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The Bicycle Collection: An Interview with Tony Pereira and Ira Ryan

_{PHOTOS by Dan Sharp | INTERVIEW by Jeremy Dunn}

The next ordering period for the Ira Ryan / Tony Periera Continental bike is closing July 1st. This is a unique collaboration in the world of handmade bicycles. We sat down last week with these two to talk a bit about The Rapha Bicycle Collection and what it means to take two of the most well known and respected bicycle builders in the small-town of Portland Oregon and produce a bicycle that is, essentially, the bicycle that would come out of these two riding for The Rapha Continental. This is that bicycle built by two riders from the Rapha Continental - Ira Ryan and Tony Pereira — the bicycle, in their words.

We are here to talk about the Rapha Bicycle Collection a little bit and more importantly the collaboration bicycle, which is a Rapha Continental style bicycle made by Tony Pereira and Ira Ryan, let’s start, I know we talked about this a little bit, but let’s start with what are some of the challenges associated with two of you building one bicycle?

Ira Ryan
…And at the same time how that style of riding has influenced our own types of building individually, and the collaboration sort of brings it together.

Pereira
We had already been thinking about collaborating for a long time, and it was a pretty natural process for us, aside from the fact that we’re working on the project in two separate shops that are a half mile apart, so we had some challenges with that. Moving the bikes from one shop to the other, or some of our challenges were figuring out who was going to do what part, and how to divide, where to draw the lines between each step of the process. We’re both familiar with building a bicycle from start to finish by ourselves, breaking it down into its component parts and then starting again was something else.

Can you just break one bike down for us? Walk us through the process.

Pereira
It is funny, somebody asked, “so how are you guys doing this?” a lot of people have asked and I can’t remember who it was, somebody asked that and I said “well I built the forks and tacked the seat to the bottom bracket and I brazed the dropouts to the chain stays,” and they’re like “what the hell is Ira doing? It sounds like you’re doing the whole thing,” but no, Ira did the lug prep and the…

Ira Ryan
Lug prep and then I essentially got to the point where we couldn’t move forward. I had to do some of the bikes and Tony had to do some of the bikes, so we separated the first batch into halves and I did half of it and then you did the other half, because that’s the kind of thing. Up until that point it was a bit more compartmentalized.

Pereira
There are only so many sub-assemblies, and then all of a sudden… (laughs)

Ira Ryan
…It turns into a bike, and it turns into a big pain in the butt to take from one shop to the other, yeah, we tried to do, it sort of allowed us to break down the process and identify every little step along the way. I learned a lot about the way that Tony builds bikes versus the way that I build a bike, we both have a similar sort of process but there are individual differences, little nuances. Especially as far as - doing step A before step B, but this allowed us, to do it effectively and as a collaboration. We talked a lot before we started the project, “okay, how is this part going to fit with this part?" And how is this going to be efficient with time and energy and be able to buy one piece and use that one piece for three or four different sizes of bikes,” we sat down and hammered out exactly what the process was going to be, every little articulate part of it. Then, of course there’s the inevitable learning curve, there’s things in it I think that we both felt there wasn’t, there were things that we weren’t really planning for that were like “oh we didn’t think about this,” how to confront it and how to do it efficiently, that’s the thing with a collaboration…

Pereira
One thing that struck me about doing this, I’ve built two bikes at the same time, I guess I’ve built three at the same time before, they were usually very similar, but doing all these bikes together at once, the little things that are kind of time-sucks get magnified so many times, you figure out where you’re inefficiencies are and that was a neat learning experience to say “oh we need to make a tool to do this rather than figuring it out on the fly,” and so we came up with some good refinements through that process as well.

So you can take some of those things away and apply those to your own personal businesses, but could you also, it also sounds like you’re building the concept around doing a production line together, is that something that you think you would continue beyond this?

Ira Ryan
We haven’t ruled it out, I feel like this is one of the big question marks in this process that Tony and I had talked about over beers, or while having dinner, or whenever we’ve talked about working together on this collaborative project. But, the reality is our building styles could be really different and they are a little different, but we sort of compliment each other in a lot of ways, there were things that we learned from each other that helped us and we’ll both be able to take back and apply to our own ventures. I feel like both of us came out of this batch, this first production of the Rapha Continental Bicycles with a pretty good understanding about the whole process, how the bikes ended up turning out, their production quality and just the whole process of working with each other, which has been kind of eye opening and encouraging.

Pereira
One problem that I think that a lot of frame builders, and I know Ira and I have talked about this over the years, is that we struggle with this waiting list thing that you get into with doing one-off custom bicycles, people have to wait a long time get a bike from someone, I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t do it, like I’m asking my customers to wait a year to get a bike, I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t order a bike from someone and wait a year to get it.

