Reader’s Rig: Antonin’s Self-Built Edelbikes Randonneur

Words by Antonin Michaud-Soret (@ahstudiofilmmakers), photos by Matthieu Lifschitz (@manivelle.cc)

I’m Antonin Michaud-Soret, and I’m from a little organic farm nestled into the wild mountains of the south of France. I’m passionate about riding my bikes, whatever the wheel size or the terrain. I’m also a cinematographer and goat cheese maker, lost in the middle of the National Parc of les Cévennes, a very remote place. It’s perfect for cycling!

The past few years I’ve been caught up by the Transcontinental Race thing, with my camera, and after three years documenting the race, I created a long documentary called Onboard the Transcontinental Race. Four years of hard work, diving into the most interesting side of cycling, far from the glitz and glam of the modern road cycling scene. I really fell in love with the concept and the spirit of the riders. It’s a unique adventure! I’m a cyclist myself, and was a long-distance MTB racer 10 years ago, convinced by 29ers since the very beginning (one of my best mountain bikes was a Gary Fisher Hifi Pro Genesis that I used to ride marathon races).

I’m a crafter: cheeses, films, bikes, beers, cooking. So, making my own bike was on my list! Having been interested in this topic since I was 14 year old, I recently met François Cau from Edelbikes in Grenoble, France, where he’s running framebuilding courses. I took one with him to build this machine! Within a week he taught me how to fillet braze, and I had time to do a frame and a fork, resulting in this modern randonneuse! It’s clearly inspired by the TCR bikes geometries, but with the need to keep it versatile.

It’s a bike for riding long distances with a full kit (the French way, front panniers) or with a light bikepacking setup for minimalist adventures over many kilometres. I opted to have clearance for 650B wheels with MTB tires up to 2.2” wide. A before my first adventure, Matthieu, the main character of the TCR documentary, dropped me a text saying he was ready to offer me his legacy: a full kit of Helmut Equipment panniers and variety of bags that had experienced the TCR twice, the very bags you can see in the film! They’re a perfect match with the machine and they have a great backstory as well. Being somewhat sentimental, I cried a bit when receiving them, attached them, and rode off for my first adventure with my new bike, Paulo.

I highly recommend taking a framebuilding course with François at Edelbikes. He’s a very interesting guy, a good teacher, and a damn good rider. It’s fairly affordable too: your frame + fork + a week of classes for around 1,500€.

• Frame/Fork Self built with the help of Edelbikes
• Rims Hope 20five or WTB Senna
• Hubs Shutter Precision SP-9 (front) / Hope Pro2 (rear)
• Tires Rene Herse Snoqualmie Pass or WRB Sendero 47mm
• Handlebars Bombtrack Gravel (44cm)
• Headset Hope
• Crankset SRAM Rival 36/46
• Pedals Crankbrothers Eggbeater 1
• Cassette SRAM PG-1130, 11-36
• Derailleur SRAM Rival
• Brakes Juin Tech F1
• Shifter(s) SRAM Rival
• Saddle WTB Silverado Race
• Seatpost Thomson Elite
• Stem Thomson Elite 80mm 0°
• Front bags Helmut Equipment TR Manivelle Handlebar bag 8L
• Frame bags Helmut Equipment Cavalier EarlyRoad
• Rear bags Helmut Equipment Werewolf saddlebag 10L
• Accessory bags Helmut Equipment
• Other accessories Crane bell, SON Edlex 2 front light, Supernova E3 rear light

The next adventure with my bike will be a bikerafting trip from my mountains to the Mediteranean Sea with some good friends. Can’t wait!

Keep up with Antonin on Instagram @ahstudiofilmmakers.

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