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Thursday, April 30, 2009
Violet Crown offers custom city bikes
There’s a new custom bike builder in town. From a press release. …
Austin-based bicycle builder Violet Crown Cycles launched this week accepting orders online for the Ferguson, their line of custom city bikes hand built and tailored to customer’s bodies and tastes.
“With volatility in the fuel prices, global warming, and an economic downturn, people are looking for a lower cost, greener alternative to the automobile,” said Elliott McFadden, the owner and framebuilder at Violet Crown Cycles. “The Ferguson line provides you with an extremely practical choice in a very stylish package.”
Modeled after the classic Dutch city bike and English roadster, the Ferguson is designed from the drawing board with transportation as it primary purpose. Features such as fenders, chain guard, internally geared shifting and brakes, dynamo powered lights, and a heavy duty rack are all standard features on the Ferguson with frame locks and a variety of pannier bags as options.
“In America more often than not racing-inspired bikes are equipped with a mishmash of components like fenders and racks and called utility, urban, or commuter,” McFadden continued. “It does not have to be that way. You can have a bike that puts you in a comfortable, visible and dignified seating position and also includes all the features that make riding a bike for transportation practical.”
Fully custom Ferguson city bikes start at $2750 and can be ordered online at VioletCrownCycles.com. Sample bikes can be seen weekly on Saturday mornings at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market in Austin. Violet Crown Cycles will be holding a launch party open to the public on Sunday, May 31, 4- 6 PM at Mother Egan’s Irish Pub, 715 West 6th Street in Austin with a social ride afterwards starting at 6 PM. There will be sample bikes to view, door prizes, and a free raffle for cycling stuff.
