can't we just get along ?

Why it must continue......

2011-12-24T10:10:00.000-08:00

As I was warming up for a cyclocross race in Bend, Oregon I noticed that my cheap Chinese watchband was pretty much ready to let go. Not wanting to lose my faithful 1994 Timex Ironman watch that I had worn on every brevet and almost every race since I had bought it, I took off the watch and put it in my packet. The original band had lasted many years. The cheap replacements only lasted about 8-10 months and they were all from -you guessed it- China. Now I'm not insinuating that all goods from China are worthless but they are cheap and therefore subject to shorter life spans than stuff made elsewhere that isn't as cheap.
The next thing that got me thinking was announcing to a friend that our mutual friend was expecting a child-to this my friend said : " What's with all these people having kids ? I don't get it !". This made me want to say , " Well, how the heck did you and I get here ? Were we dropped out of a spacecraft ? Are we the only ones allowed to be born ?"=Of course I kept my thoughts to myself, after all...she had a valid point in that there is a bit of a population explosion that has been going on since before recorded history.
O.K., this gets me to my point: Custom frame building is a bit of a 'Niche" market,job, whatever you want to call it. By far, most of the bikes that people ride are made in Taiwan or China and are perfectly fine, if maybe not the most durable bikes ever created. After my generation is gone do I care if the craft of frame building continues ? -Yes, I do care....but why should I care if I'm dead ? First of all, the large companies who produce bikes do not build custom and this would make bikes for really tall and/or short people impossible to get if small custom producers were extinct. I, for one don't want to leave the task of building custom bikes up to larger companies as they aren't suited for the job, just as small guys like me are not suited to churning out 1,000's of bargain priced bikes for the masses. My other point is this: Just because I and my contemporaries have had our run at this pretty special livelyhood doesn't mean that someone else can't have a go of it as well. We needn't become an extinct species. Sure, some of us have decades of working at a low wage before getting to the point where we are no longer struggling to survive-that kind of life-long dedication isn't exclusive to one generation.There are new folks who want to try as we did all those years ago and I for one don't feel like telling them to forget about it .......this is why I teach a class at UBI once a year-I believe in the viability of hand made bikes and I don't put a time limit on it.
While I am not saying that everyone who wants to be a frame builder can pull it off, a few hardy and creative souls will with a bit of luck and with the ability to fill a need in their respective cycling community.For example , I do not build in isolation-I am surrounded by folks who ride where I do, appreciate what I appreciate and really use the bike for all sorts of occasions. I might have a lot of customers in far flung places but the core is here in Santa Cruz and the greater Bay area-I do things for this community and they in turn support what I do. I really see that as a sustainable thing- whether I am building bikes or someone else is. Maybe my brand name does not need to continue after I am gone but all the tools I have accumulated over last 30-odd years will no doubt find their way to someone else with their own vision, their own approach. -The shit don't stop with me.