Ira Ryan
We are our own worst customers.

Pereira
I don’t think I could actually be that customer, so there’s a whole pile of people out there that we’re not able to serve, and the production model and turning bikes around a little faster, doing a batch and them having them for sale, or doing pre-orders like we’re doing with this project, it’s definitely appealing to me and somewhere that I could see growing my business in the future. So it’s on the table you know, we’ve got to get this project taking up any kind of extra time that we have.

And how are you fitting that in with your personal schedules, I know you both have your own orders to work off of?

Pereira
We started on this project over a year ago, a year and a half ago now, so we were able to both streamline or block out the time for it in our waiting list, so that’s how I managed to do it, I’m sure Ira did the same thing.

Ira Ryan
I did it similarly, but I feel like the time crunch is an instigator, it kind of lights a fire under our asses to like get this batch done, which doesn’t mean we were cutting corners but when you’re accountable for someone else too, it also makes you use your time much more efficiently. That’s another part of it that I found from working with Tony and also having people work in my shop. It sort of helps me out, I feel accountable for someone else, I have to get x, y and z done so that I can hand it over to this other person so that they can do their part, which keeps things moving. When you don’t have that you’re like “oh just go check my email again” every ten minutes.

Pereira
There’s accountability, more so than when you’re working for yourself.

So you each build a different style and maybe have different strengths and different weaknesses, how do those play out within the [Continental] bike itself? Are there certain specific things that either of you are putting into it?

Pereira
Ira primarily builds lug bikes and I primarily build fillet-brazed bikes. Although I do some lugged bikes and Ira probably does more fillet-brazed bikes than I do lugged bikes, but when we designed the bike we thought it would be cool to kind of bring both of those things together and so we did the head tube lugged, and the seat cluster lugged and then the bottom bracket is fillet-brazed, so we brought both of those styles together.

Ira Ryan
I feel like a lot of it, the benefit of working for or riding with the Rapha Continental is that we’ve also sort of developed our own style of riding. Tony’s style of riding is a lot different than mine, so I feel like Tony won’t beat you up, he’ll beat you down. And me? I’ll beat you up and I won’t beat you down, but I feel like we both sort of stylistically and with the bike design brought those elements into it, Tony wants a bike that descends really well and I want a bike that is light and nimble when you’re climbing. But that’s just a super boiled down version, and I feel like that was also a lot of the initial conversation about the design, and part of that year and a half long process leading up to the point of when we started cutting and filing tubes.

You are now going into phase two of ordering, and I know that you’re finishing up with phase one, how has that been working with customers and what has been their interaction with you guys? I had heard that you got some international customers from this process.

Pereira
It’s mostly been international customers almost entirely email interactions but people are really really excited about the bikes, and to get a little part of that Rapha Continental underneath them. The customers that have found us have primarily been outside of the US and that’s totally new for me, I’ve never sold a bike outside of the US prior to this, so now we’ve got people in Japan, Korea, Sweden and the UK.

It was a unique collaboration, we’re fortunate here in Portland to have the two of you and we can go and visit the two of you, but a bike with the two of you is even kind of cooler.

Pereira
[laughing] Yes. We have a guy, there is a guy in town right now taking delivery of his bike from, he lives in Wales and he’s going to be here for a whole week and he was able to get his bike and do some great riding. I thought that was pretty neat that he was able to do that, and it made an even greater experience, and it was fun to meet him.

Ira Ryan
It’s like going to Germany to drive a Porsche. Just drive it around the country for awhile and we’ll ship it back to you when you get home.

It’s great that you guys are accessible enough that you can afford to do that and provide that level of experience with the bike.

Ira Ryan
I feel like part of that appeal that has made it possible to sell bikes outside of the country, outside of the US, is sort of having a streamlined website and just making the process efficient and easy to navigate as opposed to dealing with someone over the phone. If that’s the only access you have you don’t have email it can be really tough. We’ve tried to make the buying process really simple and just sort of streamlined, all of that stuff up front, all of the marketing, everything has a lot to do with how it’s perceived, I think it’s been really good, the response outside of the country has just been overwhelming.

Pereira
We’ve talked a lot about the collaboration between Ira and I, but it’s also a collaboration with Rapha and having the reach that Rapha has, has really enabled us as well, people that we couldn’t reach in another way, Rapha has a website that’s translated into I don’t know how many languages, that goes a long way too, plus, we’ve got Daisuke over in Japan.

