Gitane Pursuit Frame

Finally got a chance to work with real professional frameset used in cycling competitions. Gitane meaning "gypsy" [feminine]) a well known French manufacture provided a a beautiful frameset for my next project. The guy who owns it is Alex Dale an English man in Tel-Aviv, bought it on ebay together with front wheel (650c size). The current build looks like this, but he has some changes in mind so probably it will be updated soon. The funny part is that being a professional sportsman he has never tried a fixie before, but as one might say once you go fixed you never be mixed (just invented it).

Italian frame Cicli Prezan

Finally I have finished it. One of the longest projects, but completely worth it. With every new bike you find a passion, and a new friend. Eyal, the guy who brought the frame, found me when he stopped one of my friends on the street and ask him who did the bike. Few days later he was in my garage with his huge Italian frame with no name just “ZP” initials on the fork. Up until now I have no idea who is the master, but I know it’s Italian and it’s handmade. And it’s the biggest one I was dealing with, 63 cm seat tube length. We have decided to make it classic style, Black Italian steel with English Brown leather. The result is below.

P.S. I was updated with the actual manufacture name: "Cicli Prezan".

Raleigh Winner

This was an exciting project for me! It’s all started in a quick chat via IM with a friend of mine Lev, that was not satisfied with his old bike. He said, I want vintage. But not just vintage. I want a big frame that will suite me and you know I’m 190+ cm.
For some reason, I had too much confidence in myself that day so I told, that is a piece of cake. I can found such a frame in 15 minutes. And I did. Went to second hand e-board, and found some options. One of the was in North Israel, Kibutz called Ofakim. I called the selling person and agreed to coordinate on Friday.
So on next Saturday we (me, Lev, and Max) were heading North. 4 hours all over and Raleigh Winner 60cm frame size old as hell was our starting point.
Then it took us 3 months to get the parts. One day to paint. Two days to complete. Several rounds for adjustments.
These bikes look phenomenal when they are reduced to bare bones. This is why they are extremely popular as fixed gear bikes.

This has been an awesome project to work on. I have enjoyed every step (despite the delay..lol) and the end result is just phenomenal!

Bianchi Mega Pro SL

Actually this bike was my first experience with full road set up (except the gear part). Therefore I was pretty excited to have this opportunity added to my experience list. So, Zhenya came to me with super light Bianchi frame no fork. Carbon fork, new line Weinmann wheels, re-issued Selle turbo saddle and much more. The biggest problem was bottom bracket. For some reason i was assuming that Italian frame will need Italian BB which not standart and shall be specifically pre-ordered. But it wasn't the case. After 3 hours of running between major velo distributors inluding few phone calls to main Bianchi importer in Israel, we have finally realized that BB shall be simple ISO.Simple as that.
At the end he also order an original handlebar tape from Bianchi to match the color.
Before:

And After:

Raleigh Espirit

Now, friends get interested and start asking questions. One thing led to another and I had a first customer with special requests. She arrived on August as friend of a friend and fortunately I had an old frame from Raleigh just for her. Old school and extra small size. All the colors and add-ons are purely based on her wishes.
Everytime I see this bike on the streets of Tel-Aviv I have my heart skip a beat. BTW it all started as singlespeed but now she is fixed!