Right now my feeling with Tournesol is that it has been a fun project that lasted for seven years or so and we seem to be moving on to newer and simpler iterations. As much as I like big tires, rack/fenders/lighting/650B, it seems that other people are doing well with this combo and my enthusiasm for complicated builds - and I'm also looking at you, disc brakes and Di2/EPS - isn't what it used to be.
Our Strada Bianca has been killing it, imho, with fenders, bigger tires, choice of material/forks/brakes and lack of complications to the extent that promoting Tournesol seems a tad redundant and, at times, self-defeating. Martin does great work with the frames and forks but having Max build the racks takes him away from the welded frames which currently have a six-month wait. And sourcing odd parts and dealing with the fussiness of rando bikes - well, bitchbitchbitch but I think one can see where I'm headed with this.
In addition we have a few other projects that could come to fruition in the next year or two and should be fairly intertwined - if you were to think new shop location, material choice, and alternate models you might not be too far off - and cleaning house now makes sense. But we still have Tournesol decals and graphic files, the rack benders still work, so who knows - maybe 650B electric-assist track racers will be the next new, old thing. And we'll be there!
Our Strada Bianca has been killing it, imho, with fenders, bigger tires, choice of material/forks/brakes and lack of complications to the extent that promoting Tournesol seems a tad redundant and, at times, self-defeating. Martin does great work with the frames and forks but having Max build the racks takes him away from the welded frames which currently have a six-month wait. And sourcing odd parts and dealing with the fussiness of rando bikes - well, bitchbitchbitch but I think one can see where I'm headed with this.
In addition we have a few other projects that could come to fruition in the next year or two and should be fairly intertwined - if you were to think new shop location, material choice, and alternate models you might not be too far off - and cleaning house now makes sense. But we still have Tournesol decals and graphic files, the rack benders still work, so who knows - maybe 650B electric-assist track racers will be the next new, old thing. And we'll be there!
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