Plum Crazy

Friend of the SPACE, Adam, got his girlfriend, Lauren, an old Peugot Mixte to commute on. Three years later both of them had fallen in love with the look of this classic bike, but were ready for something a little lighter and with the benefits of modern components (smoother shifting and wider range of gears). “The Mixte has beautiful classic lines that have this iconic look to them. There is something about the complex nature of the frame that really intrigues me, but it always looks really clean and elegant,” remarks Adam.  

With the Peugot as inspiration, Adam set out to build a custom bike for Lauren from the frame up. He picked a Soma Buena Vista Mixte as the foundation, a versatile frame made of Tange Prestige steel. Lauren was less then thrilled with the factory color, so they enlisted some help from a friend at work. 

“At work” as Adam says, “we have a full prototype shop that has everything (CNC machines, Paint booth, Glass bead etching and blasting for aluminum finishes, a super high end 3D printer that is accurate down to 4 microns, etc.) and Josh runs everything. He makes full prototypes of every product we build before production. The dude can make literally anything you could imagine. So we got him to try and paint the bike a very specific color, and he tried many times to custom mix the exact shade of purple, but we just ended up buying a color called Mopar Plum Crazy, which was used on Challengers in the 70’s.” 

From there it was matter of handpicking just the right amount of chromed out components to complete the build. Adam selected “VO drillium cranks matched the MKS Lambda pedals… tiagra 10spd as they still use chrome components and we didn't want to drop the dollars for campy. We paired Paul Thumbies with Dura Ace down tube shifters. Then we rounded out the build with VO grand cru brake levers, Headset, and BB.” 

Ever the pragmatic DIY cyclist, Adam selected easy serviceable parts, as well as solid set of Jerry built wheels: “H+sun TB14 rims that are super light and strong, they're double wall through eyelet rims that have a really clean badge where the valve stem goes through. And then some standard tiagra hubs and 32 spoke 3 cross unbutted spokes. They're bomb proof for DC streets and the C&O.”

Lauren, picked out the perfect crane bell, complete with purple brushstrokes and a floral pattern to match the Brooks B18 Saddle. The two of them couldn’t be happier with the build, “a solid commuter/light tourer with style!”