Show Us Your Bikes

[PedalUma]

This is the place to show your bike or bikes and talk about what sets it apart for you and for general bike discussions.

I just made a bike electric with a DM02 motor that is called a Pashley Prospero. It has modern off-road/sturdy Shimano GRX components a sturdy Reynolds 631 frame with some classic style.

 

[stompandgo]

I saw this brand in a high end home goods store. They are very beautiful in person.

Was this a customer bike conversion, or a frame up build?

I saw that they offer a B2B brand option. Would you ever consider a PedalUma branded bike line?

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Pashley is a very old English bike brand established in the 20s I think. Don't see many of them around, think they sort of disappeared in the 70s or 80s for mainstream bikes. They still own Brookes saddles which are doing very well and have a sort of retro range of 531 steel bikes

 

[PedalUma]

a customer bike conversion

I talked with her, the owner, about her wants and needs for the final dream bike of her life. This is the starter bike we landed on. It shipped from Stafford-Upon-Avon to my workshop and there I did the conversion. Each bike that I do is one-off, but it did get a top tube sticker. It is not scalable or off-the-rack. Every aspect is programable: https://to7motor.com/product/t154-e-bike-centre-control-panel

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I talked with her, the owner, about her wants and needs for the final dream bike of her life. This is the starter bike we landed on. It shipped from Stafford-Upon-Avon to my workshop and there I did the conversion. Each bike that I do is one-off, but it did get a top tube sticker. It is not scalable or off-the-rack. Every aspect is programable: https://to7motor.com/product/t154-e-bike-centre-control-panel

Getting the feeling that you're back in your happy place after your months in a retail ebike shop. Wishing you great success.

Speaking of which, how do you and your custom ebike clients find each other? Is the market for classic bikes turned into classy ebikes bigger than I think?

One thing's for sure, lots of nice old unassisted bikes languishing in garages in my mostly over-55 neighborhood. I spot them through open garage doors as I walk the dog and ride neighborhood laps.

Like this elegant Kent Bayside cruiser from across the street just begging for the @PedalUma touch. Not an expensive bike, but a well-built looker with Shimano components.

Tuned this one up for the 80-something owner and rode it around the block. She says it's too heavy for her to ride now, but maybe not after you were done with it.

 

[PedalUma]

happy place after your months in a retail ebike shop

I loved that bike shop job but had to walk. The service manager, not owner, was a narcissistic jerk with constant putdowns. He wanted me walking on eggshells and under his thumb. He didn't want me to even talk to my customers who I referred. I am naturally great with customers and sales. He hated that. He also hated that I was much taller. Then he started talking about violence and guns. I had used a torque wrench on a stem in the afternoon and the next morning I found he had sabotaged it. That is when I walked. My custom build customers talk with their friends. That is 95% of where they come from. It is all word of mouth and you need to know someone.
Okay, for that bike all cables and the display wire would match and run through frame. I would use a long cage derailleur to an 11-34 freewheel. The brakes would be upgraded. It would need an eccentric bottom bracket adaptor from American to English. New contour grips with a MicroShift seven-speed trigger shifter and upgraded pedals. I would like to keep the chainguard and often do but cannot on this one because of the larger offset chainring. It would need to be 36V with a bottle battery with VersaMounts on the seat tube. There would need to be a non-economic justification to invest in it. One woman believed that her dead brother's soul was in her Stumpjumper.

 

[Base]

Pashley is a very old English bike brand established in the 20s I think. Don't see many of them around, think they sort of disappeared in the 70s or 80s for mainstream bikes. They still own Brookes saddles which are doing very well and have a sort of retro range of 531 steel bikes

When Raleigh sold Brooks in 1999 it was later bought (2002) by Selle Royal

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

One woman believed that her dead brother's soul was in her Stumpjumper.

That would explain a lot about the Stumpjumper I bought ca. 1985.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

When Raleigh sold Brooks in 1999 it was later bought (2002) by Selle Royal

Ah ok. Thought they still owned them. Turns out they never fully owned them but instead:

Pashley has a long association with Brooks, having initially been based 5 miles away from the factory in Birmingham. In recent history, Pashley ensured the continuation of Brooks’ production when its parent company (Sturmey Archer) was in difficulties in the late 1990s. Many of the bicycles in the Pashley range use Brooks saddles and have done so almost continuously, since Pashley was founded in 1926. As with Brooks saddles, Pashley Cycles are hand-made in England. Both companies continue with the tradition of making fine products for discerning customers.

 

[PedalUma]

That would explain a lot about the Stumpjumper I bought ca. 1985.

It would be very easy for any bike shop to drop the weight on that bike and vastly improve the way it pedals. Right now it has loose bearings that have not been greased in ages and because it lives by the sea, are rusted. That system was extra heavy and did not work well. Next it has a cast iron one piece crank that weighs as much as grandmother's frying pan. Or great-great grandmother's ironing iron. All they need to do is put in a centric American to English adaptor, a modern sealed BB and aluminum crankset and chainring. The bike would become totally ridable.

 

[PedalUma]

This is Susan the owner of the Pashley Prospero. She lives in San Anselmo, where bike culture is huge and where mountain biking originated. It also has a bike museum. She owns a Vado SL 6 Carbon and is a serious cyclist. On her first ride she never went higher that the middle power level. We took 15% climbs and did steep MTB gravel single track with switchbacks. We did some Chileno Valley and took the bike on a section of cobbles. This is the fastest and most comfortable bike she has ever ridden. She also got a ton of compliments. She is so over the moon happy.
Anybody going to post their bikes?

 

[stompandgo]

She looks perfect on it.

My bike has it's own thread, but I can post some pics here if you like.

 

[PedalUma]

She looks perfect on it.

My bike has it's own thread, but I can post some pics here if you like.

Post them! Everyone.
Even the ugliest bike award. I worked on a bike, he insisted that only I adjust the brakes. Want to see an ugly bike? Garbage tie. Spools of wire. Unmatched zip tie fever. My town has the ugly dog contest. It is all good.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Anybody going to post their bikes?

Glamour shots of my bare-bones Specialized Vado SL 1 5.0 EQ wearing 38 mm gravel tires. Most were more about the setting than the bike.

What does it say that I have more photos of this bike in beautiful places than I do of my dog or my wife? Yes, in that order.

 

[PedalUma]

more photos of this bike

The SL is so lovely as well as its natural habitat setting. I love the Byway Gravel tires! That's the way to do it: Beautiful bike.

 

[DaveMatthews]

A 2021 Giant Stance E+2...

 

[JGcycle]

2025 Zen Keji Cruiser

 

[dodgeman]

My Trek Verve 3. It’s about 4 years old, 6200 miles. Nothing special about it.

 

[PedalUma]

@JGcycle,
I once purchased a Mexican soccer team's Gatorade bottle from a Spanish language grocery store for $1.69 in Santa Rosa while buying a burrito to go. Then I cut off the bottom, hit it with a heat gun, and used it as a bike's stealth battery dust cover.

 

[Catalyzt]

This is Nightmare, a Grizl:ON CF 7. I've been blowing up my own thread with all kinds of observations about getting her dialed in right.

She is fast and very smart-- maybe a little too smart for her own good, like a lot of us at her age. Between riding the hoods and the vibration dampening from the front fork and CF frame, shockingly comfortable, particularly for my hands. Outstanding handling and better traction on these roads than any other bike I've ridden, I've yet to have the back end break away. I have to get used to how responsive she is, however. Takes a lot of focus over downhill 30 MPH. Have not had her over 35 yet.