Product Description
Holy snakes on a bike, part two! This wild ultra-boutique fillet brazed steel road bike was handmade and painted by John Slawta in Oregon. It features an out of this world paintjob even by Landshark standards, either Reynolds 853 or Deda Zero Uno steel tubing, Ritchey hooded dropouts, and lugged sloping crown steel fork. It has fender eyelets, and comes with paint matched alloy fenders! Build date is 2005, via frame number of 054091. Rear spacing is 130mm for modern drivetrains, & brazed on shifter barrel adjuster stops at the head tube. It comes with a 1 1/8" Chris King headset & Deda stem. I have not tested tire clearance, but 25s may be the biggest you can go with fenders and maybe 28s without.
This is the frame you order in the early aughts when you wanted a boutique steel frame but an Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel just wasn't fancy enough yet you can't afford a Pegoretti. When new, this frameset would have cost about $4500. This one was built for the owner of En Selle bike shop in Portland (now closed)
The paint job is a one of a kind custom by John, cannot be adequately described in words. Landshark is known for crazy paint that often borders on unruly and absurd (in the best of ways). Just like the Land Shark Pro Carbon I also acquired from En Selle's owner, this one is more restrained in the most psychedelic of ways. It almost look like a 3k carbon weave on acid. The closest I can come is a mermaid / snake hybrid bathing in glitter. The primary colors are purple, fuscia, lime green and darker green, royal blue, burnt orange, copper, and there's hints of teal here and there. The paint is the deepest of candy with a vibrant metallic glitter throughout. In bright direct light, the colors are clear and vibrant. In more subtle lighting, the colors are a touch more even and subdued. In lower/mixed lighting, some areas look dark and deep as the sea while others glow like a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom (you can see this in some photos where there are black areas in the frame next to ultraviolet ones). In very low lighting, the frame looks nearly black (though there is no black paint aside from decals)! In a way, it's almost chameleon. It's quite the dynamic living creature. Like I said. Words don't capture it's brilliance!
Condition
Excellent rider condition. This bike was a personal bike of a long time shop owner, and while it has some use in it, it has been taken care of very well. The frame is straight with no dents/bends/cracks/damage. The paint overall is glossy and looks great, though there's a number of chips, cable rub haziness, etc. The worst of the imperfections are a section of chips on the underside of driveside chainstay, and a few other chips on the chainstays. The fork crown has a couple very small chips. The driveside head tube has a ~2cm scratch in the center, and at it's top some paint haziness from cable rub. There are a few other such minor blemishes I haven't mentioned, but nothing bad. The fenders have the normal paint missing from contact with the brake calipers, and overall have slightly more wear than the frame.
Details
- Frame number: 054091
- Effective top tube (ETT): 58cm
- Seat tube: 58.5cm c-c
- Head tube: 209mm
- Chainstays: 432mm
- Seatpost needed: 27.0mm
- BB threads: English
