00:00Oh Jesus!
00:02Oh shut my mouth!
00:05I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
00:13Hill climbing is probably the toughest discipline in cycling that you've never heard of.
00:17In the months of September and October every year in the UK
00:20you can always find a group of cyclists racing up the most hellish gradient they can find
00:24in what can only be described as second degree fun.
00:27And the format for these events is pretty simple actually.
00:30Basically it's rider against the clock up the steepest piece of tarmac
00:34that the organisers can realistically find
00:36which is why today we are here at Swain's Lane in London
00:39for the nichest of niches, an urban hill climb.
00:43Sam has dragged me here today to Swain's Lane
00:45which is arguably one of the toughest climbs in the capital.
00:49900 metres and 8% average gradient might not sound like much
00:52but this one is going to hurt.
00:5420% maximum gradients, full gas racing
00:57and Sam's even got a little trick up his sleeve
00:59which is going to make my day even more painful.
01:02That's absolutely right.
01:03As an ex-junior hill climb champ
01:05I think that you've already got enough of an advantage over pretty much everybody here.
01:09So I've brought along this.
01:17This is the Rally Chopper.
01:19Now it was created back in 1972 and then it went on to become really popular in the 80s
01:25thanks to films like E.T., The Goonies and then more recently Stranger Things.
01:29So this bike really does have a proper cult following
01:32which is why you're going to be riding it today.
01:36So Joe, how are you actually feeling about this challenge?
01:39Well, as much as I'm not looking forward to lugging all 18 kilograms of this bike up Swain's Lane today
01:44I think it does fit the ethos of the event quite well.
01:47There's Brompton categories today.
01:49There's two categories for cargo bikes.
01:51So I think actually I'm not going to be quite as out of place as I might be in a
01:56traditional hill climb.
01:57You're going to fit right in to be honest.
01:58So if you had a goal for today though, what would you like to achieve?
02:02Well, to put things into perspective
02:04I think the course record for this climb is around just over the one minute mark.
02:08I had a look at what the best Brompton time was last year and that was about two minutes twelve.
02:12I will genuinely be over the moon with anything less than three and a half minutes.
02:16Three and a half minutes.
02:17Okay, I reckon we make that the target for the day.
02:20And if you can get under three and a half, I'd be very impressed.
02:23And actually, to be honest, I'll be impressed if this bike makes it to the top in one piece.
02:51Come on.
02:53Let's go.
02:54Come on.
03:02Come on, Christ!
03:04You've got no difference.
03:06You've got no difference.
03:08Oh, man.
03:08Come on!
03:11You've got no happen!
03:17Come on!
03:20Oh, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God.
03:53Oh, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God, God.
04:05I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
04:10How are you feeling, Joe?
04:14Yeah, it's been a while since I felt like this, to be honest.
04:18Yeah, it was really good fun, though.
04:20i chucked it into gear two to like start on the less steep bit and it pinged into gear three
04:26sat back down knocked into one um sort of measured my effort on the less steep section
04:33and then when it kicked up just forgot the bike yeah yeah yeah it was good
04:42so joe how'd you get on you know what all in all not too bad um i think pacing as
04:48i mentioned
04:48early on camelman was pretty good with hindsight actually i think the pacing was better than i
04:53realized initially i thought maybe i went out a little bit too easy but with hindsight i think i
04:58got it pretty much spot on so happy with how i rode and pretty happy with the time as well
05:02so put us
05:03out of our misery what was your time two minutes 21 is the the official time but the thing is
05:09i think
05:09we need to put some of that into context because i think the winning time of the day um or
05:13the
05:13fastest time of the day was 117 or 118 it was about that so essentially you were you were a
05:19minute off the quickest of the day and we know people have gone slower as well yeah and in fairness
05:23i'd be really interested to see how that compares to the bromptons as well because as i said last year
05:27i think what i think it was two minutes 12 or something was the quickest brompton time but yeah
05:32we don't we'd have to say i'd be really chuffed with that as well to be honest i'm pretty glad
05:35i made
05:36you come up on this bike because the amount of love that the rally chopper has had today has been
05:39phenomenal absolutely people have been throwing it back to their past kids have been loving it so
05:44all in all a fantastic day at the urban hill climb if you guys enjoyed the video
05:49then please do drop it a like subscribe to the channel for more content and we will see you again
05:53very soon
Comments