As winter approached, we packed bags and headed South, trying to catch some winter sun, and a bit of warm weather training in Futeventura. Sunshine, beaches and surf - that's what I call 'training'...

Around Christmas 2008/9 I embarked on my first self-built bike project - building an On-One 456Ti primarily for Adventure Racing. This left me with two Scott full suspension bikes, although technically only one working, as the other was with the Scott warranty department. After nearly 5 years of riding Scott bikes and the increasingly more familiar terms with their warranty department, I thought it was time for a change - to the world of Yeti. What follows is the diary of a bike build; more for posterity than for any major revelations though. 

Footworks in Edinburgh have really helped support the team, by hosting an evening session of video gait analysis, combined with some expert recommendations for appropriate footwear.

While some shops will sell you a design of shoe, specialist running shops like Footworks often look beyond what the fashion trend is, and to what shoe will work best for your own particular running style. If actually comes as a shock to some people that if the shop knows it's stock very well, you probably won't be the one picking the shoe!

Just before Christmas 2008 I took delivery of an On One 456 frame as the basis for me to try my hand at building my very own hard tail bike for AR events. Over the past 18 months of my AR career, I've mainly used my Scott Genius; nice when you need full suspension, but potentially, lots of things that could go wrong with it. The exotic material obsession wasn't lost though, as this new frame is Titanium!

What follows, is the story of building it up and the pain (and embarrassment) suffered.