Here she is now! Sorry for the crappy indoor pic, it's pouring rain outside. I wasn't feeling the brown with the orange, and I wasn't sure where to go with it. I looked through the "orange bikes" threads for inspiration and found drillium dude's trio of orange beauties and fell in love. I'm not too proud to go for a straight-up copy, but although I love the look of Unicanitors (probably my favourite looking saddle) I only find leather saddles comfortable. The Brooks Swallow is a compromise between the two, since I think it's fairly racy looking for a Brooks and it's very comfortable once you dial in the angle. I was very lucky to pick up a matched set of alloy TA bottle cages, they suit the bike and they are LIGHT.

Looks aside, by far the greatest thing about this bike is the ride. Unfortunately describing ride-quality is like describing wine, it's very subjective and the English language (or my grasp of it anyway) doesn't seem to have the right words. The Inuit apparently have a hundred words for snow, but I can only come up with a couple for describing how a bike rides. The Behringer only really revealed itself after an hour or so in the saddle. I kept looking down to see if I was in a lower gear than normal, which I wasn't, because I was flying along without any effort whatsoever. Some wizardry in the frame geometry or construction has given it magical properties of propulsion. I swear if you could get it to stand up on its own it would pedal away by itself. The handling is incredible. Zipping through downtown traffic it does exactly what I want it to, and I feel much more confident weaving between cars and making sharp turns. I won't call it the Perfect Bike, but it definitely is for me. Another Behringer owner wrote that he had sold all 60+ of his bikes except for his Behringer, and that if you ever see one you should grab it because it would "change your life". I laughed, thinking how ridiculous a statement it was. How could a bike possibly change your life, after all? And yet...


http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/...IMG_1006-1.jpg

I think you found them. I thought you were wrong to want to change the brown saddle, but the black and orange is definitely better.

Thank you! I'll take some better pictures outside when the weather improves, my crappy picture's not conveying much.

Now that is an endorsement. I had never even heard of Behringer until you mentioned the name in another thread just the other day...

Another great orange C&V.

Mikemowbz and rpthomas thank you both. I am on the lookout now for other Behringers, I aim to start collecting them. Unfortunately they are few and far between. I would LOVE to have one decked out in Pino Moroni components... or as an ultimate "grail bike" a lugged titanium Pin-Behr.

Well, I probably would have gone with black saddle, tape and housing to match the graphics. But it also looks great the way you have it. That's a beauty.

Also, seems to me I had the same trouble with a Superbe fd and I'm having a hard time remembering how I solved it. I no longer have one...is it possible to remove the attachment bolt from the cage piece? I want to say I had to do that to get the cage to sit far enough onto the band stud, but I could be mis-remembering.

The band separates from the derailleur body no problem, but the clip to hold the band on before you attach the derailleur is just a little nub. It works great when I put it together off of the bike, but not on the bike. It just springs off in the most infuriating possible way. Nothing I've done so far has fixed it, not even throwing it across the room in a very angry manner.

Great- one more thing to covet!

For me too! Pino Moroni and Cecil Behringer had a very interesting partnership. I am also on the lookout for a Telavio, which was Pino Moroni's brand. The decal is three green mice. I don't know what the story is behind it but it doesn't get much cooler than that!

Slick. Hammered Honjos would top this beauty off nicely.

Thanks Jet, however the geometry is super tight so there's no room for anything even resembling a fender.

I see that. Even if you could get one on the front wheel, the toe overlap would probably drive you crazy if it didn't kill you first! ;)

Thank you! That solves a little mystery for me.

I met both of them at bike races in the '70's. Pino carried around a set of wheels with titanium hubs whose flanges were threaded. Spokes were threaded on both ends. He would throw them up in the air and let them bounce, drop them from motel balconies, etc. to demonstrate how stong they were. He was a character. The first Behringer I saw was Wayne Stetina's. It was painted in pearl white. I had never heard of a Behringer before. It was a really interesting time in cycling.

Your Behringer is just awesome!

Thank you! I have seen pictures of those wheels and I would absolutely kill for a set. I believe those were the same type they used on the Pin-Behr that they rode down the steps in Rome to show how strong it was.