We're not happy until you're not happy

2011-10-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

For the last ten-odd years I have been buying aluminum and scandium tubing from primarily one company. That company pioneered the butting and alloying of these metals and created a revolution in frame building that I was a participant in , albeit in a very minor role. What I did was take pre-production samples of the tubing and build bikes for very high-level competitors. These bikes went to places like UCI world cup and championship races and got some serious press, not only for me but for the company I bought tubing from. This for me was a really great relationship and a chance for my bikes to be seen on the world stage of sport.
There's only one problem. Another revolution of sorts came along. the revolution this time was carbon fiber. One by one the big bike manufacturers began sourcing molded carbon bikes from Taiwan and elsewhere and there were good reasons for this. # 1, once the molds for the frames were engineered and made, thousands of identical frames could be produced with little skilled labor ( such as welders and machinists ) and the frames were very light and had a smooth ride. # 2, Since the molds were costly to make , the manufacturer simplified the whole concept of sizing-it used to be that you could buy 5-6 different sizes of a frame in 2-3 c.m. increments. Now you had a choice of three: Small , Medium and Large-maybe an XL if you were lucky. This allowed retailers and bike companies to not have to carry as many sizes, further cutting costs.
#3, The molded carbon frames were not as durable to side impacts and required more frequent replacement making for more frequent sales.#4, Having the frames made overseas allowed the bike companies to not have to deal with the various regulations and high labor costs over here.
Where am I going with this ? Maybe you have guessed. Now that the big companies have gone to carbon, who will buy these wonderfully engineered and precision manufactured aluminum and scandium tubes ? the answer is almost nobody........except for the few folks like me. Without the market to sell the tubes to the big companies there is no economic reason for the company I dealt with to continue making the tubing. They have told me recently that after twenty years of doing so,they are ceasing all tubing manufacturing . I guess I could get really mad at the company except for the fact that they had little choice in the matter. I think they really wanted to keep making the tubing that pretty much put their company on the map-they had invested a tremendous amount of energy and money into making this tubing , but in 2011 that means nothing. Market share and economic viability are what ensures survival in these troubled and competitive times.
For me, this means the eventual death of about 55% of what I build-that is, unless I can find another source of material. The problem for me is that the tubes I was buying up until a few years ago were manufactured right here in the USA. The quality was unassailable and I knew what I was buying. Metallurgists and engineers will tell you that it doesn't matter who makes a 7005 aluminum tube-the metal is the same and should have identical characteristics. The folks that engineered the tubing I was buying have a different view. They were at the forefront of the advent of this particular material and figured out the best way to form and heat treat it , right down to the finish on the surface of the tubes. Tubing from other factories and countries is visually not the same and I can personally attest to seeing more failures with other tubes.
I am angry not merely for the problems I will encounter now that my main source of tubing is gone-I am mostly upset that things got this way......that everything had to be made elsewhere so that the profit margin grew and that the product was to a degree, disposable-just as disposable as the domestic jobs that evaporated when the whole carbon revolution started. The irony is that by the time these carbon bikes get over here, they really aren't that good a deal for the consumer. A frame that costs $ 150 to the company that imports it will become a bike that sells for nearly the same amount as a domestically produced bike with the same equipment. The big difference is that when you pay a framebuilder $ 3,600 for an Ultegra equipped road bike you are paying a large proportion of your money to the actual builder of the bike. When you buy a carbon 'whatever' road bike with the same equipment you'll be paying mostly for marketing-advertisement and the many hands the bike goes through before getting to you. It isn't the same on any level except maybe the price.
The company that no longer makes my tubing didn't want it to end up this way. The folks that lost their jobs certainly didn't want things to end up this way, either. I definitely didn't want it to end up this way. I still believe strongly in the material I can no longer get. my customers still believe in the material as well. I just saw an article on a world-class racer who is still on an aluminum bike, as if it is now a novelty in a sea of molded carbon bikes . I am now faced with having a set of skills and a market that have possibly outlived their usefulness in today's bike market. To quote another builder, maybe I should have been a plumber.

Let's all make memories that we can forget.....

2011-09-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Even though the next handbuilt bike show is a half year away , I have been giving it quite a bit of though as of late. After thinking up all sorts of really questionable plans of action I have decided to make my booth a museum of my last 33 years of cutting and welding metal together. Maybe my career has not been as notable as some ,but nobody can deny that I have been at this trade for a hell of a long time. I'm ready to let my work tell the story of the crooked and makeshift path of what I have done these past decades-I'll do this and let folks decide if what I have done has validity or merit in this year of 2011.
What my work won't tell folks is that I started out building frames as a way to broaden my skill-base in the bike business , not much more than that. Maybe getting a nice custom frame for cheap had a big part in the venture , not to mention getting to build a frame for my sister, a far better athlete than I. Other things that a booth filled with old bikes cannot tell are the years of working in a one-car garage with only a few tools-at one point building six frames that were ridden in the 1992 Olympics by the Guam pursuit team......not a record setting performance but still , it was a few of my frames cobbed together in a little garage on the world's stage of sport. Another thing not told about my career by the display would be my entry into mountain biking in 1980 by way of a separated shoulder and a twisted ankle , followed by my exit from road racing by way of a broken collarbone, dislocated finger and about an acre of road rash. Another fact not gleaned from looking at my old bikes is that I spent the first ten years trying occasionally to build a cyclocross frame - only to fail miserably.
I'm doubtful that folks coming into my booth would know that I completed Paris-Brest-Paris in 1995.....something I still can't believe I was able to do. All those years of riding all day and into the night trying to qualify for a ride I had not a clue about.....those years and all those miles are behind me- I strain to remember much of it. At a show a couple of years ago I displayed all the medals for the rides I did and perhaps one or two people over the course of the whole show gave any indication of interest.
I guess whatever I have done is largely forgettable and insignificant in view of some of the things people have done with their lives. All the same, I'm going to put it out there-1978 to 2011 , an exhibit of a life spent crafting and cursing , riding and crashing, bleeding and dreading, coaxing unfriendly alloys into things that people can slowly or rapidly destroy with glee- Two-wheeled entropy experiments that have survived to maybe not tell the tale, just show some of the twists and turns of a life spent doing strange stuff with metal. I hope you all come and see.