And it’s kind of unique that way because speaking of Daisuke Yano, he can reach out and help talk about you guys. He’s been a big fan of yours, but up until this point has no real way to bring you guys to his customers. Because you guys are on the smaller end of things it’s probably hard for him to bring in a bunch of your bikes, so this seems like an interesting way for him to champion what you guys are doing at the same time we talk about Rapha, and I think it’s been a pretty amazing thing that way from our experience, hearing and seeing people’s response to the Rapha Continental bike, but also — “here’s two guys that are a part of the Rapha Continental and have been riding with everyone and that are now producing something.” And for years people have been following the Rapha Continental project and hearing about the rides and seeing the photography and stories and going out and being able to ride the rides that we do with the maps and everything, but there hasn’t been a product. so the story has been there and people have been asking for years “is there any change to continental bikes?

Ira Ryan
The first year the Rapha Continental happened it definitely sparked at interest in people and I got a lot of inquires about bikes painted with that paint scheme, with the Rapha logo on it and built with that style of riding in mind, where it’s long days and any weather, any condition, any road, and we’ve always just had to say “no we don’t have it,” and so now we’ve sort of condensed and really honed the design and been able to offer something that meets all those requirements and is available in a shorter time period than getting something custom from either one of us individually.

Pereira
That’s an important part of the story that we probably should not neglect to talk about is the fact that we are a part of The Rapha Continental riders and I remember, I probably hadn’t known Ira for more than six months, less than a year when he said “oh yeah my buddy’s working with this company called Rapha,” and I was like “oh yeah I think I’ve heard of them,” and we’re going to get this van and drive around the country and do these rides around the country, and I met Daniel [Wakefield Pasley] who conceived the idea of the Rapha Continental and started riding with him and before I knew it I was part of the crew as well. Then we were doing it, in the van around the country doing amazing, amazing rides and meeting really cool people and hitting the gravel and eating crazy hometown cooking all over the place, it has been amazing.

And how have those, it seems like you’re starting to speak to this, but how have those experiences with the Rapha Continental and those guys shaped your bike building?

Pereira
Initially, when Rapha commissioned us to build bikes for the Rapha Continental they said, this is the kind of riding we’re going to do — we’re going to be on some gravel roads, some long distance rides, like, every ride is over 100 miles almost and build a bike that you think would work well for that and that’s what I did, I know that’s what Ira did and after having ridden with Rapha Continental for five years now, there’s a lot of times when I wish that bike had fenders on it. That was one of the first things we thought of with this bike, we’re going to do that bike but put a steel fork on it and have fenders on it because they really should, they should have from the start.

Ira Ryan
And also I mean you could take the fenders off if you wanted to use much bigger tires, it just sort of took the bikes that Tony and I were riding individually and just sort of gave it that extra little nudge.

Pereira
bq. We can look at the whole continental experience as an RND project for us, we got to refine what ended up becoming this bicycle over that many years and that many thousands of miles and thousands and thousands of feet of climbing and descending.

Ira Ryan
I can’t forget the descending; it is so fun to descend with you.

Pereira
You’ve got to get up to get down. That’s cool, I like that line of thinking, that the Rapha Continental can be so many things, it can be an exploration of the country, it can be an RND for the Rapha clothing, it can be an RND for the bikes, it can be a way to eat food and communicate and hang out with your friends, and all of that, and make new friends, and all of that is the bicycle at the center of it, and this is that bicycle.

Ira Ryan
It’s like a partnership between Pereira cycles and Ira Ryan’s cycles and Rapha, there was no way we could talk about it without perpetuating this fantastic forward momentum and then even taken from that, the continental bicycle has also tried to include as many partners from the continental project also, like Chris King and "Fi'zik"http://www.rapha.cc/fizik and and SRAM, FSA, just to keep it authentic as much as possible, and Portland Design Works, a local new company is providing the fenders.

Pereira
Actually a prototype fender still.

I think we had gone on a ride when you were testing out those fenders?

Pereira
I had a mock up pair, they had like two sets and I gave them a bunch of feedback on what worked, what didn’t work, if anything needed to be changed at all and so it’s nice to see this as sort of the next step in that process, it’s all quality stuff. Miles and miles of gravel doesn’t tolerate junk, it’s got to be a quality build with quality parts that are going to last.

Cool, I’m excited to see where it goes with this, and I know that this is also could be the start of, we talked a little bit at lunch about something called breadwinner and this could be a jumping off point for some future collaborations, which would be fun.

Pereira
Ira came up with the name Breadwinner, it’s just our partnership that we formed, and we never intended to brand it but it seems like maybe it could be a fun idea.

Ira Ryan
We keep thinking of T-shirt designs or logos or graphics and just all of the branding things that pop into your head, just sort of keep becoming a little more clear the more that we collaborate and the more that we work on the project.

It’s cool that something like this can bring the two of you together and is not a definitive thing that it has this potential to keep growing, moving forward.

Pereira
I think I’ve always felt like Ira and I clicked like from the very first time we’ve met, we’ve been good friends for a long time, I’ve always wanted to work with him and it’s cool that it is working out.