To me this is a very special bike because I finally build a bike for one of my bestest friends, Mr. Jan Hille! Jan and I met accidentally back in 2016 after the Vienna Fahrradschau in a very sketchy bar / "Kneipe" and it directly clicked between us being super good friends every since that day. Over the past years we went on many bike rides and overnighters together and I always knew that one day I would build a bike just for him. Finally we started planning his new horse by the end of 2023 and the picture of how Jan's personal Fern bike could be like was getting more and more clear. We wanted to make a super modern touring / race / gravel bike and Jan opted only for best available components out there, such as Garbauk crankset and cassette, Deda Superzero bars, stem and seatpost, Hope brakes, Chris King Candy, custom made Allygn carbon rims with DT Swiss and Son hubs, running smoothly on super wide 650Bx55mm Ultradynamico tires. The Busch and Müller lights on this bike are all running on 12Volts via a Forumslader which is charged via the Hub dynamo. The light itself is equipped with a new circuit board allowing now for triple as much light output and some other nice features. The Fern rinko downtube connector was mandatory for sure. Jan also teamed up with Tine of Gramm Tourpacking and togehter they created the ultimate set of bags made of super light Ultra Challenge Sailcloth. The amazing glossy champagne to matte black charcoal coal paint job was applied by our friend and fellow framebuilder Jacek Orlowski and was inspired by a vintage Benotto Bike.
This is for sure one of the finest Fern bikes I have ever build so far and I hope to ride many happy miles together with you my friend!!
Cheers mate, Flo :)
Photography: Florian Haeussler / FERN Bicycles.