So who's next ?

2011-08-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

I realized something the other day. It appears that all single-man shops in any craft breed a few traits in the proprietor eventually. One of them is bitterness......it isn't the overriding theme of most crafts peoples lives but it is there and I can pretty much tell you where I think it comes from-building stuff by yourself. Maybe it is because so much stuff that people buy is made far away by people they don't know....people who generally do not use the product they are making every day and know little about it , other than what it takes to manufacture it. Maybe we who are one-man shops are bitter as we have to know what it takes to not only build things but also what one endures when there isn't anybody else to pick up the slack.
Essentially, we live in a life without slack. But wait-when you work for yourself you can set your own hours, right ? Yeah....you can work as much as you need to , which could be 16 hours a day if there's lots of work and lots of bills to pay. It really isn't like what most people who work regular jobs think-idyllic shop with a pot of coffee on all the time, pleasant classical music wafting through the immaculate and serene little olde shoppe with all the lovely pampered tools , each in it's own hallowed place always sharp, always clean and always at the ready. That is total bullshit. That's a mental picture of a shop where nothing happens and nothing gets built- It's a myth.

What isn't a myth is the reality of scraping out a living by taking steel, titanium, aluminum, carbon, bamboo, wood or whatever and building something that really works well. Heck, it could even be an artistic statement that works well......as long as it works.
As of the last four years I have been teaching an annual class in framebuilding at United Bicycle Institute. I do this because I not only have to convey the skills that I have learned , I also have to tear down the myth about being in business for yourself, particularly the business of building custom bicycle frames. What it is is hard work-showing up when you would rather be riding. Showing up when the unheated shop is colder than a well-diggers ass. Showing up to fix all the stuff you botched the day before.......and liking it just about all the time. Essentially, you have to like more than the process of building frames-you have to be able to make the whole chaotic swirling mass of shit that is a small business work , and you must do it without getting too bitter. You might think to yourself : " Hey, how the heck did I get into this mess ?" Just look in the mirror and laugh at the fool who suckered you into this crap. That in itself is a reason to be bitter, that you have succeded in taking your life and making it into a situation where all the responsibility is in yours and you have to be present and accounted for all the time. No calling in sick......no making excuses, it's all on you.
This is what I go over with students on the last day of class. United Bicycle Institute does not sugar coat the whole job-search or the 'new framebuilder on the block' story at all. What is presented is a realistic picture of what is possible and what is unlikely-Education without honesty is a total waste of time.
So......armed with the information that I have just imparted here, who will be the next generation of framebuilders ?

How not to order a custom frame

2011-07-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

In this blog I have commented mainly on my fellow builders. Some I greatly admire, some I think are maybe not quite so admirable.....and some are just total posers. Maybe it is time to pay some attention to the folks that order the frame, our customers. I am quite lucky in that I seem to have what I think are the best damn customers on the face of the earth. They are fully aware of what I do and don't ask me to go way outside my comfort zone in terms of the build. Of course, 'comfort zone ' is not the best way to describe what is the way I choose to build but it is the best term I can come up with after a 10 hour day in the shop.
What I want to present here is a kind of guide-a bit of a sarcastic one and not aimed at my customers at all, unless of course they are looking for a cheap laugh. In my may years of torching I have been asked to do all sorts of things to construct a bicycle frame. Most of these things worked out......a few did not. I learned a thing or two from these unsuccessful builds and will present these 'rules for engagement' when ordering a custom frame.

1. Do not ask a builder who specializes in racing bikes to build you a fancy 'heirloom' art frame. There is no doubt that the builder will hate the experience of the lengthy filing and polishing and the customer will not wind up with the builder's best effort. Result ? Everybody hates everybody.

