“Hello!
I'm Samuel F. from Lausanne in Switzerland. For a few years I've been dreaming about building an ultimate, durable, smart, efficient, do-it-all, weather-proof bike. I contacted Alee Denham (founder of Cyclingabout.com) and he recommended you. I am thrilled when I look at the bikes that you build - it's exactly in the mindset I'm looking for…” -
This is how Samuel introduced himself, and with that starting point we began working together on this tremendous bike we want to share on this blog, since it has some special touches.
As you'll see, those of you who know our range best, we started with a Nua Luna Rohloff, which Samuel initially configured using our online configurator, and from there we worked on the details and components outside our standard offer.
Normally we use Supernova brand lights, but Samuel chose to equip his Nua with SON lights, so we agreed to his wishes and thus took the opportunity to check and test them. The truth is that since then we have used them on a couple of other occasions, and we love them, to the point that we've decided to use SON lights in our standard offer in the very near future. The build quality is incredible, the power and perfection of its light beam is well known, and details such as the internal magnetic switch (preventing the risk of failure due to humidity) or the coaxial cables have made us fall in love.
Currently we already use the SON brand in the rest of our “Permanent Light Kit”, for the dynamo hub and coaxial plugs, so it was the logical step to start using their lights as well. One detail that you will like is the custom bracket that Marcos built for the rear light so that it can be installed on the dropout.
The mudguards/fenders installed are the Wingee Alumeé, fabulous super rugged metallic mudguards that includes a discreet hanger for side panniers. An intelligent, simple and discreet solution. After having installed them on some bikes, they have convinced us and we've also decided to offer them from now on in our standard offer.
Samuel named this bike Wanderer:
"...I would like to call this bike "Wanderer". It's a reference to J.R.R. Tolkien "Not all those who wander are lost". It's a well fitting name for this bike that is versatile, resistant to all conditions and durable…"
When he asked us to anodize that name on the frame, Roberto came up with the idea of anodizing the quote as well, on the chain stay, an idea that Samuel liked.
This bike was one of the first to feature one of our new ToroLoco handlebars, which is having quite a bit of success. It's a super versatile handlebar that offers comfort and control, and it has those welded horns right where you'd find the hoods on a road bar, so you have a super useful extra hand position, and more aerodynamics.
Samuel asked us about the possibility of using one of our old casted headbadges, and fortunately we still have some lying around in the shop, so we agreed with a smile on our faces. We had to work on it a bit as it's made for smaller diameter headtubes (the ones our first frames had 7 or 8 years ago), but it turned out great and gives the bike a vintage feel.
And other details and components, such as the Rohloff Speedhub 14 Speeds:
Shimano XT Brakes with 4 Piston calipers:
Our titanium stem:
The WTB saddle, with titanium rails, above our clean looking titanium seatpost:
And finally, one last photo of the set:
And we leave you with Samuel's feedback:
“Hello friends,
I got the bike yesterday ! It was very exciting to discover this magnificent piece of work. I went to a bike shop to shorten the ends of the handlebar by about 3 cm each side to have a more compact feeling. Both mechanics, 2 passionate guys about 60 yr old and one of them owns 3 Ti bikes, were immediately drawn to the bike and said it was a really well thought and very well built bike and asked to have a ride with it.
I got to test the bike on the steep climbs in my city, Lausanne, today. Both the Rohloff and the handlebar take some getting used to because they are a bit unusual but I can feel their big potential already. The bike feels stable, comfortable, versatile and has an amazing span of gears that I never experienced before. I never felt so comfortable on 20% climbs that I use almost daily. The "horn" position feels fast and stable as well. Looking forward to accumulating kilometers on this bike for the many years to come!
Thanks a lot for making my cyclist-freak wish come true !...”
Thanks to you Samuel and thanks to all of our customers who take the time to send us feedback, we value it immensely.
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