Reader’s Rig: Olivier’s Custom Victoire Hardtail

Words and photos by Olivier Moly (@_molybdene_)

I’m Olivier, and for a long time, I’ve been passionate about long-distance hiking trips. I’ve done a few thru-hikes in France, such the GR10 and HRP in the Pyrenees, both of which are 860 kilometers. I also walked New Zealand’s 3,000-kilometer Te Araroa Trail. But, after those hikes, I dreamt of going farther in a short amount of time. And since finding a bike my size wasn’t an easy job, I started dreaming of building my own.

I built my first frame in 2016 with Matthieu Chollet from Pechtregon, who taught me the fundamentals. A year later, I was offered a job as a frame builder at Victoire Cycles (@victoirecycles). I’m now the workshop manager there, and I love my job, building bikes and working with the team to improve our builds.

I finally have a bike that’s polyvalent enough for all the forest and mountain trips of my dreams, but with a young family, it’s now hard to find the time to get out there for those long trips. However, I’m scheming up some plans for 2022.

Julien, the owner of Victoire Cycles, had the idea for this bike, and then I made the frame for it in our workshop. It was the first and only prototype D75 (D for Distance and 75 for the maximum clearance) for our other brand, Distance. I started calling it “La Chèvre,” which means “the goat,” as it’s ready to climb whatever is in front of it. I rode it for a while, and then Julien and I talked about how we could transform it into a bikepacking monster.

• Frame Custom Victoire
• Fork Formula Selva C
• Rims Velocity Dually 27.5″
• Hubs SON 28 (front) / Hope Pro 4 (rear)
• Tires Teravail Coronado 27.5 x 3″
• Handlebars Tumbleweed Persuader
• Headset Columbus Compass
• Crankset Shimano SLX
• Pedals Shimano PD-EH500
• Cassette Shimano SLX 12-speed
• Derailleur Shimano SLX 1×12
• Brakes Shimano SLX
• Shifter(s) Shimano SLX 12-speed
• Saddle WTB Silverado Medium
• Seatpost Koryak dropper, 150mm
• Stem Victoire custom
• Front bags Ron’s Olive Fabio’s waxed Fanny / Ortlieb Fork-Pack
• Frame bags Sea to Summit Big River / Tailfin Cargo Cage
• Rear bags Ortlieb Fork-Pack and Tailfin Yellow Sea to Summit Big River
• Accessory bags Sea to Summit on top tube
• Racks Custom
• Other accessories EnCase System Bar Kit One / Klean Kanteen 1.7L
• Lights Sinewave Cycles Beacon (front) / SON (rear)

We worked on the idea of a rear and front rack to mount a minimalist set of stuff bags. I added some inserts to fix the Tailfin Cargo Cages and made a stem to support the front rack, which carries the Fabio’s waxed Fanny from Ron’s Bikes. The rear rack carries a Tailfin Cargo Cages on the top. There are two handmade fixtures on the sides for the Ortlieb Fork-Packs. The paint job was done by Julien, and he added a Daruma on the down tube, which is my custom branding for the bikes I produce at Victoire. The bike isn’t lightweight, but I love to ride it through the mountains in Auvergne. Next, I want to put some extra volume on the fork pack system, but that’s another story.

See more from Olivier on Instagram @_molybdene_.

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