Introducing Feronia

[Triskeliongirl]

Some of you have been following the story of my new travel bike on the maintenance forum, but now that she is done I thought I'd post it here for the rest of you. It all started when my beloved bike friday pocket rocket pro was stolen while locked to a bike rack at work in the middle of 2005. I quickly replaced her with a 2005 Terry Titanium Isis which I love, but taking her on trips was getting *very expensive* with oversize luggage charges. Shortly after I fixed up my old 2001 Steel Terry Classic for commuting, but realized that the new parts I bought for her were much better than her aging frame. Then one day I'm on ebay and a 2003 Steel Terry Isis frame pops up, never been built, for only $100! What's the catch??? This sold as a complete ultegra bike for $2000. The catch is that commerical forks were no longer available for her. I bought her anyway, with the idea to make her into a travel bike. I arranged with a frame builder in Pennsylvania recommended by Georgena (Steve Bilenky, he'd made forks for them before) to build a custom fork, and install S & S couplers. I wanted the bike to be versatile, good for flying into a city and going out hard and fast, or to be able to do light touring, so I also had him install canti bosses and rack mounts for max verstatility. The cantis let her accept tires from 23c-32c to cove the range of fast riding to touring. I can use a carradice bag for light touring, and up to 2 racks for heavier touring. I then switched all the nearly new parts from my classic over (ultegra/XT mix) and voila.... I have a travel bike again that fits in an airline legal suitcase and flys for free! I was gonna do the build myself, but was a little nervous about getting the bottom bracket and cable disconnects right, and was busy at work, so I brought them to my LBS and they had her put together in less than 24 hours flawlessly. So gals on the maintenance forum, don't be mad at me, but I am just soooo haaapy to have her finished. She rides like a dream. The Reynolds 853 steel is nice and stiff yet still relatively light (for comparison she weighs 1.5 lb more than my titanium Isis and 3 lb more than DHs carbon trek, some of that is the couplers and some of that is the steel).