Road Bikes
Irene is built around a custom-made 58cm True North titanium touring frame, hand-built by Hugh Black in Guelph, Ontario in 2010. She does have the S&S couplings as well as canti’ bosses(you never know..) and three water bottle mounts. She’s equipped with a Wound Up Composites carbon cycle-cross fork with disc tabs and fender mounts, though no rack mounts.[I attached the front rack with some clamps/brackets of my own making] Headset is a pewter Chris King. The wheels are now tubeless Bontrager Mustang rims laced to pewter Chris King disc hubs and a pair of Schwalbe G-One knobby tubeless tires for gravel riding.
Drive train is a full 3×10 (32/42/52t) Shimano Ultegra R6703 with a long-cage Shimano M770 rear derailleur. Brakes are Avid BB7 cable-actuated discs which worked quite well. Other parts include Kent Eriksen titanium seat-post, 46 cm Bontrager alloy handlebar, Shimano M985 pedals and King Cages titanium bottle cages. I did start with a pewter Chris King BB, but the bearings went after just a couple thousand miles. After giving me a hard time about the impossibility of their bearings being shot after such a short time, King did eventually replace the bearings under warranty. However, because of the experience, I sold that BB to a friend and am content with a Shimano XT BB. Originally I had a Brooks Ti B-17 but the main bolt broke after about 7000 kms. The same thing happened to a friend’s Ti B-17. The bolt has been replaced but I no longer have faith in the design or application of Ti to saddle rails, so it’s been replaced with a Specialized saddle.
Front and rear pannier racks are Old Man Mountain while all the bags are from Arkel. That said, since I started minimal bike-packing, I don’t think I will have much call for those racks, fenders and panniers.
Riding this bicycle is shear magic, I am so incredibly comfortable on her. The birth of this beautiful bicycle came after the death of my mother in 2010. She was also the reason I began touring and have made cycling the focus of my life’s happiness. Irene is my mother’s middle name and my grand-mother’s first name. Hugh skillfully etched her name into the frame, taken directly from a sample of my mother’s hand-writing. Thanks Hugh, nice touch.
Currently, Irene is stripped of her racks and fenders. With the rebuilt tubeless wheels and knobby tires, we’ve taken to exploring gravel/dirt roads, even several self-supported overnight and multi-day trips. She is perfectly suited for such adventures and I continue to enjoy many dirty miles on this beautiful bike.
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Shirin is a 2010 carbon-fibre Cervélo “S2” and she’s fast as hell. Mostly stock, she is spec’d with a full Shimano Ultegra 6700 2×10 drivetrain except for the Ultegra 6800 52/36t crankset. Wheels are Bontrager Aeolus ACC’s with Continental GP4000 rubber and titanium Bontrager q/r levers. Handlebars are carbon 3T and the saddle is a Specialized Toupe RBX. There also a few little goodies here and there, like the custom-made head-set top-cap; a gift from my pal, DBT. Thanks bro.
When looking for a woman’s name for this bicycle, one that started with the letter S, I went to my mum for input. She told me of the time she worked at the Iranian embassy in England in the late 1960’s. Posted there at the time was a diplomat named Shirin; a very passionate, intelligent woman who was a lot more than simply a token female appointment. Shirin not only means “sweet” in Farsi but the name comes from an ancient Persian queen who did much for the oppressed and marginalized minorities of her time. What’s more, I purchased this bike while working at Neworld Cycle, owned by brothers who hail from Iran[aka Persia] Yup, Shirin it would be!
In 2016, Shirin developed play between the seat-post and the seat-tube, enough that the seat-post basically rocks back and forth at the collar, making ugly noises. Cervélo are excellent about their warranty and stand behind their products so Shirin was replaced with a brand-new out of the box 2013 S2(the last year of that frame model) frame-set.
With the frame replaced, I anguished over whether I keep the name or replace it with something else. I figured, new frame = new name, but I just kept coming back to Shirin. So, Shirin she’ll remain. Sweet.
