Utah Visit

Last week I took a "work" trip to Utah to check in on my house and see some friends. Despite the hectic schedule it was a lot of fun. I got to hand-deliver two frames, go on a great Park City ride and saw most of my good friends.

I arrived on Wednesday which is shop party day at Wild Rose--always a great time. There was a huge attendance and we set out for the traditional "Tour de Satan" bar ride.Without going into too many incriminating details all I will say is that it was a riot: Parking garage crits, beer goblets, Temple Square Omnium, Taco stand feasting and other general mayhem. The old crew hasn't changed a bit and it was a pleasure to hang with them again.



Steve Cook, recent winner of two Gold Medals for Nordic skiing at the 2006 Paralympics in Torino, was on hand to receive his new Pereira Singlespeed 29er. It's got one of the fanciest paint jobs yet and I think he was thrilled. The pic isn't the best, but I hope to have some better ones on the site soon. Maybe I can get him to take a few after he builds it up. It's a wicked midnight blue pearl with a "bass boat" gold panel. This should give you the idea.

I spent most of my time working on my house, getting it ready for some new tenants, but I also got a great ride in with the crew in Park City. The trails are just drying out, are in terrific shape and the weather was typical Utah-perfect.


The crew was 11 deep and there were 6 Pereira Cycles! Very cool. Too bad Steve didn't have all his parts or we would have had another.

Right in the middle of the ride we cut through a posh Deer Valley neighborhod and bumped into another Pereira owner, Steve Rescigno. Too funny to see him. I think he was just as surprised as I was. I had called him earlier in the day, but he was working and couldn't make the ride.


I'm back in Portland now and got right back to building frames. To all of you waiting, hang in there, your frame will be done soon!

I just added a mailing list to my site. At this point I plan to use it to announce events, site changes, new pictures, products, etc. Maybe it will make a good forum for Pereira owners and future owners to meet and interact? It probably won't get too much traffic, so sign up and check it out. Let's see what happens.

Thanks to everyone for all your support. 2006 has been a great year so far. Business is booming and the frames are coming out great. Hope to see you all out on the trails soon.

NAHBS Report

What a weekend! Thanks to Don and his family and volunteers for doing a great job. Most of the people I spoke with were as impressed as I was with the turn out. It was pretty well packed all three days.

I wish I had more time to walk around the show, but I got to see quite a bit of stuff and met loads of people that I'd wanted to. Everyone I met was incredibly friendly--I guess that's what happens when you get a group of people together that are following their passions.

Andy Newlands provided the car and we set off for San Jose on Wednesday morning at 6 am. I have a client in Napa who we were picking up a bike from, so we planned to spend the night there before the final push to SJ on Thursday. Andy is a wine enthusiast and gave me a terrific tour of Napa and Sonoma as we made our way south. We turned a 2 hour drive into a 7 hour field trip. After a great lunch at Bistro Ralph in Healdsburg (lamb burger with caramelized onions and goat cheese, topped off with a dry creek Zin) we toured around and stopped at a winery for some tasting. The sun was shining for nearly the entire day in spite of a forecast that called for lots of rain--we concluded that the definition of rain is a little different in Cali than up here in Portland. At this time of year the wine country is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. For instance: http://www.pereiracycles.com/images/healdsburg.jpg

Anyway, that was just getting to the show. The actual show was great. Having so many finely crafted bicycles under one roof was a real treat. I had no idea what to expect attendance-wise, but when the doors opened on Friday it was the beginning of a very steady flow of people who piled on the praise for my bicycles. By the time Sunday rolled around my head had swelled up with pride--as I told quite a few people over the weekend, my ego is completely off the charts! When you work alone and mail your work off to clients you don't get to see their reaction. As a new builder it was really cool to have people admire all the details that I put into my work. On that note, I was impressed by the knowledge of the attendees. So often I show my work to non-bicycle people and they have no idea what they are looking at. At the show people picked up on the touches that make each frame unique. Some of the most rewarding moments for me were when builders who I have admired for years told me how good my work was. Peter Weigle, whose work I've been very inspired by, came over and said "Everyone keeps telling me I have to see your touring bike. Nice work." Keith Anderson had a look and commented on the flawlessness of my fillets (Keith has been building sweet fillet bikes for years). Doug Fattic visited over and over and was very encouraging as well. (Thanks Doug!) I was walking on air the whole time. I forgot to eat lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Adrenaline really can get you by.

