Peregrine Mk4 Update

 Someone in the comments said earlier this week the following statement: "Too much Peregrine content?? No way. It’s your New Bike Day/Month! We want all the details! "

Well, be very careful what you ask for, because here is more content about the Peregrine.  

I'm in my "getting to know you" phase of ownership here which includes my making small tweaks to my set up. I can only do this fine tuning after rides lasting from 30 minutes to an hour or so. I ride. I make a tweak. I ride and see if what I did results in what I am after. Rinse and repeat until I finally am satisfied. 

So, to describe why I was 'tweaking' what I was tweaking I have to go back to the original intentions for the build. One of those was to use what I had on the Twin Six as much as possible. This meant avoiding new cables and housings, new brake hoses, and all the things this can entail. In this I was successful. However; because of this I had painted myself in something of a corner which I had to find a way out from behind. 

This mostly had to do with how I was sat on the bike. I was a tiny bit cramped due to the need for the stubby Whisky Parts Co. stem I used. I could not put a longer stem on the bike because I'd have to switch out the rear brake hose, rear cable housing, and rear cable. So, to gain a little bit of the lost reach back, I decided to try to find and use a seat post with a little more setback and a saddle which would also accommodate me in this way as well. I was hoping both things would get me closer to the number I like to see for my reach.  

The Honeman  Flyer with the Thomson seat post, zero offset. 

 Looking at my fleet of bicycles I noted I had not addressed the seat post issue on the Honeman Flyer 100% to my liking.  (The bike with the seemingly never-ending seat post saga!) Anyway..... I had been using a Salsa Cycles Ti Regulator post on this bike which has a fair amount of set back. This was not ideal for the Honeman Flyer's 70° seat tube angle. I started off with a zero offset post on the Flyer and it was better, from an ergonomic standpoint. It was undersized though, and slipped all the time, so it had to go. I eventually landed on the Ti Regulator as a stop-gap solution to end all the slipping seat post madness I was experiencing with this bike. 

Well, if I could find a suitable post for the Honeman Flyer maybe I could poach the seat post for the Peregrine. So, to the seat post bin! (Yes......I have multiple unused seat posts sitting in a big tin can!) I rummaged through this assortment of seat posts and came across a nice silver Thomson post with zero offset. Nice! Now I could swap posts with the Honeman Flyer and maybe get the setback I was looking for. 

The Peregrine Mk4 with the Salsa Ti Regulator and WTB Solano saddle installed. 

Now the Flyer also had a WTB Solano saddle fitted, so I knew this saddle was pretty good with me, and it had a fair amount of rail to use for adjustment. With the saddle slid back as far as allowed, and with the set back on the Ti Regulator, I gained back almost all my preferred reach. Almost, which is fine, because I wanted to try a little less reach and see if I wasn't setting my bicycles up with too much reach, ending up being too stretched out, perhaps. We will see. Remember: Test & Tweak.  Now on to one other interesting point about this bike. 

I'd say that looks like a good half of an inch there.

I had a reader ask about toe overlap with the Peregrine Mk4. Good question! Since this bike can handle big tires, this could be a concern, right? Well, I went out with my size 46 Shimano gravel shoes on, clipped in, and tried to get my foot to touch the front tire. This tire is a 700 X 50mm Schawlbe G-One Overland, for reference. The crank arm length is 172.5mm. 

The image here shows the closest I could get to touching the tire with my toes. I'd say this is not very close! Also, I try to set my cleats back as far as I can, but not all the way back. Very close to it, but I would still have room for my foot even if my cleats were slammed all the way back.

So, the good news here is that a size Large should not cause any issues with toe overlap. Maybe if I were running fenders, I might have toe overlap with this big of a tire, but I bet I'd still be good, if just barely so. 

Had I been sporting the biggest tire which would clear the Peregrine's frame and fork, I probably would get a bit of toe contact, in my opinion, but I'm not planning on going to the extreme which would cause this to happen. 

Next, I had someone in the comments ask about contrasting the ride of the Peregrine with my Gen I Fargo. So, this is really an apples and oranges thing, in my opinion. The Fargo Gen I being a more MTB-leaning drop bar bike, while the Peregrine is based on a classical road bike. Certainly the two overlap in certain aspects, but as far as the ride quality, these are very different bicycles.  

I think it might prove to be enlightening if I just put it this way: I'm not getting rid of either of the two bikes and they will do different things for me. Now if one was doing the same thing for me as the other? One would have to go away, as I wouldn't ride one of them. As it stands, again for myself, this is not the case and both bikes will remain in my service for the time being. 

If anything, this Peregrine is probably more like my Black Mountain Cycles MCD. But I will have to do some back-to-back comparisons to verify this. Keeping in mind the MCD can run 'up to' a 50mm tire, while the Peregrine can handle even slightly larger tires.  

Okay, I think I've covered just about everything I wanted to get to on this update. I hope you folks who had indicated you were fine with more Peregrine content are satisfied! Ha! 

I'll have more to share here soon. I know of one more tweak which is coming, and there may be more. Plus I hope for ride content as well. Stay tuned.