Spring 2007 has so far been a season of waiting -- for the weather to turn, for medics to call back, for cheques to clear and for shipments to arrive (note the number of lines presently out of stock). The new cover story was supposed to be a customer bike, but since that seems to be delayed too we thought we'd push Hubjub's builds.

By now, most people have got the idea that we can custom-order stuff that isn't on the site. The news that we can handle full builds has taken longer to soak in. Will's own custom bike project is a nice introduction to the service.

Will needed an unusual fix. He no longer trucks orders down to the local Post Office in a rucksack, but the C-roads round Castle Hubjub are still heavy going in winter and the chalk bridleways are pretty tempting in summer. The brief, then, was for a fix capable of handling farm tracks and road work and OK with heavy loads. It also had to be low-maintenance, dropbar capable, and offer good bump absorption off a fully-rigid frame.

>Rather than going fully custom, Will wanted to see how far he could get with a stock frame. As Surly dealers we can source any framesets in the current line. The 29" Karate Monkey seemed suitably unstoppable. This is the 2006 model, one of the first with a butted seat tube which cuts the weight (a bit).

The wheelset uses Mavic touring rims with Schwalbe 47mm expedition tyres. The hubs are Will's treasured LeVeL prototype on the rear and an old Kogswell low-flange on the front to take the edge off the flints.

Cranks are Stronglight Impact with a Surly 36t stainless ring. Since this is a winter bike, we installed utility pedals -- they're own-brand from a UK distributor, sealed bearing for the price of a bubblepack quill, and have so far done 1,000mi+ in all weathers without complaint. Highly recommended, and you can source them through us. Will settled on PowerGrips to accommodate big winter shoes and the bars are our own Nitto B-135AAs on one of our exclusive Delta 45degree stems.

Hardly Guerciotti, right? And all this stuff is available through Hubjub. In fairness we should mention that we probably couldn't find you that out-of-production laidback microadjust post, and that the Altenberger lever went off the market in the 70s. But, if this kind of machine floats your boat, you'll likely have an easier time talking to us than yer LBS.