Graeme Simpson: Student bike builder finds his calling

TOTAL FOCUS: Mead Norton shot this rehearsal photo at the new course for the National Mountain Bike Downhill Championships.

IT'S ALWAYS encouraging to get any feedback on a story or one of these columns. It's not often I'm told a story was life changing.

Last week, I dropped in to see bike builder, Jeff Anderson. He'd generously offered to put together the cyclocross bike I have on loan to review for New Zealand Road Cyclist.

I always found handlebar tape a mystery, even when I owned road bikes many years ago, and it's always good to watch an experienced mechanic at work.

Jeff had the Focus ready to go in 20 minutes.

When I arrived, a new bike build was being tested. Jeff introduced the rider, Karl Bensemann, and told me he was a bike-building student. The bike was Karl's graduation exam - and he'd passed with flying colours. I had to agree. It was a beautiful road cruiser with a Jeffson's trademark elegance and simplicity - and delicate design flourishes. I asked Karl where he'd heard about Jeff. He told me he'd picked up his first New Zealand Road Cyclist magazine in Tauranga and read a story about a bike build with Jeff.

Which was when Jeff told Karl I was the writer. Karl shook my hand and said that reading the story had made him realise it was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He's a Kiwi based in Brisbane and a welder by trade. He had the fabrication skills, but had never fillet brazed (welded) with bronze and silver.

At the end of the month, he'll be heading back to Australia where he's lined up a job in a bike shop. There will be handcrafted Bensemann frames on the market in the future.

Karl's background is in mountain and jumps bikes. He knows Tom Hey and Kelly McGarry, who are building the slope-style course for next week's Crankworx Rotorua. Karl's helping with the build. One side of the lake, constructing big air jumps for some of the most talented riders in the world - including Kelly. On the other side, learning to craft a retro road bike, using techniques that are a century old. What a contrast, showing the real diversity of the Rotorua bike scene. I'm still going through the photos from last month's Bike Festival. The photo today is by Mead Norton, one of the festival photo team.

Along with Alick Saunders and Alan Ofsoski, Mead shot one of the rehearsals for Crankworx, the National Mountain Bike Downhill Championships, on the newly minted course at Skyline.

The festival also produced and funded video coverage of the downhill shot by John Colthorpe from EIVOMEDIA. The video was online on Pinkbike, one of the world's biggest MTB websites, by early evening. We're still collating the numbers, but this video was watched tens of thousands of times. John shot at Bike Speedway, 16" Dual Slalom World Championships, Rotorua BMX's Pump Track event and the Redwoods Coast, editing immediately after.

EIVOMEDIA and the festival also produced a video of the 2W Gravity Enduro, a preview the Giant Toa, round one of the Enduro World Series that runs alongside Crankworx. Big viewing numbers, again, and all at no cost to the event organiser.

Events supporting other events - the spirit of the festival and Rotorua MTB.

- Check out the videos: vimeo.com/eivomedia