Clandestine Carrier

Three years ago, Pi at Clandestine made me a road bike frameset. The build was a no-frills parts swap from my old Cross Check. The geo was Rivendell Roadini-ish. It's since had a respray and the original parts have slowly been replaced with silver ones. A true forever bike and I love it. The process was really smooth and left me with a great impression of Pi's ethos and approach. If I was ever going to commission another custom build, I knew it'd be from him.

So, three years on and with two young kids, *long rides aren't on the agenda as much. And whilst running errands and getting groceries on the road bike is OK, when Pi suggested a discount on the Carrier I'd previously enquired about in return for borrowing my road bike to show at Bespoked '24, I thought I'd go for it. I'm due a six-week sabbatical next year and want to try the West Kernow Way and KAW so a Carrier, in its utilitarian glory, seemed like the perfect tool for the job. I sold a bunch of bikes to make way for it: the Bassi, the Pacer and the Overbury's. The Bassi would've been fine but I wasn't really feeling it, as nice as it was.

Anyway, the goal is pretty much a "standard issue" flat bar Carrier build but with a frame pump boss on the back of the head tube and long-ish (475mm) chainstays -- heavily influenced by the Riv -- and similar to a Stanforth Pamira. I know long stays are divisive but to me they ride so damn good, especially off road/uphill.

I pilfered a few choice components from previous builds such as the Middleburn crankset, MKS pedals and some others but otherwise let Pi guide the way. The frameset is pretty much brazed and I think it'll be due for powder soon. RAL 5014 (pigeon blue) will be the colour, like Surly's "Blue Suit of Leisure" LHT and the Singular Peregrin.

Progress photos (and my road bike) below. Credit to Adam Gasson for the latter. More updates to follow, enjoy the ride.

*>80kms = ultradistance IMO

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Nice! Looking forward to seeing this progress

Instant sub - what a classic this is going to be 💚

Definitely subbed for this - love the colour on a Disc trucker.
I think a Carrier would be a perfect "one bike" for me, especially with a rohloff.

lovely, excited for it!

Following!

I'm planning to take a trip down the road to order something from Pi at some point in the next few years, once I've saved up a bit! He's based <15miles away from me which is dangerous to my bank balance...

Do you have a thread for the road bike? Love it!

Road bike looks so class

Looking forward to updates already.
If we lived closer to eachother we could bike share, similar size, and similar tastes in bicycles.
I'll just get my "dibs" in now for whichever of your bikes you fancy offloading next (blue one please).

Looking forward to this
Always thought your rando bike was 10/10

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

@MisterMikkel the Rohloff looks epic, as does the Pinion version.

@NotDotMatt fatal! Some amazing riding in your neck of the woods, near Dartmoor right?

@SkipTown sadly not, I didn't know LFGSS was a thing then, but here are some more glamour shots courtesy of Adam Gasson (and some iPhone ones from the weekend)

@jontea that'd be so fun, would love to ride your Atlantis. Ha, the blue one is a keeper! If I were to sell one, it'd be the Big Dummy in a couple of years ;)

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Lovely stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Yes, simply yes.

If I did own an Atlantis you'd be more than welcome to borrow, sadly for us both, I don't.
Not to worry, I have some patience, I'm playing the long game with dibs on the blue bike.

Following. Road bike is sick. Seen a few carriers about in Bristol - excited to see this one

I’ve seen this at Bespoked so I know it’s not really that clean, but how on earth does that bike look so clean?

Must be those full length mudguards :)

Anyway here's a lil Carrier mood board:

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I haven't forgiven Morrisons since they got rid of the vegetable misters. Otherwise perfect.

If you can find it, I really, really rate Shimano's new Cues stuff for crunchy heavy riding. It's been spectacular on the tandem, and I was really impressed when I used it on a pal's bike.

It's not compatible with existing Shimano 11- or 12-speed shifters but it would be my pick if I were building a utilitarian bike.

If you really care - https://www.change.org/p/bring-back-the-mist

I'm very looking forward to living vicariously through this it. sounds excellent

i think this is what i have on my grungy winter bike, the cassette is a million times better than the shite non-shimano stuff at the same price.

Recently built a couple of bikes with 1x9 and 1x10 CUES, really great shifting under pressure. 10s would be my choice personally. All the range you need and lots of cassette options, plus the claimed durability improvements are a big bonus on a bike that does lots of miles.

It stands for Creating Unique ExperienceS, which is … interesting.

Looking forward to seeing the build. Love a clandestine, used to be made local to me so I’ve seen a couple in the flesh. Great looking bikes and very well made.

👀

Looking forward to this! Big fan of the bluebell alpenglow combo, and the grey will set it off nicely. Shameless plug:

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Wuf!
Nothing shameless about that. Gorgeous work as always.

Oh yes! Excited to see where this goes!
Agree with @Tijmen on the bluebell alpenglow combo.