Tom Durham – Revo Via in Action

Flaér Ambassador Tom Durham has been riding with our products since earlier this year. Tom is the former chairman of the award-winning Scottish Mountain Biking Consortium and founder of Collective Trax. He has been kind enough to write a Blog for us based on his experiences so far…

“I’ve been the happy owner of a Flaér Revo Via system for nearly 3 months now, and having done a few big events using the system, and ridden a lot of miles in a variety of spring conditions, both in Scotland and in the Alps, I thought it was time to put some thoughts down in writing.

First up, fitting the system to the bike.

I’d previously fitted a Revo Terra system to my mountain bike, so I knew what to expect, but a quick check of the videos online and included instructions was worth a few minutes to refresh the memory.  Fitting to a road bike was obviously going to be much simpler with fewer moving parts of the frame to deal with, and I simply added the bottle cage mount extender beneath the bottle cage on the down tube of my Cannondale Supersix.  This position allows easy viewing and access to the unit, and it’s neat and out of the way.  Plus the minimal extra weight is as low down as possible.

Next I stuck on a couple of the supplied frame hooks to the inside of the driveside chainstay to keep the hose neat and reduce the amount of cable ties I’d need. Because I’m a stickler for neatness, I trimmed the base of these hooks a bit so they’d fit the curve of the chainstay better, hopefully meaning a neater finish and less dirt being stuck to the sticky-fixer.

This all meant that the hose arrived at the top of the rear mech in the perfect position and I opted to simply route the hose down the front of the mech to keep it clear of the cassette etc.  This means I have to be a bit careful if removing the rear wheel, but not enough to be a problem.  A little care with mounting the drip feed unit to the mech cage and job done – just fill the unit with the supplied lube and run the priming process.

Next, riding.

In use the system is dead simple – all you need to do is remember to turn it on, and off – especially if you need to put your bike in or on a vehicle after your ride, or the motion sensors will continue to feed oil to the jockey wheel! (I imagine most users make this mistake once, although ensuring that your bike is travelling backwards on your car will avoid the situation…)

Typically Scottish conditions at the Kinross Sportive this year meant that we started the ride with ominous clouds overhead that soon lead to a soaking.  Thankfully not riding directly through the downpour, but through deep puddles and miles of very wet road, before the sun came out and we road in the dry for the next hour and a half.  This is classic and would normally mean either using a really heavy oil based lube that didn’t wash off, or re-applying a dry lube regularly – not something you want to do mid event.

My riding partner found out to his cost that the dry lube was the wrong choice and within 5 minutes of the road drying up his bike sounded like a creaky old pub bike that had been rescued from a river bed, while mine ran smooth and quiet with the Revo Via system doing it’s thing without a fuss.

This was especially apparent during the big timed climb of the route where he was struggling with the friction, the noise and the grinding of a dried out chainset – allowing me to add a bit of smug pain to him as we neared the top! We managed 3rd and 4th place on the day, which we’ll take as a couple of mountain bikers!

Then once home, the best part of using Flaér products comes when all you have to do is show the drivetrain a hose, and it’s as clean as new!  I LOVE this aspect of the system and regularly receive comments on how clean my bikes are, with the absolute minimum of fuss or effort.

The next event was the Tour of the Highlands, a 3 day stage sportive around the Scottish Highlands, fully supported and very popular with club riders from across the country looking to test themselves over 160KMs and 2000m+ each day.  We were lucky this year and the weather was spectacular, light winds and sunshine each day meant that the roads were dry and the Revo Via wasn’t tested nearly as much as our legs!  Still, quietly going about it’s job and leaving me to concentrate on turning pedals and keeping the pace up felt like a luxury.

Unfortunately a serious accident involving one competitor on the last day was a sad ending to three of the best days I’ve had on a road bike in Scotland, and the results have been withheld until his situation improves and he’s on the mend.

Next up is a move to the Alps for some big climbs and hopefully more sun. The last rides at Easter time where in a mixture of sunshine and snow, but in any case the Revo Via will cope with aplomb I’m sure!”

Big thanks to Tom from the Flaér Team and we look forward to hearing further feedback from his future riding adventures #ridewithflaer