Introducing Sunday School

According to Wikipedia a Nerd is “a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure interests that are age inappropriate rather than engaging in more social or popular activities.”

And a geek is a slang term, noting individuals as "a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual”


11 years ago I competed in a hill climb competition a month after my road season had finished. I did nothing but train for it. I rode the climb, plotted the gradient from the altitude sensor in my heart rate monitor and worked out what pulse I could maintain for the duration. I studied myself to arrive at my most efficient pedal cadence. I weighed myself and my bike and worked out the power output I would require to go under 16 minutes. I weighed my food and noted my calorie output. I lost wait and gained strength. I knew my lactate tolerance, I trained it, I measured it and I understood it.

The race took 15 minute and 46 seconds. My average heart rate was 196 with a max of 211, my cadence was maintained at 84 exactly as it should have been. The race went perfectly; I did everything I had calculated, I put every watt of power I had through the pedals, I collapsed over the line and coughed up some blood. Job done. I finished second, I lost, but that didn’t matter because I had understood the problem, quantified it and executed it perfectly. I just wasn’t good enough.

And this is what I do. I’ve spent over 10 years in academia, studying, picking up qualifications and experience. I have design engineering and manufacturing degrees and in a few weeks an engineering PhD. I’ve raced in Europe in UCI races too. Now, I’m the technical director of Sunday bicycles and I do design and development consultancy for a number of global sports brands. I often work out of the biggest sports engineering institute in the world, at the famous Loughborough University. But nothings changed, I’m still not good enough. I need to know everything. I need to understand, digest, reconstruct and improve. I’m a Geek. And I’m a cyclist.

When I hear people say, “this frames 18% stiffer than last years” or “its more comfortable” or “its stronger”, you will hear me ask, “how do you know ?” and “why?”. There is so much technology available in the bike industry these days it’s an amazingly exciting area to work in. Yet so much of the technology isn’t fully understood or optimised. Development is often done behind close doors and so much of it is perceived as a black art. It isn’t, its just science, its just engineering.

And that’s what Sunday school is about. It’s here to talk about bike design, but more importantly it’s here to make you ask yourselves a few questions. Why do you ride that size handle bars? Why did you choose those wheels? What is the difference in the material properties of that frame over this one? Are ceramic bearings better ? why do I ride a 72.5 degree seat angle? Is my bike set up correctly? What exactly is carbon fibre? Am I a nerd?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions then you should keep coming back. And you should keep asking yourself the questions too.

The school isn’t here to give you my ungrounded opinions or to give you a glimmer of some black art. It’s here to talk about facts. I’ll do the sums so you don’t have to. But I’ll show you my workings, too.

There are a number of topics I have already been asked to chat about, and if enough of you ask the same question I’ll answer it here, on Sunday.

People are always asking me to explain why titanium is better than carbon. My brief answer is “it isn’t”. A more detailed explanation will be given in the next Sunday School.

Class starts soon, don’t be late.