At just over 23 minutes long, 'Dark Star', the opening track from The Grateful Dead's 1969 Live/Dead album, should have presaged commercial ruin for the San Francisco psychedelic outfit. But it was this live album, rather than the group's poorly-received studio offerings of the mid-60s, that successfully captured The Grateful Dead's improvisational, jazz-jam ethos, rocketing the band and their obsessive tie-dyed traveling fans ('Deadheads') into the national consciousness and a musical and cultural fame/infamy that endures to this day.
Of course, The Grateful Dead will forever be associated with San Francisco and the Bay Area of the 1960s, so when a client came to us to commission a Pegoretti with a Ciavete paint scheme inspired by Live/Dead, we jumped at the chance to help a Deadhead get out on the road with the band once more.
After an initial bike fit that steered the conversation towards a custom geometry, and with a professed love for all things Pegoretti and the brand's 'surprise me' Ciavete artwork, the client settled on Pegoretti's gorgeous stainless steel Responsorium frame, a model named after another album, this time by Argentine musician, Dino Saluzzi. Perhaps in the spirit of the '60s, the client opted for the timeless aesthetic of mechanical shifting and rim brakes with Campagnolo Super Record throughout. A blend of Brooks, Deda and Campagnolo (Bora) again for the wheels, kept this decidedly West Coast ride equipped with Italy's very best.
And that paint. While the client had the good taste not to request a slavish copy of the Live/Dead album artwork created by Robert Donovan Thomas, the Ciavete nevertheless interprets many of its themes through a uniquely Pegoretti lens. Against the off-white base, the blue and red really pop, with the 'Super' and 'Graphene 2.0' of the groupset and tires, respectively, neatly complementing the overall color palette.
This one was a blast. Ride on, man.
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