We design and build our frames to last a long time and we know our customers value that. It’s particularly gratifying for us to hear stories of many thousands of miles being ridden on a Kinesis frame and the following was sent to us by Mike M (@schmiken), who tells us he’s covered more than 50,000 miles on his…
I don’t tend to buy bikes often – I tend to do my research and buy bikes to keep. This bike was no exception – I bought it back in 2006 to train on over winter, do a bit of touring on, commute and maybe dabble in racing. As my first ‘proper’ road bike I can still remember the excitement I had unpacking it, admiring all the little details (which is what really marks Kinesis out above other brands) and building it up with its first ever build – a mix of 8 speed Sora, standard chainset, R500 wheels and other bits purchased from forums and eBay.
In that build it was mainly used as a commuting bike, quite happily carrying me the 16 mile round trip 5 times a week to work. I would also rack up anything from 20-100 miles over the weekend in order to get the miles in for XC racing. As I managed to save more money, bits slowly got better and more reliable – I moved from 8 speed Sora to 9 speed Tiagra, changed from solid but heavy R500 wheels to Xeros and changed seatposts, stems and bars from anatomic, to semi-anatomic, to Belgian deep drops before finally settling on shallow drop classic curve Ritcheys. The amount of miles I did on this bike was what allowed me to really find my fit, along with the perfect saddle – I think I did around 1000 miles on various different saddles before finding my perfect perch (I still use it now, 8 years on) which is a rather worn out and tatty Fizik Aliante.
When the bike got to its first birthday I decided to try a bit of credit card touring – with which the bike accompanied me. I flew to Oslo airport in Norway with a rucksack and the bike packed in a cardboard box and set about biking home. We travelled south to Kristiansand and caught the ferry to Aalborg. Over the course of 11 days I travelled through Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, a total of 1139 miles. I had a few adventures on the way, including (but not restricted to) some of the following:
Meeting a restaurant owner in Germany called Herman (yes, seriously, Herman the German!) and spending the night drinking and having a barbeque with his 24 strong family
Getting hit by a tram in Holland, which wrote off my rear wheel – this was replaced remarkably quickly by a helpful bikeshop run by a Brummie called Colin
Arguing with a Youth Hostel owner until he eventually allowed me to stay for a night (first time I’ve had to force someone to take my money!)
Riding 140 miles in a day to get to Calais and seriously considering sleeping in a ditch for the last 40 miles because I was so tired!
That was probably the largest number of miles I’d covered in such a short period of time, and the bike coped admirably. I did end up buying and installing a rack after the second day due to back pain – whoever decided that a ‘winter training’ frame should be the same geometry as a race bike, but by adding rack and mudguard mounts they should get a medal! It’s really not surprising the Racelight T (and variants) have always been such good sellers.
After getting back from the tour, I took the mudguards and rack off and used it for a bit of time trialling. Admittedly it’s not exactly optimal for beating the clock, but for a first timer it was perfect. I managed a couple of sub 25 10 mile TTs, which I know isn’t a great time, but for a MTBer rather than a roadie I was pretty pleased.
I then changed jobs and continued to ride a 22 mile round trip with clothes and lunch to work every day, with the bike pretty much built permanently with racks and guards. It was great to be able to commute in the same position I raced in with very little of the odd ‘switching bikes’ feeling when I changed to my summer bike. This was the point I had my first chance to ride on Q-Rings, which is something I’ve stuck with ever since on both road and MTB.
A move up to the Midlands meant changing the standard for a compact, getting my first ever power meter (a PowerTap which is still on it) and treating the now 7 year old bike to a (admittedly second hand) 105 10 speed groupset. A couple of years ago I was determined to make the move up to the Expert category from Sport, which meant I needed a bike to train in all weathers. This mandated some slightly wider tyres, some Gore cables, a new pair of mudguards and some resilience (Rule 9!)
The bike hasn’t changed much since then, but has travelled all the way up and down the country and has been ridden round the Peak District, Lake District, Cornwall, East Anglia, Wales and done more than its fair share of turbo miles too. I once rode it 150 miles just to go to the beach!
It’s been diligently cared for, been sworn at as an instrument of pain and suffering (to be truthful its more the weather’s fault than the bike’s), carried me down sunlit lanes and alongside flowering meadows, hauled me up some punishing climbs and revelled in the descents. The bike got stolen and recovered by the police and countless parts have been worn out or destroyed. I even rode it on the morning of my wedding!
Recently, I decided to strip down my Kinesis Racelight T for a full clean and rebuild. I tend to do this every spring, to get rid of all the accumulated winter grime that sticks on despite a quick wash on the weekend. For those of you who have owned a bike for absolutely ages will instantly understand just how utterly dismayed I was to find a crack!
I’ve still been riding it as I’ve still got to get to work, I’ve just been praying that it will hang on long enough to get me through my teacher training year and to the summer holidays. I put a call out on Twitter for a loaner bike as my Kinesis was far, far outside of the warranty period. I was delighted when the guys at Upgrade reached out to find out about my issue and to see if they could help as it’s very rare for a Kinesis frame to have a problem. I’m even more thrilled that thanks to their commitment to Kinesis customers and belief in their product, a new frame will be on the way to me very soon.
I look forward to trying to ride even further on the next one!