Penhale Bicycle Company is the labor of love project from Andy Holmes. As a former Felt Bicycle employee and someone who works with kid bike brand Cleary, Holmes wanted something that he could just hop on and roll out, regardless of where “out” might be for the day. Or days.
“Since leaving Felt I’ve been working hard to get both Cleary and Penhale off the ground,” he told us. “Now that we’re moving more of the kids bikes, I’m finally able to devote some time to Penhale. The Penhale Bicycle Co. is targeted as a pure adventure/touring bike company, building bikes for everything from everyday riding, up to long distance travel by bike – all at an affordable price.”
Wander past the break for Gypsy’s details…
The frame is made of Japanese chromoly steel and has five (FIVE!!!) water bottle mounts. Well, five if you don’t mount a front rack, otherwise you’re down to three. It fits 700×50 road tires, which means some narrow 29×2.0 XC mountain bike tires will fit, too.
The fork is chromoly, too, and uses reversed dropouts to counter the disc brake forces while still letting you run common quick release hubs. That’s important because when you’re really out there in the wild, you want common parts that are easy to find should something go wrong. The seatpost is a more compliant 27.2mm.
The rear uses a swappable dropout, letting you run QR 135mm hubs or 12×142 thru axle hubs. Full rack and fender mounts adorn the frame front and rear.
All of the cables and hoses use external routing for simplicity of maintenance and repairs. It has a forged 68mm bottom bracket shell that works with road and MTB cranks. Max chainring sizes are 28/38/50 (MTB) and 34/52 (Road).
The full launch for the company happens this month (May 2016) and, but the first Gypsy touring frames started shipping to customers in late April. At least if your wallet’s contents disappear with this Gypsy, you’ll have a sweet new bike in the garage to soothe you. Retail is $599 for the frame, which includes rustproofing under the paint (this one’s an unfinished prototype) and a custom seatpost collar/clamp. Claimed frame weight is 5.1lb.
Next to wander into the program will be the B’Stard 27.5 trail bike, a Vagabond 27.5 plus tire tourer and the Scruffian Fat bike. Stay tuned…