Enough about me and my ego. The other bikes at the show were fantastic. Hats off to Sacha and his minions for the work they did on that tricycle. If you haven't seen pictures of this yet, you've got to find some. I think clockwork had a few. The details and the craftsmanship on it were off the charts. Honestly, I didn't have time to vote, but that was best of show in my book as well--even if it wasn't a bicycle. Mike Flanigan had a bunch of bikes inspired by the 1890's era that were off the hook. Wood "tubes" and copper plated components! Yee haw! His eye for detail and mix of modified new parts is really cool. His Iver-Johnson replica with it's truss frame, red rims and drum brake was spot-on. Bruce Gordon had something like 10 bikes there that each had unique details. Nice job on those ti canti brakes. Richard Sachs's lug prototypes were interesting to see. I would have liked to chat with him some more, but his booth was really busy every time I went by. Brian Baylis's Rando bike had tons of details, both ornamental and functional. His accessory attachment system, using tiny wedge bolts, was very interesting. BTW, Baylis and Sadoff rocked the house on Friday night. You guys were impressive. Paul completely shreds on the guitar and Brian is a great drummer.

I could go on and on. The show exceeded my expectations on every level. Thanks to everyone for making it so much fun. Thanks to Andy for providing the car and traveling with me. I may have learned more about wine than I did about bikes.

Bike Show -- Site Changes

The North American Handmade Bicycle Show is finally upon us. I've been preparing for months. Two generous clients have allowed me to show their bikes before they have even ridden them. Thanks Jeff B. and Jeff C. If you're coming to the show you're in for a treat. I put tons of work into the bikes and they represent my best work yet. My third show bike is my very own touring bike. I've wanted one for years and went all out on this one.

There are some pictures up on the site now:
JBR-2
FJ-55

There's only one picture of the touring bike since the final details are not complete. I'm packing it today and leaving tomorrow so I'll be finishing it just in the nick of time. You'll have to come to the show to see more.

If you've been to the site before you'll see that I've done some updating. I tried to present a little more up front and I've put some new pictures up on the main pages. Let me know what you think. I'm really proud of the bikes these days. I love building them and keep getting better at it. Hopefully I'll always be able to say that.

Please come and visit me at the show. It's going to be really cool to meet all the builders and see some of the best bikes in the world.

T-Shirts and Cyclo-cross

Just in time for cold weather and the holiday spending season: Pereira Cycles Logo T-Shirts! Get 'em while they're hot...

The Cross Crusade Cyclo-cross series has wound down. What a riot it was. I met a bunch of great people and had tons of fun racing in a new discipline. I ended up tying three other guys for 6th, 7th and 8th in the Singlespeed class. I'm looking forward to next year...I'm really gonna train...really... Sounds like the Awards Party has a reputation for getting rowdy. See you all there.

Downtown Brown Gallery

Today has been fantastic. My long awaited Singlespeed Cross bike came home from the painter and it is by far the most beautiful bicycle I have ever seen. Ok...that may be pushing it a little, but since I built it I'm going to stand by that statement.

You will have to see for yourselves in the Gallery pages.

Dean and Bethany at Acme Bicycle Paint are incredibly skilled. They even seemed impressed with how well it turned out. They took great care with the details and the results are better than I expected and better than the pictures can do justice. When I have some more time I'll set up some lights and get better pictures of before I scratch it all up in the race on Sunday.

Notice that the bike is wet in several pictures. After holing myself up for the past two and a half days of sun, I finally get my brand new bike ready and it starts raining. Ahh...life in Portland. I'm getting used to it, but I just couldn't bring myself to head out on a night ride in the rain. Looks like tomorrow I'll get to ride during the daylight.

Speaking of riding here in Portland, it is excellent. I have actually developed an appreciation for road riding. On Sunday we had some nice weather and I took my road bike out for about 60 miles on the road with 10 miles of dirt thrown into the return trip. It rained enough that I got pretty muddy, but I kinda like that now.

Acme has helped me take Pereira Cycles to a whole new level. My skills are constantly improving, I'm branching into new types of bikes (look for Jared's fixie soon!) , building lots of forks and stems and with the spectacular paint I am very excited to see what will come in the future. Keep dreaming...your bike is right around the corner.

Joining the Circus

I can't get into my shop today so I'm taking care of "that list" of stuff I keep putting off.

Can't get into my shop.

Pereira Cycles has been a full-time endeavor for me for about two months now. After moving to Portland, Oregon I rented a space and set up the shop that I dragged here from Salt Lake City. Luckily I found a spot to set up right after arriving...unluckily it is located inside another business, so I only have access while they are open. Eventually the space will be improved and I'll have my own door. Since I couldn't get in today I had the opportunity to make some progress towards that eventual goal: filed my LLC paperwork, applied for a business license, filled out some insurance forms--all things that will be necessary for me to convince the owner of the building that I am serious and ready to take it to the next level. The insurance is the big one. The business I rent from is an auto repair shop. He specializes in some pretty high-zoot stuff. Lots of custom cars. I understand him wanting to cover himself--if I burn the place down or something horrendous like that.

Anyway...I'm Tony Pereira. I build custom bicycle frames. I think they rock. Now I have a blog too...just like everyone else.