[music] Manon: Bike's creaking a bit.
[music] Manon: I'm not sure what's worse, uphill of
downhill. [music]
Manon: My legs are becoming so slow. [music]
Manon: I'm genuinely not I'm going to get up.
[sound effects] Manon: Now I've been set a challenge. It might
sound simple, and simple it may be, but I reckon this is going to be one of my hardest
challenges yet. The team at GCN have sent me a budget of £100, and not £100 to spend
on a pair of new shoes but a bike. Yes, a bike. The shopping bit is only half of it.
I have to ride 100 miles on this £100 bike. This is my bike.
[music] Manon: The first place I'm going to look to
find my bike is on eBay, Gumtree, and Facebook Marketplace, and places like that, and see
what I come across. After not much luck on the internet, I was running out of options,
but I had a eureka moment. I remember passing this house that had loads of bikes for sale
outside, so I decided to pay a visit. I'm looking for a bike to do 100 miles on, and
I need it for £100. What have you got for me?
Bike Seller: What sort of bike are you looking for? A racing bike, mountain bike?
Manon: Preferably a road bike. Weight doesn't really matter. Road tires would be good, drop
handlebars. Preferably good brakes and good gears.
Bike Seller: Okay. Manon: That's probably a little bit too small,
this one. [music]
Bike Seller: The only ones to go, which will do the challenge--
Manon: Looks in good nick and we've got the brakes under the handlebars?
Bike Seller: Yes. Manon: I think I'll take that. Can you do
it for £100? Bike Seller: Yes, go on. Of course.
Manon: Deal. [music]
Manon: I got the bike home, gave it a once over, made sure everything was ready for its
epic journey. This is my beautiful Triumph Tempest. Not much fits me, but cranks do.
They're 165. It doesn't have a gold chain, but check out these brakes. These are [unintelligible
00:02:28] Dia-Compe and they're pretty snazzy. I'm used to riding 11 speed, but this has
got 6 speeds, so this is going to be very interesting up the Yorkshire climbs. A fully
steel frame with down tube shifters, which will be interesting too, seeming as I've never
used them before. I've managed to change my pedals and saddle,
so that's going to make the riding a lot more comfortable. The riding flats and a very uncomfortable
saddle for 100 miles. It weighs a ton, trust me, probably more than me.
Overall, I am happy with my bike, and I reckon John Cunnings would approve. Now, I'm going
to be honest, I've never actually ridden 100 miles on my own in training. I've only ever
done it in racing. Riding 100 miles on any kind of bike is going to be a challenge, so
I've already put myself in the deep end doing it on a £100 bike. I guess we better get
cracking. It's the night before my big challenge. It
is 10 to 10:00, so I need to get to bed soon. I've managed to do my route. It is exactly
100 miles, and I've got 6,000 meters of climbing. I've made it on the computer, downloaded it
to my phone, and downloaded to my Wahoo. All set for the morning. I actually have to get
up at 5:15. Don't ask why. I better get to bed.
[music] Manon: It's currently 5:25 in the morning.
I'm on my way to the start. I'm starting at Higger Tor, and that's my start and finish
point. Hopefully, we're going to see a sunrise. As I said, it's nearly half past five in the
morning. There's not many places open for breakfast, so I have got last night's pizza.
I'll have pizza for breakfast any day of the week. My route starts and finishes in Higger
Tor, in the heart of the Peak District. It heads east towards Manchester, passing Glossop,
Wilmslow, Knutsford, Buxton and finally back to my start point.
100 miles just covering over 7,000 feet of climbing. This would be a challenge for me
on a super bike, let alone my cheap bike. I've made it to my start and finish point,
Higger Tor here in the Peak District. It was definitely worth getting up so early for this
beautiful view. I've got my Wahoo head unit on because after
all, I'm going to need to know where I'm going for this 100 miles. All I need to do is pump
my tires up, make sure my wheels are in properly and I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit
worried about descending on this bad boy because the brakes aren't the best. All right, let's
get going. [music]
Manon: I'm lucky enough to have a camera crew and a spot vehicle with me today, so you guys
can come along with me. Haven't got any bottle cages on this bike, so I'm going to have to
get bottles from the car. Hopefully, we'll be stopping for breakfast soon because I am
starving. Right, I better get going. [music]
Manon: Oh, that's not too bad. [music]
Manon: First impressions of the bike, I can definitely feel it's pretty heavy up the hills.
These brakes aren't as bad as I thought, as long as I start breaking quite a bit earlier
than I want to, and the gears are quite smooth. I'm quite surprised.
[music] Manon: Oh, wrong way. Oh, gosh. I've not got
enough gears [unintelligible 00:06:17]. [music]
Manon: I keep going to change the gears on the levers, but I have to remember they're
on down tube, so that's going to take a bit of getting used to too.
[music] Manon: After tackling the first 20 kilometers
of rolling hills down from Higger Tor, it was time to hit the open roads towards Manchester.
It's quite comfy, though. I can get quite aero. Probably wouldn't stay like this for
100 miles. The main difference between my super bike
and this bike is definitely the weight. That's the first thing that comes to my mind and
again, the gears. It's a bit of a faff to change gears. Not very responsive at all.
You have to think about it. You have to put your hand and it's a little bit dangerous
when you're going quite quick and descending. You want to just click down the gears all
the way down to the down tube. I'm only 30K in. I might be a little bit excited and not
feeling any discomforts right now, but I might be saying something else in the backend of
the ride. [music]
Manon: It looks steep. [music]
Manon: Have we got any gears left? Nope. That's it. Just grind away.
[music] Manon: Super bike or £100 bike, the view
is still incredible, and I'm still enjoying it at the moment, for now, anyway.
