Pesenti Fly

Thanks Fingers! I knew I was being sensible. I justified with the following logic:

Frame weighs 1050 grams and might break so I need a spare & I'm not likely to see another...
+ I love this bike!
It will look good on my wall & its cheaper than a painting.
25% of RRP and in near mint condition.

Seller said he had ridden it a couple of times- the only marks on it are on the inside of the rear dropouts and the steerer is uncut! It looks to me like he got halfway through building it.

On closer inspection its not identical to my frame! The rear brake bridge is a different shape.

I appreciate that this is not really retro- I guess 1990 is the cut off? But its handmade with tubing materials that will probably never be used on a bike again & its pretty. Anyway heres a pic...



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I bet you build it up...

fingers":16aueqyj said:

I bet you build it up...

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How well you know me!

CTK":2pd12zg6 said:

fingers":2pd12zg6 said:

I bet you build it up...

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How well you know me!

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I would do the very same...

Whats the plan?

fingers":2lkguqlh said:

Whats the plan?

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I'm not sure...

Maybe a superlight build- but I imagine that would be a bit pricey...
1999 build?
I will think on it

New centaur is silver (IIRC...)

My old bike!

Great to see it again on this forum. As far as I am aware it is the only one in the UK. I got it from someone who purchased the frame and fork from the Dutch Cycle show. I then built it and used it for two criteriums and then moved onto carbon bikes. The guy selling it to me said "you might want to change the colour"..but I quite liked it.

Re: My old bike!

249XUU":2442t7cr said:

Great to see it again on this forum. As far as I am aware it is the only one in the UK. I got it from someone who purchased the frame and fork from the Dutch Cycle show. I then built it and used it for two criteriums and then moved onto carbon bikes. The guy selling it to me said "you might want to change the colour"..but I quite liked it.

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Welcome to the forum. I actually have 2 framesets one built up (yours) & one not. I absolutely love the colour! I have not come across many Pesentis- there was a lovely Ti one on US ebay a while back.

BTW thankyou I am thoroughly enjoying riding your old bike.

Wow, this is fascinating and very exciting! I'm a bit of a specialist with beryllium, so I know all about aluminium-beryllium (Al-Be) alloys. It is a mix of about 60% beryllium by weight as a sintered powder matrix with the remaining 40% aluminium filling the spaces in the matrix. It's pretty amazing stuff. It has similar mechanical properties to steel, but a relative density of around 2, compared to steel which has a r.d. of 7-8. It's typically used in spacecraft and aerospace/defence airframes. I've often wondered if you could build a bike frame with it, because you could build the equivalent of a 2.5kg high quality steel frameset in Al-Be and it would weigh ~695g. I would say that at 1.08 kg your frame might actually be quite over-engineered and could be lighter still!!!

As a material, because of the production process for beryllium and associated health and safety requirements it costs approximately $1000/kg and is made almost exclusively by Materion Inc (formerly Brush Wellman) in America. Look up AlBeMet if you're interested in more information about it.

Do be careful not to rub it down if you choose to repaint it - beryllium dust is toxic!

great story and info, and a fabulous looking bike,