It’s nice to report good news! The Rene Herse cantilever brakes are ready. The arms are forged, the bushings machined, the small parts manufactured. Pre-orders from our crowd-funding are shipping now. Since we assemble these brakes by hand—pressing in the bushings, installing the pads, assembling the straddle cable holders, etc.—it’s taking a little time to get through all the pre-orders. We appreciate all our customers who’ve stepped up to keep these brakes available. If you’ve missed out on the crowd-funding, you can order your set now.
Berthoud in France has been working hard manufacturing the parts we ordered. We received all pre-ordered Berthoud saddles and mirrors a little while ago. We’re happy that many customers will ride this season on a super-comfortable leather saddle, with glove-like leather and a composite underframe that allows more flex than metal frames. Others are able to rebuild their old saddles and make them as good as new with new leather tops and other spare parts.
Customers have received their orders by now, and we’ve got a few extras. For now, most saddles and the mirrors are in stock in very limited quantities. They are going fast…
We also received more SON Ladelux headlights, generator hubs and small parts. Some parts, like certain Ladelux charging cables, are already out of stock, but we’re taking pre-orders and will get another shipment soon.
Not yet here, but arriving soon, are more TPU tubes and also the handy 100 ml sealant bottles. They are on the way to Seattle now. The sealant should arrive this week. The TPU tubes are expected late next week. Supplies are limited due to aluminum shortages—for the valves—that are caused by the war on Iran. You can pre-order your tubes and sealant…
When Paragon Machine Works, one of the biggest suppliers of framebuilding parts, suddenly closed last month, it sent shockwaves through the custom bike world. We remain committed to our framebuilding program, with Rene Herse × Kaisei frame tubes that are custom-drawn to our specifications, and all braze-ons needed to create the wonderful rando bikes we love. Our centerpull brake pivots were out of stock—we just received another production run. Framebuilding parts may not be profit-makers, but we just love custom steel bikes…
We carry all these parts because we need them for our own bikes. For example, the Rene Herse I race in Unbound XL (above) is built from Rene Herse × Kaisei frame tubes, runs our canti brakes, SON generator hubs and lights, and a Berthoud saddle, plus many other parts we make (including the tires and TPU tubes, obviously).
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