Pearson Hammerandtongs
The oldest hand’s newest road bike
Ididn’t realise it at the time, but it was my old mate Andy’s dad, Roger, who first piqued my road bike interest. Roger rode from England to France once, which blew my eight-year-old mind, especially when he said that of course he rode all the way, pedalling round and round the deck of the ferry. He had this Sunn bike – a 1990s French brand – whose brake levers somehow moved sideways to change gears. Their neatness was mesmerising; I wanted them dearly.
Looking back, those levers must have been some of the earliest Shimano STI shifters, and frankly, wow! What more could you want? Yet look at bikes now and aren’t we spoiled? The tech is incredible. But you pay for it. Or do you?
OK, £5,300 for the Pearson Hammerandtongs isn’t cheap, but equally it could have been called the Bellsandwhistles, and cost twice that. Because this is the epitome of a modern road bike in all the ways you might think, plus one way you might not have considered.
Long in the game
For those not familiar, Pearson is the oldest bike shop in the world and will fight anyone who says otherwise. The business dates back to 1860, with fifth-generation brothers Will (see p33) and Guy its current incumbents, and although it began as a smithy repairing bikes, today Pearson sells head-to-toe kit and a stableful of eponymous bikes such as this one.
‘We designed the frame in the UK and finessed the 3D modelling with our partner in the Far East,’ says Will Pearson. ‘We wanted to try to make the best of both worlds: a frame that still has some comfort in it but can live up to its namesake of throwing down the hammer.’
This is the sixth generation of the Hammer and the big differences for 2021 are an aggregate of all the things I’d have found so beguiling as a child. There are discs, electronic gears, aero tube profiles, no cables on show, 32mm tubeless tyres and geometry tweaked to be more aggressive. The bulbous rims even bear striking resemblance to Zipp’s latest and greatest and most crosswind-stablest 454 NSWS (see p141).
On that last point I can’t say whether the wheels are extra-stable in crosswinds, nor can I say they or the frame’s tube shapes make the bike faster than it might otherwise be. But I can say the geometry feels familiarly racy yet well-mannered, and that from the word go the Hammer earned its name. However, like so many bikes these days, it owes a debt of gratitude to its tyres.
The Hammerandtongs’ cornering felt exceptionally confident, far more so than on my go-to 25mm-tyred road bike
In their properly utilised form, wide tyres offer increased grip, lower rolling resistance and more comfort. Rolling resistance is tough to call as it’s hard to feel, but grip and comfort are easier. With the Hammer I just couldn’t find the edge of the rubber – the point where the bike starts to feel it will let go in a turn. Cornering felt exceptionally confident, far more so than on my go-to 25mm-tyred road bike. But the comfort?
Read the sidewall of the tubeless Continental GP5000S and it says ‘max 87psi (6 bar)’, but since I’ve found 28mm tyres run well at 60/65psi front/ rear (I’m 80kg), I figured 55/60psi was a good place to start. But the Hammer felt harsh so I dropped the pressure using the highly accurate squeezometer I carry with me, and the bike was transformed, cruising like it had shares in Saga.
Back at the laboratory I had my scientists measure this new pressure – 40psi rear, 37psi front. Was this a little too low? Cue a visit to an online pressure calculator that claims to account for rider weight and internal rim width
in its algorithm, and the result: 62psi rear, 58psi front. Thus with tyres pumped ‘correctly’ (using a digital gauge this time), off I went again.
We’d like to thank…
At this point I’d love to say I found the sweet spot but although the speed was still in evidence, the handling responsive and cornering grip good, the bike still had a harsh edge.
Problematic? Once upon a time, yes, but what modern bike design can do now is take a stiff frame and look to the tyres to provide the rest (more on this on p96). Yes you can twiddle about with carbon layups and tube shapes, but nothing creates comfort and grip more than a wide, lower-pressure tyre, and it’s this trick the Hammerandtongs can play. That is to say
I’d probably look elsewhere if I was insistent on running a bike with 25mm tyres, but as it is I’m happy going wide, and this bike is the reason.
It is stiff, yes, but running 32mm rubber the Hammerandtongs reinstalls its plushness, adds tonnes of grip and becomes an all-round pleasure to ride.
Nothing creates comfort and grip more than a wide, lower-pressure tyre, and it’s this trick the Hammerandtongs can play