Boomerang Pearson Touché

Just this weekend finished my 1st build completely from scratch. Bought the F&F and headset last July and have very slowly been gathering the parts I wanted. A fair bit of trawling eBay and the classifieds have given me pretty much what I was after, a fairly old school look, with new compenents. Still a few little bits to be bought, but glad to have it on the road at last!

This will be used my 16 mile daily commute, and the odd longer ride while I service my road bike and build a new road bike. Went out for a bit of shakedown this morning, rides nicely and much stiffer than my previous 531 conversion. Hope you like!

Build is as follows:

58cm Pearson Touché frame with eyelets
Pearson carbon fork with eyelets
First Spurs headset

Miche 107mm BB
165mm Miche Primato Cranks
49t Miche 1/8" chainring
17t fixed rear sprocket
KMC 1/8" chain
Shimano M520 SPD pedals

Silver Velocity Deep-V rims
Ambrosio hubs (rear fixed/free)
Miche long drop brake calipers
25mm Vittoria Rubino tyres
SKS Chromoplastic mudguards (rear stays fitted with secu-clips to allow rear wheel to be easily removed)

Tektro levers (on the lookout for some hoods for some Chorus levers I have)
3T TDF Ergo bars
3T 110mm stem
Black Easton bar tape
Campagnolo ultra low friction brake outers

Tired, but comfortable Brooks saddle
Campagnolo seatpost

I've also replaced all the bolts on the frame with new stainless items, added clear protectors to prevent the paintwork from cable rub and fitted donuts on the brake cable along the top tube.

i've been building / riding a blue 60cm touche and i just can't seem to get it dialed in. i haven't even cut the steerer yet. i put steel forks on mine and ambrosia wheelset. i've currently got it ss/ss with white industries 20/18 and 48t chainring.

i prefer my pompino 2 so far, but once i get it sorted i might grow to like it.

how is the paint on yours? mine just seems to be really easily chipped around the bottom bracket area.

You may want to trim the mudguards stays.

@lovecloughfixie I bought the frame 2nd hand so it had a few cosmetic marks. However, the laquer has come away in places around the BB and around the top of the seatube where the clamp is. I think my frame dates from around 2009, so they may have improved the finish since then.

@Lolo Believe it or not, the stays have ben trimmed! I took around 10-15mm off each of them, but I reckon I could do with removing another 10mm or so. Since I cut the rear stays, I added the secu-clips which have pushed the rear mudguard away from the frame by another 15mm ish. I'll get the hacksaw out again!

I ride a blue 54 touché about the same commute - perfect apart from last couple of days where strong crosswinds reall catch the flat tubes and aero wheel set (nearly put me under a bus riding up city road)

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An update a long time coming since the original build. I've covered around 15,000km on the Pearson itself and it's travelled another 30,000km via sea to and from Australia. I moved to Perth in 2012 and made a couple of changes - A suede Cinelli Unicanitor and carbon seatpost made their way onto the Pearson.

I had a recurring issue breaking spokes on the original front wheel so swapped that out for a Miche as it just needed a rebuild properly. Ran the bike like this for a few years with periodic replacements of chain, sprocket and BB before the next updates in 2018.

Given that the purpose of the Pearson is that it's a bike I can run all winter with minimal maintenance it tended to see the worst of the weather (in Perth so all relative) and whilst I'm not a fan of the aesthetics of disc brakes on a road bike, the wet weather performance can't be ignored so it was something I looked into further given I was looking to move back to the UK at some stage.

The main constraint was to find a 1 1/8th straight steerer carbon fork with disc mounts and eyelets to allow me to continue to run mudguards. A fair bit of searching and research lead me to only find one option which was the Radon Carbonfork 1 1/8" for Disc from bike-discount.de

I'd also need some wheels built up to complete the upgrade to the front disc. Given that I needed a 100mm QR 6 bolt disc front hub and a 120mm rear hub with track nuts, and wanted them to match and wanted be able to use the existing 32h Velocity Deep V rims - Velo Orange came to the rescue with a Grand Cru Disc Touring Front Hub and a Grand Cru Fixed/Free Rear Hub.

I had the wheels built by a fantastic builder in Perth, Adrian at Melody Wheels - https://melodywheels.com.au/georges-fixed-track/

With the new wheels, some new brake levers and a change to white fizik microtex bar tape, the Pearson ran like this on my commutes to work until it was packed up for it's trip back to the UK, 8 years after leaving Manchester.

Roll onto March 2020 and we're back in the UK and the Pearson is back on commute duties in rural Norfolk and all is good in the world.

There's nothing I'd look to change now and despite having a number of bikes over the last 10 years it's probably my favourite as it just works.

nice update and bike looks great. How long have you had the VO hubs? Any issues with them to worry about?

I've been running these wheels since mid-2018 and have had no issues with the hubs. They seem to be really well made with sealed bearings etc. and they are still smooth with no play. I was kind of painted into a corner with the spec that I wanted , but I would have no concerns about having another pair of wheels built up with Velo Orange hubs