2. Don't try to order three bikes in one. a bike that weighs under 16 lbs. but can fit full racks and panniers , has ability to run two brake systems, has sliding dropouts, an eccentric bottom bracket and two sets of brake bosses so that two different wheel sizes can be used will no doubt be a big rolling piece of shit. Please narrow it down or figure on having more than one bike.

3. Never ask a builder to use some hardware and/or tubing he/she has no experience with. The phone call starts :" I really like what I see on your website but can you do something entirely different for me ? How about some stainless dropouts from Swaziland ? I hear on the web that they are really nice." I have personal experience with this situation and I can tell you that the result was pretty awful for myself and the customer.

4. Do not order a frame until you pretty much know what you want. This happens when a customer has a few friends who all ride the same builder's bike. Not to be left out, the person lacking the said custom bike sends a deposit in prematurely . In some cases the decision on the bike never gets made and the bike never happens......I have a few folks on the list that gave me money and kind of just disappeared.......weird.

5. Don't get your sizing done by anyone unless you are 100% sure in their accuracy. If I, the builder does the sizing and I mess it up , I build you another frame and take the mistake frame back. If some shop employee screws up your fitting and you get a frame that is wrong......you are going to have to deal with it yourself . Craigslist, anyone ?

6. Do not ask a builder to make a 'copy' of another builders work unless you want your builder to 'interpret' the design and have his own approach based on his/her strong suit . there is a reason each builder has his/her own style. Order from the person who's style is really what you want.

7. Please don't try to get a faster delivery time by bribing the builder with money , booze , flat screen t.v.s, free carpet cleaning , bootleg d.v.d's , etc. Plan ahead and wait like everyone else......it's the right thing to do.

8. Try not to visit or call constantly while your frame is being built-you will only delay the build and probably have a pissed off builder doing a hurried job to get you off of his/her back. I know it is hard to be patient and the whole process can be really exciting. Trust me, back off a little and you'll probably get a free pair of socks or a hat for it.

9. Don't ask for a free frame just because you have a blog. I have a blog....seven of them. Does that mean I am supposed to get seven free anything ? I think not..........and I wouldn't ask anyway.

10. If something isn't right with your frame , be sure and let the builder know. Don't take the frame to some other builder to have it fixed-this is not fair to the original builder who will need to know what he/she screwed up so that it won't happen again.

11. If you have a complaint about a builder, complain to the builder-don't crucify the builder on the web......you will only look like an asshole. If the builder takes your money and doesn't build you anything , that is a job for the courts or collection agencies...........not the internet chat forums.

12. When ordering a frame from a builder, do not hold back any information that might be really important. If you absolutely must have a level top tube, be sure and state this . There's nothing more humiliating than presenting someone with a frame and having them look at it as if it were a dead fish .

