The Fauve is the most versatile of the custom-made bicycles from Maison Tamboite Paris. The ways it can be personalized have been pushed even farther, so it can be taken to the top, literally.
This is how:
A creature with attitude–sweet and docile in the city, a sprinter as soon as the landscape opens up, and even feisty when let loose on rougher terrain–the Fauve shows a rare versatility. It stays true to the genetic makeup Maison Tamboite bestowed upon it at its conception: Its squat body and rigidity promise great responsiveness, and its wooden wheels combined with ample tires contribute efficiency and great comfort.
This makes (almost) everything possible for you:
relaxed rambles, high-speed urban commutes, or getaways for country adventures.
All this versatility couldn’t help but spark new desires. What if its playground needed to expand to more extreme terrain? A resident of Switzerland came to us with this question, in the form of a request with some dreams mixed in: having complete freedom, cycling up the highest peaks…without needing to be in peak athletic form.
With its 11-speed electronic gear shifting system, the Fauve in its standard version was already able to contend with a wide range of uses and levels of energy investment.
However, since it is the nature of Maison Tamboite to push custom-making and personalization to achieve our customers’ highest wishes, we developed the e-Fauve, a special “gentleman road warrior” version of the Fauve equipped with a hybrid electric assistance system.
A reminder of the key principles: the motor and battery reside in the rear hub for maximum discretion and a particularly modest weight. A power sensor connected to a gyroscope makes it possible to level out the effort required and maintain a constant speed no matter how steep the climb.
It’s a bicycle, but augmented: You pedal, because that’s part of the pleasure of connecting with your bike, but at the level of effort (and thus comfort) that you have chosen and that remains constant no matter the topography.
For the e-Fauve we did even better. Given the perspective that it would need to manage the steepest peaks over long distances, we also equipped it with a completely invisible double chainring. The simple push of the actuator “button” at the pedal axle makes it possible to change the chainring size and access a second gear range while maintaining the intuitive assistance of the hybrid electric system. This gives you the small gear ratio you need to mount hills and keep up your cadence all the way to the summit—without great effort but with no loss of the sensation of riding a bike, all while enjoying the landscape with all its ups and downs.
And thus, the dream took shape.
Soon, ascending the most beautiful mountain passes can become a realistic scenario, as you look forward to experiencing the overwhelming majesty of the valleys from new heights. The peaks all around will have lost their intimidating aspect, and you will experience the climbs with clear eyes, regular breathing, and the notable absence of burning leg muscles that normally accompany this kind of ride.
After the elation of experiencing the summit, the descent makes it possible to further extend the adventure, as the e-Fauve’s hybrid electric system will recharge throughout the length of the descent, powered by gravitational forces.
That’s enough to propel the intoxication of cycling to yet another valley…if not farther.
