Pereira Featured on BikePortland

Jonathan Maus of BikePortland.org did a little pre-show interview with me and it appeared today. There are two pictures of my dreamy show bikes before I brought them to the painter. I'm hoping to get at least one of them back today and probably to other one tomorrow. I'll try to get the promised preview up here before the show. For now, check out Jonathan's site: http://bikeportland.org/2007/02/26/pereira-goes-for-neo-retro-at-bike-show/

The word is spreading

I'm still really surprised when my name appears around the way, so I have to share. Yesterday, Pereira Cycles was mentioned twice on bikeportland.org. Once in reference to the Handmade Bicycle Show with fellow builders Sacha, Ira and Joseph. And again about a little photo shoot I was involved in for a Portland based magazine called Wend. I met the Editor of Wend a little while back and he invited a few framebuilders to come and sport some stylin' wool duds for the shoot. It was really funny to "model"--we were all busting out our best Magnums and Blue Steels for the camera. I'm really happy that so many of my friends have seen the magazine--not because I'm in there, but because the magazine is so good and it deserves to succeed. At a time when mainstream magazines like Men's Journal, Outside, etc. are playing to the lowest common denominator and short attention spans with hollow 200 word articles, Wend is bucking that trend with long format articles that span 6 pages filled with great writing and beautiful photography. Check it out.

Another great surprise came to my in box the other day when bike-shop-owner clients Brian and Greg of Bike Pedalers in Lincoln, Nebraska sent me a link to their newly overhauled web site. Turns out they are my first dealer! Every page on the site has pictures of the bikes they bought from me. Greg even went so far to say "... my Pereria rides so fine I hardly believe it. I've got a lot of nice bikes (eisentrauts,sachs, vanilla, jack taylor) but lately yours is the one I jump on for the daily ride." Holy crap! My head is swelling! These are the exact builders whose work has given me the inspiration to do what I do. This is about the biggest complement I could ever get. Thanks guys!

NAHBS March 2nd-4th!

It's been super-busy here at the shop getting ready for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in San Jose. I've got two really neat bikes lined up and will share lots of photos with you all when they come back from the painter and I get them all put together. That's right, you'll get a special pre-show sneak peek. Hang in there for that...waiting for paint takes much patience. Prepare to be amazed. These bikes will be jaw-droppers for sure. If you're anywhere near the bay area you should try to get to the show.

The new shop is really coming together nicely. I have it pretty well laid out and have been tweaking how I store things. There are lots of hooks for hanging various projects from, but there never seems to be enough for all the wheels and I don't quite know what to do with all the forks I seem to accumulate.

If you are in Portland be sure to ring me up and arrange a visit. I mostly spend the day by myself and love to have visitors from time to time.

I'm also putting the finishing touches on a few bikes not going to the show. Expect updates to the gallery in a day or two.

Cheers!
Tony

Moab Report

It's been a month since the 8 Hours of Moab...yes, that's right the Eight Hours of Moab. As usual, the race started at noon, but was stopped at 8 pm because of torrential rain, flash flooding, hypothermia and the unavailability of ambulances. The course was a mess. When it rains hard in the desert, the rain runs fast down the rocks and quickly digs deep trenches across the desert floor, washing out roads and making a general mess of things. There wasn't much the organizers could do. Once all the ambulances left the venue (they apparently had 5 on hand) none could return, people were becoming hypothermic and the injuries were stacking up.

The race was scheduled to re-start in the morning, but without a plan for how to do this there was a lot of debate throughout the night. A system was decided on, but it didn't work and all results from Sunday were tossed out.

I can't say I didn't have fun. It was great to see my friends. Riding in Moab is always great, even if I only had one race lap. But, it was disappointing to not get any night laps and I missed having the satisfaction of completing a 24 hour race.

I almost forgot...we won our class, 5-Person Men's and got 23rd overall. The overall win went to the singlespeed team that beat us last year--very impressive.

There's always next year!

Photos: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/pereiracycles/album/576460762340705013

Summer's Gone...time for Moab

Well, the summer flew by without a single blog entry from me. How does this happen? Short summary: I raced short track MTB, built about 20 frames, went on two short bike tours, rode on the road more than ever, one of my bikes went riding with Dubya, and now cross season is here.

Mid October also brings the 24 Hours of Moab.

I'm leaving in an hour to fly back to SLC, hang with the bros and do some racin'! We have two teams this year: 5-man PBR 29 1x1 and clydesdales Big Meat. If you are there, come find the Pereira Cycles banner and say hello. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures when I return.

Pedalpalooza!

Wow.
Two weeks of cycling events were kicked off yesterday with the Pedalpalooza Parade through downtown Portland. While I have been aware of Pedalpalooza for a few weeks now I had no idea how much fun this would be. If the parade and subsequent Zoobomb are any indication of what is to come, I'm in heaven!

Pedalpalooza is Portland's annual bicycle fest and people in this town really love their bikes. There were probably 300 people at the parade last night. Dressed in all sorts of costumes and on every kind of bike. With a police escort the tour of downtown was a lot of fun. Isaac, a fellow Veloshop rider, went down with me and I met a bunch of great folks. Jonathan Maus of BikePortland fame spotted my Pereira Cycles shirt and said hello. A bunch of bike geeks chatted me up about my touring bike. Bethany, who helped paint a bunch of my frames during her too-short time at Acme Paint, surprised me when she said hello in her disguise. Allan Folz and his family were stylin' on their Santana, flyin' a great flag.

After the parade was over, some suspicious looking freaks were rolling around inviting people to Zoobomb. Since I've been wanting to check this out I was all over it. We rolled over to the MAX train and went up to Washington Park to prepare for the Bomb. It was everything I had hoped. A casual party-time got everyone ready while we watched the moon come up. When the time arrived we headed out for our first bomb. I hopped up front and followed Cupcake on the very high speed descent. It was really cool to see how fast these guys can go on 16" wheel kid's bikes. I can't wait for Sunday's official bomb. Sounds like it's going to be packed.

After two runs we called it a night and I headed home along the riverfront where the Navy has docked a few ships for the end of the Rose Festival.

What a great night. I can't wait to hit up some more of the events. See you there!

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.