- Ex-MTBer turned lover of the black-top
- Self-confessed bike tart
- Incessant fiddler, fettler and perfectionist
- Always tinkering, changing stuff, comparing and trying stuff out
- Certified bike fitter
My second Baum will be my eleventh road bike frame in less than four years. In that time I’ve gone through Shimano, Campag and SRAM groupsets. I’ve had wheels ranging from various factory options to hand built Mavic Open Pro Ceramics on DT Swiss hubs to Shimano Dura-Ace deep section tubulars to Lightweight clinchers to hand built Ambrosio Nemesis on Chris King hubs to MadFiber tubs. With saddles I’ve tried everything from Brooks leather armchairs to those without padding made purely from carbon fibre to the latest Fizik Kurve range and the retro Flites and Regals. I’ve had countless sets of brakes, and on this front it’s fair to say I have a bit of a fetish when it comes to tasty light weight shiny ones…
Add to that 14 or 15 MTBs before I made the switch to road and it’s fair to say I’ve tried quite a lot of what’s on offer in the cycling world!
My impetuousness means if I get an idea in my head I usually have to see it through, even if it ends up failing – which many have. In doing so I’ve built up an encyclopaedic knowledge of the components available. I know what makes a bike look good and what makes the cycling experience more enjoyable and feel better. I can answer questions on fit, finish, style, quality and more. I’ve helped riding buddies with their own dream builds, and I’ve had random strangers approach me for advice.
All of this ultimately led to me joining the management team of a specialist road bike shop in London, and I hope will enable me to do the same now that I’ve moved to Sydney.
Got anything that you reckon would make my kahunas tingle? I’d like to know about it, see it, test it, review it. This is a hobby for me, simply something I enjoy doing. I’ve spent fortunes trying out lots of different bikes, components and kit over the years and I realised far too late that I should be writing about all of them, hence the emergence of Brain Farts in September 2009.
If you want to talk about sending me something to test and review please drop me a line!