[music] Manon: [laughs] I'm going to take it steady
and careful on the descents because the brakes are not the best, trust me. Good job, I've
got these on the tops, so I can brake because I can't quite get enough brake, and they're
a bit stiff. [music]
Manon: I'm an hour and a half in. I've done 47K, averaged 29 kilometers per hour. The
road's been really nice so far, quite rolling. Hit a few little hills, nothing major yet,
but got that all to look forward to on the way back.
[music] Manon: I am a little bit worried that I'm
in my easiest gear already and it feels quite hard and this is hardly even a hill, and I've
got some really big hills on the way back. [music]
Manon: I'm not actually sure I'm going to make it up this climb. 12%. Oh, gosh. It gets
steeper. Basically, I didn't change down to my little ring soon enough and try to change
mid-hill and it just wasn't having anything so I had to actually stop. Let me go down
a bit an easy gear, a bit of a steep climb. It'll go. Made it to the top just about. I
could do with a little nap to be fair. [music]
Manon: [chuckles] Okay. I'm 60 kilometers in and it's only eight o'clock. Just heard
this massive bang on that descent, it was quite dodgy. I've had a blowout and I've got
a bit of-- I'm not actually sure what that is sticking out my tire and that really doesn’t
look very good. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this.
We're coming up to a little village and hopefully find a nice little cafe to have some breakfast
and wait until the bike shop opens. It was all going so well. I made to breakfast slightly
ahead of schedule but I got a few hours to kill before the bike shop opens so let's go
get some breakfast. [music]
Manon: Filled up breakfast, nice and fueled. We found a vintage bike shop that's five miles
away and I'm really hoping that they have the right tire size, so let's head there.
[music] Manon: We're in luck. They've got some tires
and they're even fitting it for me. [music]
Manon: We've managed to get two new tires on the bike, so it's ready to go. A big thank
you to Brian at Classic and Vintage Cycles for sorting this out. Do you think it's a
good deal for a £100? Brian: I think it's absolutely fantastic.
Manon: That's what I like to hear. Brian: It just may be a bit less oil on the
chain just to save [crosstalk]. Manon: Yes, it does look a bit oily. Got my
new tires on, got around 100 kilometers still to go. It's pretty flat now for 50k, 60k before
we hit some real nice big hills to finish it off so I better get going.
[music] Manon: I've got around 70 kilometers left
and definitely feeling the effects of the bike. When you're starting to get tired, your
legs are tired and then you've got this extra weight of this really heavy bike. Then I'm
starting to get a little bit lazy and not turning the gears because it's quite a bit
of effort. I'm just grinding and it's making my legs
hurt even more. It doesn't help that it's 30 degrees today, so even though it looks
really nice, it's really sunny, the heat does affect me quite a bit so I'm starting to suffer.
I've just hit the bottom of one of the big climbs, Cat & Fiddle, and I'm just getting
ready to get up there, getting some sugar in me and I've sat in the car with the air
con blasting to keep me cool because it is 32 degrees and I'm not used to this weather.
It's a bit of a shock, it's taken out of me but I'm getting ready for the climbing. The
bike's holding in there but on the climbs it is just horrible, it's just like a proper
slug. It just has not been built for climbing with the gears and it's so heavy. It's going
to be fun. [music]
Manon: It's now time for my least favorite part, all the climbing. The last leg, uphill
home. Oh God my legs. Due to lots of traffic on the busier roads we couldn't safely use
the car to film this brutal climb. Trust me, it hurt and I went very slowly. Gosh. I'm
on to the last bit now. 15k to go and you guessed it it's all uphill, a lot of uphill.
The bike, well I had no more mechanical's so far. Tire hasn't blown out again, but it
is just so heavy and chunky. When you get up the saddle up the hills you just go backwards.
Well, I go backwards anyway. I'm not sure if that's my legs.
[music] Manon: I don't even know if I like the downhill’s
because I get scared of the brakes. I'm not sure what's worse uphill or downhill. Sounds
like a musical instrument. I'm going to have nightmares with these brakes and the noise.
Just went down a really steep descent and my brakes were on full the whole time and
my fingers are so sore, they're numb. Yes, I was very cautious and didn't have much faith
in stopping with these brakes. I need to remember to change gear before I stop because I'll
never get going. [music]
Manon: Smile and grind. This is a fake smile. I'm dying inside because we've got more hills
up there. Just about to hit the last climb of the day and I'm already in my easiest gear
and it gets a lot steeper. Pray for me. Ay caramba, that's a mountain. Come on little
guy we can do this. Bike's creaking a bit, I can't even blame anyone else because I planned
this route. [music]
Manon: Genuinely, not sure I'm going to get up. I can see the starting point where we
started this morning just up there. It looks quite far away right now, but it's in touching
distance. We can do it little guy, come on. [music]
Manon: My legs feel like they're going so slow. Made it to the top of the last climb,
my finishing point just over there and my legs are burning.
[music] Manon: I am so glad to be at the finish 100
miles later where I started. I mean that climb didn't do me any favors but we made it. I'm
never going to take my superbike for granted again, having gears that work, breaks that
work, just a lightweight bikes that is going to help me up the hills.
I have to say it was still a good day, a good day out on the bike. Some stats for you from
my Wahoo. I did 160 kilometers in just over seven hours, it's my longest ride yet and
there was a lot of climbing. 2,500 meters of climbing and my max heart rate reached
192 beats per minute. Now that's a big odd day on the bike and the
average temperature was 30 degrees and I did start at 5:30 in the morning. That was definitely
my hardest challenge yet. [00:18:45] [END OF AUDIO]