First meeting...I love it!I've got my new bike! An exciting time at the Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland capped off by taking home my Pereira. It is truly a beautiful bike and everything I imagined when Tony and I started talking about it. He was very patient with our voluminous email correspondence.
It started in March 2006 the day after the show ended after having seen the randonneur bicycle he built for the show and won Best of Show with. I had already been working on modifying a canti-Romulus for the brevet season, but knew I wanted something much more substantial for some of the off-road touring I had in mind too. I also wanted to have 650b tires for something new and they seemed to be well worth building my idea around. Word was that there were going to be some new Gran Bois Hetre 650b x 42mm tires available and that's what I wanted Tony to design for. Problem was, they didn't even exist when we began and only came to the US in November!
It all came together and I wanted some specific elements in addition to the fat tires: stem with bell and removable faceplate, removable low-rider racks, minimal to zero TCO, low trail for better handling with a handlebar bag, triple water bottle mounts, light mounts front and rear and really perfect confident handling.
Test rides this week have proven that it does all I wished for and I can't wait to take it on further trips and rougher terrain. I'll be skiing for the next two months and then back riding in April!
Built with Columbus Life tubing with a custom double plate crown fork (60mm rake/40mm trail). Rides so well I may not need other bikes! More pictures here. The color is a green/grey with a sort of mossy brown logo and box lining - hard to photograph but really nice. The polished bronze brazed-on head badge looks awesome.
6 comments:
Lucky you! I was drooling over that bike!
Great bike. But watch out for the durability of those GB tires. I finally swapped mine out for 650b megamiums. Too many flats in too short a time period. But oh so pretty.
Nice bike. Was happy to have seen it at the NAHBS show.
Congrats.
The Pereira makes me happy, that's for sure. As far as the Gran Bois, they are very similar to the 700cx30mm versions I've run for the 2007 brevet season and PBP this year, so I'm pretty happy with them so far. Some flats, but no more than Paselas from earlier rides. Thanks for all the comments, I'll have more reports when April rolls around after ski season.
Hey Jon -
This was my favorite bike of the show. Just so beautiful and well thought out. Do report back on the durability of those fatty tires. They're so beautiful, but I've had awful luck with the GB label tires and flats.
Also, what sort of front bag is this: ?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13456742@N03/2259068482/in/set-72157603890156898/
Neat bike, Jon! Say...what crankset is mounted on that thing?
Thanks Kevin - The crank is a TA Carmina 94BCD with 44/30 rings. Nice crank and can use other spiders for different configurations. Not cheap though...
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