What an amazing project that was!!
Sean approached us in last summer 21´ and asked us for making a bike for him which he would come and pick up in early summer 22´, just to directly go an a little round trip through germany. The thing is that Sean actually lives in Portland Oregon US and I told him several times that in his city there are quite a few frame builders available which are world widely known for making fanstastic bikes.... But Sean insistted on us making his new dreambike a reality and so we went on the path of finding out what would suit his style of riding the best. Everything was a little bit more complicated than usual, communicating remote via Zoom, working with EdurancePDX bike fitters in Portland (who did a fantastic job!) and so on. When we finally gathered all the informations needed we started to build the bike, hoping all would be working out fine .
Finally the big day came and Sean arrived in Berlin at our workshop. I will never forget the moment when I went outside to pick him up and first saw him from a distance waving at me, him shouting "Flo" and I am shouting "Sean!!!"....we became friends in a fraction of a second!
While chatting and walking up the stairs to the workshop I was secretly checking the whole time his size and body proportions, hoping the bike we made would fit him fine...
When I first saw him actually riding his bike and seeing his big smile when he stopped in front of me I was very relieved knowing the bike was a pefect match for Sean!
The next few days Sean spend time sightseeing in Berlin, chillin at the workshop, checking out punkrockbars with me and we went riding together in the Berlin countryside on our Fernies.
Ultimately Sean went on with his new bike to discover traces of his family and ancestors all over germany to find out surprising facts about his families german history.
Time flew by and when he came back we only had one more day to pack the bike and get everything ready for the flight back home....
This is truely a fantastic story which I will never forget in my life and I know we will be friends now always being connected via this bike, me being sure we will meet some day again to share a few more miles together in our saddles! ;)
Take care mate and all the best,
Flo
Photography: Florian Haeussler / FERN Bicycles.