The Nontrager story

2011-06-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, gather around...its story time again. There's a lot of tales of woe and misery I could tell you all but this story really needs to be told as I am finding that there are a number of folks that have inexplicably expressed interest in a very unremarkable part of '90's bicycle history that I , yes-one in the same-set into motion.
When I was a hobby builder operating out of my one-car garage in Santa Cruz in the mid '80's I got to know a few of the other local frame builders. One notable was Keith Bontrager who similarly was operating out of a bit larger garage on the east side of town. Keith was pretty helpful in guiding me through the machine shop auctions to find some good tools at a price I could actually afford. Both of us shared the same frugality as we both shared the same poverty-level income. While Keith was more ambitious and a lot more innovative than I, he still needed the occasional help with some brazing on a few bikes here and there.
Flash forward to 1998 : While I was working away as primarily a one man operation with the occasional employee, Keith had created a bit of an empire-a company with many products and about 20-25 employees. The other part of Keith's company is that he had taken in a couple of financial partners. As things can go, this relationship of certain partners got a bit sour after a number of years and Keith had to buy out the partners. Since Keith was still frugal and probably pretty cash poor inspite of his growing company an outsider with deep pockets was needed. Along came Trek at just the right time to rescue Keith from a potentially nasty financial battle with the former partners. ( of course, this is my recollection and I'm sure that a lot of former Bontrager folks could either give a more accurate account and/or correct anything I might be a little in error on.)
The first thing Trek did was to make the company a bit larger and more efficient . This was accomplished by moving the whole operation to another part of the industrial complex into a nice clean well-lit place , complete with OSHA compliant features everywhere. This was a real contrast to the dark and sooty catacombs that was the original shop. Trek was under the impression that this clean-up and re-tooling of Bontrager would be a profitable addition to the Trek family of brands. It was assumed that the Bontrager shop would continue on in Santa Cruz as before.
Sadly, this was not to be the case as Trek found out rather soon that the bikes were not selling in sufficient numbers to make the California operation profitable. Trek closed the facility and much if the raw frame building materials wound up on the loading dock, destined for the metal recycler. This is where I come in. A person within the Bontrager organization alerted me to the large amount of metal that Trek was literally giving away. Earlier attempts at auctions had not garnered much interest from the local builders so many pallets of steel were free for the taking. I was told to bring as many vehicles as I could round up and take away the steel. I called a few friends and we all drove to the shop and loaded up all that we could carry.
As it turned out, I was really the only person who wound up making more frames out of the old inventory. Since these frames were no longer made by Bontrager , i decided to modify the decals to say " Non-trager" as to indicate that despite all outward appearances, this was not a Bontrager. I offered these frames to bike industry employees at about $ 400 , much less than either a Bontrager or a Rock Lobster. I didn't want these going out to the public....I was trying to make a handbuilt USA made frame available to bike business folks who made even less money than I in a lot of cases. I charged less as the frames only took a few hours to build and the materials were free.
Like anything cheap and pretty good in the bike world , word got out and I would up building about 104 of these frames. I had some rediculous requests......can you make the frame for disc brakes ? Can you put on different dropouts ? Can you build it for a 6" travel fork ? I said no to all of these as most of the materials were pre-cut and specifically designed to be constructed into Bontrager frames and nothing else. After building these frames for about 9 years as a sideline, I began to see something that made me eventually pull the plug on the whole project and pretty much give the remaining materials to another builder. What I encountered was a few folks calling up asking for Nontragers as if it were a custom frame. Of course, it wasn't...it was a low-cost alternative to what I built under my own brand . What these folks wanted was a custom frame but they were unwilling to pay for it. These were not the bike shop grunts who I initially built these frames for-these were just folks who were looking for a deal.
As the big pile of Bontrager steel got smaller and the leftovers got increasingly rustier and difficult to work with(not to mention the resentment I felt when there were all sorts of bargain hunters calling me up with requests for cheap frames when I had a huge backlog of custom frames to build ) I came to the realization that the Nontrager thing had to die.
So, after about 10 years , die it did and the last Nontrager got built for Jeff Archer at First Flight bikes in North Carolina. Ironically, it was custom and it was made for a 100-120 mm fork. I don't think I charged anything for the frame - just having the frame there with all the other vintage bikes hanging up was payment enough. The way I see it, if someone won't pay me a living wage to build a frame under my own name Rock Lobster , I guess they came to the wrong place to get a bike.

This needs no intro...just check it out and be there.

2011-06-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

2012 ultimate show bike quiz

2011-06-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

After my last post I have considered all of your comments and have decided that in all likelyhood I will indeed participate in the 2012 NAHMBS. Of course, that is if they let me. I don't believe I have run afoul of the promoter in chief but you never know. I have not done anything to derail the show, only to point out some of the silliness contained in the show.....it isn't all stupid by a long shot.
Since I am presumably throwing my hat into the ring of builders vying for one or more those gleaming trophies and a chance to stand up on stage in front of a jury of my peers , I must formulate a plan to show up with the ultimate entry to the competition. I am again asking for your assistance in this project and I have provided another quiz-style outline to narrow the focus of the show bike project and come up with something incredible-something that a person might sell one of his testicles for, unless of course that person was Lance Armstrong. Maybe Lance could sell the prosthetic one after all, it was on those seven winning tour rides right next to the real one. All jokes aside , this bike must be humorous....so funny in fact that folks will be laughing so hard as to choke on someone else's vomit. It is with this bike that I hope to conquer the framebuilding world and lampoon it simultaneously.

