Cycles Gaansari, a bike shop in Dayton, Ohio, the home town of Wilbur and Orville Wright, has partnered with Mercian Cycles of Derbyshire to produce the Gaansari Flyer, a lugged steel audax bike inspired by British and French framebuilders of the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

American bicycle shop and English framebuilder develop special relationship

Adorned with fleur d’lys lugs and a subtle coffee-and-cream finish, the Gaansari Flyer frameset retails for $1600.

"We’ve designed the Flyer with Kirk Pacenti, spec’d unique fleur d’lys lugs and vertical dropouts, and contracted with Mercian Cycles in England for the manufacturing," said Cycles Gaansari co-owner Jean Boulanger.

"We believe the market is ripe for ornate lugged steel road bikes in the European tradition. We owe a lot to the influence from our friends at Rivendell, Richard Sachs, and Peter Weigle. Asphalt Magazine and Vintage Bicycle Quarterly have also inspired and educated more cyclists about premium steel bicycles in the past few years. We’re just carrying the torch the best we know how, and the Gaansari Flyer is our interpretation of what we feel makes a fine bicycle."

Boulanger’s husband Gary worked for Rivendell Bicycle Works in the mid-1990s, and is currently developing new Gaansari models for 2005 with Richard Sachs and Pacenti Cycle Design.

Cycles Gaansari is located in Dayton, Ohio, home of the Wright Brothers, who built premium bicycles in the 1890s before developing the Wright Flyer aeroplane. In addition to the Gaansari Flyer, the Gaansari Van Cleve, St. Clair and Scorcher are Boulanger bikes inspired by the Wright bikes, see the links below for more Wright Bros info.

http://www.gaansari.com/flyer.htm

http://www.bikelugs.com/pacentidesign.html

http://www.merciancycles.com/

Email: gaansari@sbcglobal.net

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