Pearson vintage aluminum time trial bike

[Fatbiker]

Hi guys,

For some time now I have been busy building up my first time trial bike. Not just any time trial bike though. The frame I am using for this build is a Pearson Weka aluminium. The frame is made by a builder from New Zealand called Pearson, probably in the early 90's (not Graeme Pearson from Pearson Composites in New Zealand) The design is inspired by their mountain bike frame, only this frame has a horizontal top tube.

When I got the frame, it was built up with a Shimano 600 7-speed groupset, a Mavic aerobar and a (way to oversized) Kinesis aero fork. Luckily the frame also came with the original fork and a pair of very special Elite-Shape 5-spoke carbon wheels.

My initial plan was to build it up with a Shimano 600 tricolor groupset, but being unable to find a nice enough one, I settled for a more modern Campagnolo Centaur carbon groupset. Unfortunately this groupset looked horrible on the frame, so I removed it almost immediately. After ditching the Centaur groupset, I set off to the attic to see if it had something to offer for the bike. After sorting out all the parts that were up there, I ended up with no less than 9 more or less complete groupsets, including a really nice Shimano 600 tricolor 8 speed groupset.

Below are a couple of pictures of the frame and the different builds. I hope to finish the build this week. Enjoy!

[Stolichnaya]

Thanks for making this a seperate thread!

Oh, you have to keep that Ultra Pro saddle on there.

Have you got a working solution for the freewheel on the Elite Shapes?

The Centaur would be a nice look if the chainrings were swapped for all silver, then top it off gold or red chainring bolts.

This is a great build story.

[Fatbiker]

In the pictures the Ultra Pro saddle looks quite nice, but in real life it looks way to bulky for the frame (and that is saying something with this frame). The Flite is not my final choice, but I thought it matched the colors of the logo's on the frame nicely.

Seeing as I am going with the 600 groupset for now, I was able to use a regular 8 speed freewheel on the rear wheel. When I first put it on, clearance was too tight for the wheel to spin (apparently the wheel was built around a 7 speed freewheel), but after removing a tiny pacer on the NDS and putting it back on the DS it worked like a charm. Not an ideal solution, but that's life.

[Fuchspk]

i love it, looks so cool and sends a feeling of a lot of personality