01.01.2003 - Merlin Metal Works
Kirk Pacenti — Custom Bicycle Designer
Merlin News, 2003 Issue 1

If Merlin told you that our custom frame designer began studying bicycle frames at twelve years of age, and that he learned the basic interactions between frame geometry and ride quality while riding bicycles on the streets with his childhood friends, you might become intrigued. And then, if Merlin told you that his history of education in bike fabrication spans across the country, from Connecticut, where he apprenticed at an aerospace manufacturer learning welding and machining techniques, to the United Bicycle Institute in Oregon where he studied frame design, you would probably give credit to his training. And, if we told you that his career has brought him through several facets of the cycling industry, from Bontrager in California where he advanced from welder to head frame builder in only 18 months, to Giro where he researched helmet designs, to working with some of the masters of frame building — Tom Kellogg, Tim Isaac, and others —, you would probably trust in his experience. If Merlin told you that he has cycled 4100 miles across the United States in only a few weeks, began his own line of bicycles, and built or designed close to 5000 bikes — including over 2000 custom bikes for such riders as Lotto-Adecco team member Robbie McEwen, winner of the 2002 Tour De France Green Jersey, an award McEwen achieved on his Pacenti-designed bike, you would most likely be impressed.

What if Merlin told you that he did all of this by the age of 30?

Meet Kirk Pacenti, custom frame designer at Merlin. For all he has done, he's a modest guy. He has a cubicle in the corner of the Merlin shop, just above the weld room. You can smell the welding fumes from his design table. On his walls are a picture of his wife, an old Merlin steel frame, a hand-painted locker door — a memento from his days at Bontrager, and a backlog of custom bikes to design. People are lining up to have a bike designed by Pacenti. Bikes are his life.

He is the only custom frame designer in the industry who has worked from the ground up in bicycle production, and every aspect of his frame design proves this. It is Pacenti's attention to detail that separates his custom frames from others; when you order a Merlin custom frame, that is what you get — a fully custom bike, not just a custom top tube with a stock frame built around it. From criterium to touring geometry, and everything in between, a Merlin custom frame is specifically designed for its rider to the millimeter.

Pacenti says of his custom design process, "I have two goals when designing a custom bicycle — fit and function. After receiving information from a rider, I create a bicycle that both fits them perfectly, and is designed specifically to the rider''s cycling needs. I design bicycles around the rider."

When Merlin hired Pacenti, we ran an advertisement featuring him as our custom frame designer. We were bombarded with calls asking, "Who is this young guy designing my custom bike?" We suppose they expected an old and gritty cycling guru who looked like a sage of sorts — a man whose days in the saddle were worn on his body like a medal.

Our reply was, simply, "Why, that's Kirk Pacenti."

Note: Kirk Pacenti branched out on his own to focus his energies on Pacenti Cycle Design in May 2003