The Name

Gosh, so many names. I originally wanted to name it after my name, Manning's, but that didn't have much going for it. Then I tried to go with a unique twist on my first name, Ed became EDO, which was a nickname given to me from my Japanese friends. Edo was the capitol of Japan during some period (Feudal) anyways now Edo is Tokyo and I didn't want to confuse folks into thinking it was a Japanese bicycle company. Then came my III, since I'm the third. Ed Manning III. I thought Cube Cycles, but didn't like that so much. I went searching for even more unique languages and Cube. Not so much. My son is the 4th, so I tried to include that, like 34 Cycle Works, Quattro, but that was Audi so I started really thinking about cycling and it hit me. What have you done? Palmares was it. Checked around and the domain was available so I started down the Path. Palmares is Honors in French and it is a list of races a rider has won, almost comparable to a resume on your bicycle. Anyways, a name took me some time, but I feel it is a worthy name.

The beginning Bike 001

I have wanted to build a bicyle frame for over 15 years. Back in 1990 I ordered a Mountain Bike frame kit from Quality Bicycle and a Paterak Manual. I nice True Temper steel set. I had many dreams about the final outcome and I never got around to finishing it as I got hung up on the Jig design, and I could never get past that. Fast forward to 2007 and I decided to just go ahead and make the damn thing. I didn't care about anything other than finishing it and riding it. I managed to get my hands on Talbot's book and along with the New Paterak Manual, I managed to build the frame and fork. With the birth of my first child it took me aver a year to complete the frame. Maybe 40 hours were involved and it is still a work in progrss. I will be attending the UBI bicycle frame building class in July of 2008 and starting down the frame building path. I came up with the name Palmares Cycles after months of trying to come up with a good name. It's tough. Palmares in French is a word used for Honor's. Most high level racers have a Palmares, or a listing of what races they have placed very well in. I'm currently working on the logo design and website. All of this is a work in progress and more fun that business at this point.

http://www.palmarescycles.com/