Pursuit Cycles

[Carl Strong]

Originally Posted by robt57

https://chrisking.com/pages/open-house-2022

PDX/King Precision Open House 11/15.


Smell touch, taste some Pursuit goodness in person,yo!

We're going! It should be a lot of fun. I'm sure there will be a lot of really nice bikes. Hopefully we'll see you there robt57

[Carl Strong]

Pursuit is getting known for some far out paint jobs. I think that has more to do with my crazy lust for color and design than anything. Coupled with great relationships with several outstanding designers like @bicyclecrumbs and our Design Engineer Jeff Wyatt, we have a tendency to go a little nuts.

The reality of it is that most of our clients are focused on fit, geometry and ride quality, and usually opt for paint jobs that are a lot more tame.

So I thought I'd some bikes that probably do a better job of representing what we are actually shipping, including a few bikes that are owned by Paceliners.

This bike is a great example - It is a Pure Road with custom geometry, custom layup and custom fit. The owner currently lives in Hawaii and spends a lot of time climbing. He's been riding a steel STRONG for the last 15 years and wanted something lighter. We also added fender mounts on this bike so he can ride no matter the conditions.

[robt57]

Nice understated classy look!

I'd not noticed on the other pics, fender mount/bridge is a removable item??

this tape seems like it belongs. I think it comes in orange too...

[Carl Strong]

A lot of you know me personally. If you bought a STRONG or PURSUIT we probably talked quite a lot and got to know each other pretty well. So you may know that I moved STRONG into a small shop I built behind my house about 10 years ago.

I’m not sure what happened, but I’m calling it my midlife crisis. For some reason I got really excited about building carbon bikes. And not just any carbon bikes, I’d been building custom carbon STRONGs since 2008. I wanted to build state of the art molded bikes, but I wanted them to be custom, possess the attention to detail, quality of construction and finish you normally only see on custom bikes that are traditionally metal. I see it as an evolution of my interest in material. I love the idea of learning about the unique characteristics of each, how to fabricate with them, and how to optimize each in bike form for my clients.

So now six years in and Pursuit has been going strong (pun intended). We have a killer, and I mean KILLER team of some very talented people. I love coming to work in the morning, and feel extremely lucky to be able to work with this team. So due to our growth and a growing number of bodies on the floor, our little shop behind my house got a little cramped. So last month we moved Pursuit to our new location. It is about 4 times the size of our last shop and has an extra building in which we’ll be doing all our own painting. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s giving us the space we need.

So in light of our recent move, I thought I’d share some of my past shops just for the fun of it.

I'll skip the first three shops. They were garages that I worked out of behind where I lived. The first shop below is the first "real" commercial location I had. It's now occupied by Sklar Bikes. Oh, and the guy in the middle of the picture is Marcel van Garderen. If the last name sounds familiar, he's Tejay's dad. We raced on the same team for many years.

The next shop is Lea. We were in Lea when I met Dave Kirk. He dropped by to introduce himself and we have worked together off and on and been good friends ever since. I have learned as much about framebuilding from Dave as anyone else.

The shop after that is in the historic Story Mill. This was a period of time when STRONG was making a lot of steel Ibis frames. The shop was huge and cold. It worked, but I was glad when we go out of there.

After that was Mendenhall. We built this building in 2000 and occupied it until we move to the shop behind out house. It was a great building but more than we needed at the time.

After that is the house shop where we have been since 2012. We loved it there, but it just didn't have the space. It is now being converted to my woodshop where I'll do hobby woodworking.

And finally our new location. It's not much to look at, but it's on a large lot in a very desirable location. We plan to redevelop it in about 5 years. I'll post a video tour on this thread as soon as I figure out how

[madsciencenow]

Thanks for sharing! Very cool to hear about the evolution of your workspace and some of the cast of characters along the way. I had no idea that TJs dad was also into riding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Carl Strong]

Originally Posted by robt57

Nice understated classy look!

I'd not noticed on the other pics, fender mount/bridge is a removable item??

this tape seems like it belongs. I think it comes in orange too...

Yep, the bridge is removable. We did that because the lines of the frame are so pretty. We didn't want to mess them up if a fender wasn't currently in use.

[Carl Strong]

Originally Posted by madsciencenow

Thanks for sharing! Very cool to hear about the evolution of your workspace and some of the cast of characters along the way. I had no idea that TJs dad was also into riding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! He sure is. He's super fast too. He still races a lot and he likes to claim he can still out-sprint Tejay

[herb5998]

Carl, thanks for sharing! Great to see the evolution of locations, and really dig the Pursuit bikes.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Carl Strong

Yep, the bridge is removable. We did that because the lines of the frame are so pretty. We didn't want to mess them up if a fender wasn't currently in use.

Nice...

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Carl Strong

Thanks! He sure is. He's super fast too. He still races a lot and he likes to claim he can still out-sprint Tejay

That's gotta be fun to watch from behind... Way behind I am guessing...


Hey, sorry I missed getting to King to say heh!, and see that green machine. Better I didn't probably being I luvs me some green bikes... not that I need more of them.

[robt57]

I think I'll stick this here Carl appears to be pretty busy.

King show bike on sale over at Pursuit y'all.
Nice price too! My size too!!

https://www.pursuitcycles.com/shop/k...bike-482#attr=

[Carl Strong]

Thanks for posting.

BTW we'll be back for the Made show next Fall. We are really excited about that and expect it to be a great new show.

Originally Posted by robt57

I think I'll stick this here Carl appears to be pretty busy.

King show bike on sale over at Pursuit y'all.
Nice price too! My size too!!

https://www.pursuitcycles.com/shop/k...bike-482#attr=

[Andy sti]

My son is an ME student at MSU - might have to have him swing by someday.

[Carl Strong]

We have a close relationship with MSU Engineering School and would be glad to show him around. Let him know to contact us first to schedule a time, we aren't set up for walk-ins. He can email me at carl@pursuitcycles.com

Originally Posted by Andy sti

My son is an ME student at MSU - might have to have him swing by someday.

[mcteague]

Pursuit just rec’d an Editor’s choice award from BikeRumor.

https://bikerumor.com/editors-choice...te-bikes-gear/

EDITOR’S CHOICE – ROAD: Pursuit All Road
For more than a decade I’ve dropped kudos on Carl Strong, but it’d always been based on the praise he’s received from his framebuilding peers and my own conversations with him. I’d never actually ridden one of his road bikes. Now, finally, after he’d retired from titanium to focus on carbon fiber with his new Pursuit brand, I have. And it’s glorious.

The Pursuit All Road’s ride is sublime. It instantly became an extension of me, no matter how I rode it. Those adventures with Watts? No problem. Long miles on country roads? Awesome. County line sprints? Full gas, no flex. Carl and his team have created a premium option for riders wanting a custom-tuned layup while leaning on his decades of expertise in geometry. In this case, that geo is gravel inspired, with clearance for 700×40 (or 650Bx48) tires, but feels right at home on the roads. All the roads

—

Tim