment, but your own sponsors and clubs are almost always welcome. We have some strict qualifying criteria but don’t be put off by this – if you’re interested in being part of the #aeightbikeco then please get in touch by emailing your racing CV to eightbikeco@gmail.com
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