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Pereira Cycles
I love making stuff. I love bikes. One day these two things converged and took over my life. This is my story.
I was born in Neptune, New Jersey, but my dad worked for IBM and they move you around almost as much as the military, so we lived in Missouri and New Hampshire before my parents decided to settle down in Simsbury, Connecticut. I went to high school there. When I was 16 I got my first job in a retail ski shop called Carroll Reed. I was really into skiing and the job was dreamy. Turned out I was really good at the tech stuff: tuning skis, fitting boots--the detail stuff. I worked there until the shop closed in '88 or so and then worked for a shop in West Hartford called Clapp & Treat. C&T was a true old school "Outfitter" that had fishing, hunting, climbing, canoe and kayaking and skiing departments. Each department had devoted passionate experts. It was an absolutely amazing place. It was pretty much what a place like REI promises, but with people who actually know their stuff. I ran the ski repair and boot fitting shop through college. Unfortunately the big box ski shops rolled in and killed us on price and the shop went out of business in 1990 after 103 years. As a last ditch the shop partnered with a local bike shop (Newington Bicycle) and tried to get into the bike business. It was half-assed and didn't work, but it got me into the bike biz. I had been mountain biking since 1987 and fit right into the bike shop. I spent about two years at Newington. We sold Fat City and I went up to the "factory" in Somerville for an open house in '91. Man that was cool. All that tubing and machines...amazing bikes...weird people. Chris gave us a tour and ran the stay doming machine. I was totally enthralled, but never imagined that I was meeting my future peers. (I learned years later that I'd met Mike Flanigan that day.)
After graduating from college I moved out to Salt Lake City for the skiing and ended up working in a ski shop/bike shop called Wild Rose. This was a big life changer. The Rose is a magical place. The owner, Tim Metos, started up selling Fat City bikes in '85 or so. I could go on and on telling stories about that place, but...I worked there off and on for many years. There was always a steady stream of vintage mountain bikes rolling through and I always loved the fillet brazed ones. When I started there we sold Salsa and Ibis bikes. (I got a Mojo in '94.) In 2002, after gas welding a couple of tall bikes together, I brazed some tubes together for a cargo bike (I was copying from a picture of an ANT Frontaloadontome). Something clicked. I was fillet brazing! Not well, mind you, but damn it I realized that I could probably build bikes. No, I needed to build bikes. This was truly an epiphany.
I started doing some research and found the frame builders list at phred.org (thanks Alex!) and began reading everything I could. I was hell bent to make this happen. I got some flux and rod and practiced a bunch. I started seeking out a frame jig and then serendipity struck.
There was a framebuilder in Salt Lake named Jeff Rogers. His company was called Rogue Cycles. I never knew him--he died suddenly of a heart attack around this same time. Through a mutual friend I met his wife and ended up helping her sort through his shop. It was all kind of sad. Jeff was only 40 when he died and he left behind two young kids. His wife had no idea what to do with the shop. He had lots of materials and tools, but also lots of components. I spent a few months going through everything, selling stuff on eBay for her and helping her figure out how much everything was worth. At the end, I bought all the framebuilding stuff and I was up and running. A sad story for the Rogers, but I was totally set up for very little money. I had tubes to work with, a frame jig and lots of time on my hands. I had a few friends who I built up some mountain bikes for and we started racing. A few more friends got in on it. A few more. I built about 20 frames for friends and started getting orders from people I didn't know. In hindsight I really had barely any idea what I was doing, but the bikes rode well and people were happy, so it just took off.
In 2005 my then girlfriend wanted to go to grad school in Portland, Oregon. I REALLY didn't want to leave Salt Lake. The mountain biking is amazing there, I have a million great friends there and things were starting to happen for Pereira Cycles. I agreed to move for the two years that she was in school on the promise that we would come back. After all, people kept telling me Portland was a "bike town," how bad could it be? Little did I know that this would be the best move I ever made.
I officially formed Pereira Cycles, LLC in 2005. I mostly built mountain bikes back then, but eventually got bit by the French Golden Age style and started doing that. I also started riding on the road a lot more. I did NAHBS in 2006 and got a great response. In 2007 I was back at NAHBS and won some awards. Now I had a peer group, a demand for my bikes and people really respond positively to what I like building. Most importantly, it turns out that I have a talent for understanding what my customers want and need.
I love making stuff. I make lots of my tools. I've made derailleurs and tail lights. Racks and Stems. I have a cafe racer that I built of of a XS650 that I found in a dump.
I got married in 2008 and we just had a baby boy named Oscar. We're staying in Portland, I'll be building bikes for as long as I can imagine. I also occasionally teach bike building at the UBI campus in Portland.
I hope I haven't been too long winded, but I had to leave lots of details out. I'm looking forward to answering questions. Should be interesting to see what you all want to know about me. Thanks for the chance to get Smoked Out.
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Originally Posted by bellman
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