Matijs from Belgium had been thinking about our Nua Sílice Rohloff for a long time, so close to his 33 anniversary, he thought it would be a good present for himself.
He had a steel gravel bike with which he had crossed Europe, and felt quite comfortable on it, although on very long days (not strange for him to ride during 14 hours per day) could feel some discomfort in the shoulders. When seeing his bike measurements, we advised him of some modifications, which were later confirmed and specified by a bike fitter specialist who he went to. With closed bike specs and geometry/fit drawing, the project started and 18 weeks later his Nua was born:
Matijs came to pick up his bike to Barcelona. Remember our shop is not in Barcelona but in Arbúcies, a remote small village in Girona, so pick-ups are not easy for us. But we found some time to bring the bike to our friend's workshop in Barcelona, where Matijs picked it up and went back home by riding it, which is not bad at all since we know he lives in Belgium.
Then he sent us a small diary of his 3 days trip back home:
“On day one the sun was shining and the wind was blowing North so with my new Nua it took me almost no effort to ride 230 km into France past Perpignan into the Camargue region. On day 2 in the morning I was riding between flamingos and I still had a high spirit to ride a long distance, unfortunately the legs were not too enthusiastic and most of the route was off-road. It was great fun riding the bike on various types of gravel and I even finished a rocky technical descent without any issues thanks to the great handling and braking of the bike...By the end of the day I was cycling on a big road and I was not feeling comfortable with traffic passing by at high speed so I decided to climb down to a small track next to the road. I arrived at the track but there was a fence and I needed to get over it, at this time I hurt my leg but it didn't seem like a big thing so I just kept on cycling. I was still at great height and wanted to sleep in the valley to avoid low temperatures so I descended in the dark with the brakes giving me all the confidence I needed. I finished 177 km on day 2.
On day 3, After a while riding through the beautiful 'gorges du Tarn' I realized the slopes were getting steeper and I wanted to keep going north. This is where my first hike-a-bike section started. I had to exit the valley on a slope so steep I would have toppled over backwards trying to ride it up. It wasn't good for my average speed but the scenery was absolutely stunning. The rest of the day I spent at around 1000 m so I kept my legs moving to keep warm, I ended the day with 195 km on the gps.
The next day I awoke with a swollen leg and a lot of pain. I tried to cycle further but I was forced to give up. After 75 km of fighting wind and rain with a sore leg I had to give up. Still I was not feeling sad because I had my Nua with me…”
After recovering from his leg hurt, it seems Matijs doesn’t get off his Nua. Some weeks ago he sent us this feedback:
“I Have just finished a really challenging but epic weekend on the NUA, the event was called GG22 https://www.grelly-cycling.be/ and it consisted of a 780km track with 13000m elevation change.
My bike performed fantastic and I finished without any technical issue. I passed the finish line with a noiseless bike, this was not the case for all the others using old school chain drivetrains 😄
Thanks again for the fantastic bike. I'm sure I will have a lot more fun with it”
We hope you liked this Nua as much as we did building it. Until next time!
If you want to see more about our models and components, or if you want to configure your own Nua, do not hesitate to enter our builders in the "Bikes" section of our website or just write to us at contact@nuabikes.com.