It's been a long time since we build a truely classic 26" Chacha like this we made for Lena. Back in 2012 the term "Gravelbike" was yet not invented and the Chacha touring bike was the very first Fern bicycle I build for myself. The type of bike I needed for my touring trips through europe just did not existed yet. I wanted a sturdy and reliable horse but still as light weight and fast as possible, a relaxed race bike geometry but with 26inch wheels and wide tires. So I took my inspirations from the old constructeurs like Rene Herse and Alex Singer from which I've heard the first time when I stumbled over Jan Heine's Bicycle Quarterly, which became in these days my main source about custom bicycles and how to make them. Also a big thank you to Mr Tim Paterek for his support and infamous manual and DVD collection which helped me becoming a builder in a time when it was really hard to find any information about framebuilding.
Lena, I hope you will discover the world on your brand new bike, to me the Chacha opened a complete new world!
Photography: Florian Haeussler / FERN Bicycles.