richardlofthouse.cc

REVIEW: Pearson fixie: A fine addition to your urban armoury

Salmon guards go 'clonk' on big holes

REVIEW: Pearson Touche (AKA: Once More Unto The Breach)

Guy and Will Pearson preside over the oldest continuously open, family-owned bike shop in the UK, and have recently opened a smashing new road shop on the northern edge of Richmond Park.
When I took my 'Cross bike down for a service, they kindly lent me one of their fixies. Not being able to part company with their main, current model demo bike, Guy kindly gave me his very own - older and a tad dustier, but the same frame as the 2012-13 model. In keeping with the rest of the range the current model has a quirky, English name drawing a curious parallel between the battleground and London traffic - quite apt when you think about it, especially in Richmond where despite millions of cyclists, the provision of bike lanes is way behind other boroughs, and certain magazine editors think cyclists are best off dead.

(** Richard Nye, The Richmond Magazine, Sept. 2012) see:
http://www.freespeed.co.uk/2012/09/the-only-good-cyclist-is-a-dead-one/)

My immediate impression was that this is racier than your average commuter. It was a lovely fit for me, with a nice, stretched-out position, but it was much closer to my road set up than my daily donkey. Accordingly, it felt really fast, straightaway. Admittedly, I'd just ridden right across London 24kms from N16, against the prevailing SW breeze, so with the wind at my back I was right on top of the gear. I whizzed along the horrible Upper Richmond Road, where cyclists are pinned like flies against the edge of the highway by huge SUVs being driven by crazy public school types. The other immediate impression was how lovely and tight and stiff the alloy frame felt. It might not have pencil thin stays and all the other aesthetic accountrements of high end carbon, but then no street machine should be trying to do that. It's strong, it's lean enough, and it goes better than well.

I enjoyed every minute on the Touche, and I particularly liked the special mudguard eyelets, but have reservations about the alloy guards fitted, so-called salmon guards. At first glance they are very rigid, durable, well fitted and kinda cool. Yes, they are all those things. But they go clonk on big holes, and to prove the point I rode the bike as fast as I could up a cobbled mews I've discovered in N3. Clonkety clonk. Initially this was actually just the front top guard kissing the Conti Gatorskin tyre, but having adjusted it, I think the noise was from the actual mudguard fittings. This is a small detail and it might have been fixable - these things usually are. As for tyre choice, Gatorskins are well known to me. They have a limp, feelsome quality which is great but not the greatest. In my view they fall between race tyres and real commuter tyres. They're not good enough to withstand London glass, especially in the wet. I'd instead fit Schwalbe Duranos, or maybe a combo of Durano front, and Durano Plus at the back.

Summary thoughts: there is nothing to compare with the thrum of the tightened chain on a fixie sounding through the frame, with none of the drivetrain noises from a derailleur and a chain that can hit the chainstay on bit potholes. It's a magical way of riding the town and the Pearson is among the best I've ridden.