Feature: Ewan Mellor’s Cyclo-Cross Bike

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What does the owner of a bike shop get for his son to race cyclo-cross on … we speak to Dave Mellor who has a big shop in Shrewsbury

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Sponsor of the Mid Shropshire Wheelers, organiser of many events and owner of several cycle shops in Shrewsbury, Dave Mellor is one of the most experienced people in the sport. I knew him first when he was the manager of the Women’s GB team taking them around the world and then the Paracycling team.

These days you’ll find Dave at cycle events looking after his son, Ewan. Another son, Luke, is sunning himself in Australia with the Rapha Condor JLT team right now so it’s Ewan who has his dad’s full attention.

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Watching him support his son as he raced to 5th in the Under 16 National Trophy cyclo-cross race at Durham, I wondered about what does a dad with a shop full of bikes, have his son race on? So after the race, we had a chat and Dave says “looking at the bike, it may seem an extravagant spec for a 15 year old but in reality, the only new bits for this season are the frames, which as normal, will be sold before next season, Gore cables, handlebars and bar tape. Chains also as required through the season.”

“There are really only a few races in a cross season and the equipment is looked after really well by Ewan, washed and cleaned on a Sunday evening and bolt checked (with a torque wrench!) on his “rest day” Monday evening. Anything goes wrong – it’s down to him or maybe bad luck.”

Dave explained that his shop sells Specialized and Giant and that his eldest son Luke was always on Giant. Ewan, because he started at a younger age and is shorter (at the moment!), started with Specialized as they do a 46cm frame. Now though, Ewan could fit a Giant yet there was no availability at the beginning of the cross season.

Ewan however likes the Specialized Crux which is used by many of the National Trophy riders and has been getting great Twitter support from the hash tag ‘#iamspecialized’ campaign. Dave adds “Giant have also gone disc brake and we have a room full of Luke’s old rim brake wheels to use up so there’s lots of reasons to stay with the big S.”

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“This year, as in previous seasons, we have perfectly serviceable bikes that have been grown out of. So I just buy in a couple of frames, this year he was treated to the Carbon variant, swap over the kit, fit the Gore cables, wider handlebars this year too and the bar tape. We opted for mid range Shimano Ultegra. it’s good and reliable. Pro PLT handlebars and stem, again good middle of the range components, as are the brakes which are Alloy TRP Canti’s.”

“There was an international incident when Carbon TRP’s disappeared off big brothers bike but natural brotherly order was soon restored with minimal violence!”

The Gore cables, says Dave, are a god send. They are he says, just fit and forget items. “I learnt my lesson going to a Trophy where Ewan said the bikes were good to go (correction, I do not check at all, it’s down to him) when in fact the rear brake cable was rusted up solid after a particularly hard jet washing. It was then a bit of panic getting the internal cables sorted ready to race so to make it easy for me, we fitted Gore.”

The tubular’s Ewan uses, says Dave, are still originals from Luke’s cross seasons and the choice is Dugast Rhino, Typhoon or Schwalbe which he mixes and matches according to the conditions and pressures are decided after he’s done a lap of the course.

So there you have it. It isn’t highest spec bike, has a lot of hand me downs, but looks the business and Ewan then does it justice in the mud … Good luck the Mid Shropshire wheeler at the next Trophy in Milton Keynes.

 

 

 

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