Jonathan Allen’s Focus Izalco Max for the 2025 UK Hill Climb National Championships looks like a fairly typical, charmingly hodge-podge hill climb bike, but a closer inspection reveals the wildest shifter setups I've ever seen.
The bike typically runs an already light 11-speed SRAM eTap electronic groupset, but Allen wanted the lightest setup possible: “I wanted to use the TT blips, but the box to control those is really expensive. I was a student at the time and couldn’t justify buying it.”
Instead, he found a pair of crash-damaged eTap shifters going very cheap: “There were some contacts that had come desoldered, and the battery compartment was a bit mashed.
“So I un-mashed that, re-soldered the wires, stripped out the shifter paddles, taped them to the bars and paired them with these lightweight [36g] Brompton levers.”
Allen says this setup saves around 150g compared to standard eTap levers, but comes with some quirks: “I’m not sure [the weight saving] justifies the ride feel,” Allen admits. “Where I’ve mounted them, gripping the bars and levering out the saddle is a bit awkward – I get arm pump going uphill.
“I’ve done a lot of mountain biking in the past, and I’m used to arm pump going downhill, but not going uphill.”
Allen used the same setup last year, but discovered its limitations at wet events: “I put freezer bags over the shifters – it was horrible.”
This DIY approach, chasing questionable gains at the expense of functionality, is what makes hill climb tech so fun – my job would be far less entertaining without committed tinkerers like Allen.
Besides the shifters, Allen makes relatively few mods for hill climbs: “I’ve taken the front derailleur off, gone 1x, fitted Planet X CNC brakes and a silly AliExpress carbon saddle,” he says.
The wheels come from a small Gloucestershire builder Allen found on Instagram. “I think he built the wheels Ed Laverack used when he won Nationals [in 2019],” he says. “They’re 30mm clinchers, and come in fairly light, but they’re not the silly tubs you see on some people’s bikes.” Allen ran these with 25mm wide Vittoria Corsa Speed tyres.
A Dura-Ace R9100 crankset with a 4iiii power meter and Superstar 1x chainring completes the build.
While by no means cheap, Allen reckons the bike owes him £1,500, likely less – a humble sum in comparison to the many superbikes I saw on the hill specced with front wheels more expensive than that.
Allen finished 87th overall and 63rd in his category, but undoubtedly won my unofficial BikeRadar DIY Champion award.
