Here at HUUB, we love a challenge, especially when the challenge has the ultimate goal of doing something no human has ever done before. Whether it's the first sub-4-minute individual 4000m pursuit or an attempt at the hour record, if we can get involved, we will. We see these projects as a challenge to our team, our friends, and most of all, to help us deliver better products for our athletes.
Eight months ago, we were asked to support local athlete Leigh Timmis in his attempt to break the greatest distance cycled in 7 days. To be honest, we weren't sure this could be achieved due to the team that would need to be assembled for such a challenge. But we tip our hats to the duo of Leigh and his ace side-kick Steve Reynolds who embarked on making this dream a reality. They assembled support from Mark Faghy and the fantastic students at the University of Derby, who have overseen every step of training development and performance analysis. It really has been, Derbados coming together!
Our role was pretty simple... How can we make Leigh faster through his clothing and accessories whilst bringing in our knowledgeable friends to help look after Leigh's need for speed?
Clothing would be critical in this challenge. With up to 80% of drag coming from the body (it's not ALL about the bike), we had to get this right. Thankfully our friends at Wattshop worked with us to evaluate our extensive fabric matrix to make custom suits for Leigh and introduced the patent protected 'Aero-Bridge' Undervest to deliver the vital watts needed at key speeds for Leigh's challenge. With the newly formed and soon-to-be-launched 'HUUB Custom Lab' based here in Derby, we could tailor each suit and undervest for Leigh and then test the benefits on both the road and track to ensure no Watts wasted. This service is available to any athlete, no matter what their ability. Please get in touch with bea@huubdesign.com with any enquiries.
We also had a little help from our good friends at Pyramid Cycle Design, led by Dr Mark Pharaoh, who created a stunning 1x Front Ring and Miche Track Cranks, plus advised on lube, wax, and all things to reduce friction. Thank you Mark! Find out more at www.pyramidcycledesign.co.uk.
You can follow Leigh's progress via the link: https://www.leightimmis.com/greatest-distance-cycled-in-7-days-live/