Fern HILUX
This awesome bike I created for my friend Josh Weinberg who is the managing editor of the famous Radavist online magazine.
Josh came to visit us last year in 2023 when the first German edition of the Bespoked Custom bike show took place in Dresden and he spend a couple of more days in Berlin, sharing our workshop office desk with me. We really had a great time together, meeting other frame builders, talking endless about bikes, drinking beer, etc., and at some point the idea was born, that one day I could maybe build a personal Fern bike just for him.
And so that idea got stuck in our both heads after he went back to the US...
We stayed in touch and ping-ponged ideas back and forth over the big pond and more and more it crystalized how that custom Josh-Fern-Bike could actually look like.When finally Christian of Cyber Cycles offered that he could make an oldschool cantilver rim brake version of his infamous Tange Switchblade inspired Cyber Forks, it was clear that we gonna make a bike which blends an homage to the vintage MTB era back of the 80ties and 90ties with a today's modern Dropbar Gravel Touring bike. Since I really like to make theme bikes, I asked Josh after his personal favorites and other objects and designs he likes and it turns out that one of his most loved objects he owns is his 1988 Toyota Hilux Truck. I was immediately hooked by that topic and off we went to create a matching monster machine to his monster pickup truck! We wanted to use as many shiny silver components as possible and Josh did an amazing job sourcing those parts from all over the world. We had great support from friends companies such as Velocity, Ergon, Bitchn Bikes, Garbaruk, Wolftooth, SON, Tune, Gevenalle, Thomson, Busch und Müller, who all contributed their parts to this amazing machine. Thanks so much to all of you for your support on this project!
But the absolute icing on the cake of this bike is as usual and for sure the bags which are all created by my partner in all crimes, Tine of Gramm Tourpacking. They were all handmade here in Berlin from the absolute most exclusive Challenge Sailcloth materials and the silver color fabric just perfectly blends into this complete build.
And before I forget, to actually make this bike become real it would have no been possible without the the joined forces and help of my fellow frame builder friends Jacek Orlowski ("the swiss army knife of frame building") who did this fantastic paint job and Mr. #Titaniumismagic aka Wheeldan himself, who last minute welded those cargo cage eyelets to the fork blades. Thank you so much guys!
Hey Josh,... it was great fun to make this bike with you and I really hope you will become just as good friends as we are now. I can already imagine you riding like a cowboy on that new steed into the blazing sunsets of the Arizonian deserts,... hopefully one day I can join you!
Cheers mate, Flo.
Photography: Florian Haeussler / FERN Bicycles.