First off I have to come up with a target buyer:
A. This is a bike for anybody
B. This is a bike for not just anybody
C. This is an exclusive luxury bike for a special person
D. This is a bike for the person who the very special person idolizes
E. This bike is too exclusive for any humanoid

Second, I have to come up with a sentence that makes this bike so incredibly irressistable to the most discriminating show attendee.
A. You'll max out your credit card to buy this bike
B. You'll take out a second mortgage to buy this bike
C. You would sell your kidney to buy this bike
D. You would sell both kidneys to buy this bike

I'll also have to figure out how to 'brand' the bike properly. A really effective logo must 'pop' and be distinctive, original and look very expensive .
A. The logo should be done in gold leaf
B. The logo must be acid etched into the tubing
C. The logo must be made of stainless steel and be paintakingly soldered onto the thin, unbutted portion of the frame
D. The logo must be fully cut out of the tubing leaving vacant space
E. The logo must be done as above but with a neon filament powered by a hub generator with a battery backup for when the bike is stationary.
F. The logo must be on a small RC blimp that orbits in the vicinity of the show bike about head level.

Assuming that this is a show bike and very ornate, it must be constructed of steel.....but which steel ?
A. Good quality modern steel
B. The very best quality modern steel
C. The best quality NOS steel
D. Cryogenically stored NOS steel formerly owned by a succession of deceased framebuilders of note who never got around to using it.

Now that I have the material I need to pick the ultimate way to assemble it:
A. Brazed with a Smith oxy-acetylene torch
B. Brazed with Mapp gas
C. Brazed with oxy-propane
D. Brazed with methane pumped from the anus of a free range cow
E. Hearth brazed using the rendered fat from free range chickens for fuel.

In order to be considered for a trophy I must have some of the current favorite frame features:
A. Seat mast with 2 cm of adjustment
B. Seat mast with 1 cm of adjustment
C. Seat rails welded directly to the seat mast-no adjustment
D. Shorts stitched to the seat that is welded directly to the seat mast-for seated riding only

Custom dropouts are a good way to set your frame apart from the herd
A. Water-jet cut stainless dropouts with your logo
B. Laser-cut stainless dropouts with your logo
C. Hacksaw-cut wooden dropouts with your logo
D. Machete-cut bamboo dropouts with your logo and someone else's vomit

Soo.......the bike is built. There has to be some sort of 'Exclusivity' implied in the availability of this special bike. Waiting lists ( both factual and ficticious ) are a way for people to see how in demand this special bike is......supposedly.
A. 3 month waiting list
B. 6 month waiting list
C. One year waiting list
D. Five year waiting list
E. Waiting list is closed until further notice
F. There never was a list.....at least not one that you or anyone like you could get on.

I appreciate all input. After all, this show is serious business. Cheers.

An appeal to my readership

2011-05-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it isn't 2012 yet but the word is out -the big Handbuilt bicycle show will be coming back to the west coast, to Sacramento in particular. You have read my views on the whole concept of bike shows, bikes as rolling art, bikes as something to obsess about..........all of the things that make a bike show what it is. You all know by now that I do support the gathering of frame builders and am in fact quite enthusiastic about it , even if some if the stuff at bike shows can make me gag violently. The fact that shows like this even exist is a real luxury for old geezers like me who started building frames when just finding a couple of tubes was an adventure.
I have given my opinions to all of you freely , practically projectile vomiting them on you in vegetal streams of unconsciousness at times-this was for our mutual amusement, of course. I have called out all sorts of dastardly and unsavory practices in my trade and am not sorry to have done so. My feet will be held to the fire for all of my numerous failings and I accept the punishment , however painful it may be. My bretheren must be able to endure the fire if they decide that they don't need to do the right thing by the folks that pay them . Now, at this time I am asking you- the readers of this blog for your opinion , or vote. Should I display at the upcoming 2012 NAHMBS ?
O.k., so why am I asking all of you ? Obviously , I'm not able to make this decision without checking in with the folks that have bothered to read all of my rants. What I'm going to do is to put together a multiple-choice quiz like I have in some earlier posts. Yes, I know I stole the idea from the NYC bike snob but it is a good idea and I doubt that he would mind at all.

Reasons to have a booth at the show :
I should be at the 2012 show because:
A. I would maybe sell some frames
B. I would maybe sell some socks
C. I would maybe sell a display bike
D. I would maybe totally sell out.

The show interests me because:
A. There are a lot of cool bikes there
B. There are a lot of cool people there
C. There are a lot of uncool bikes there
D. There are a lot of creepy uncool people there , hell-I might be there !

Being at the show is in my best interest because:
A. It is the best way for me to see what everyone else is doing
B. It is the best way to see what everyone else isn't doing
C. It is the best way to avoid doing something
D. I can't help it, I'm a sucker for bikes
E. My one dimensional life is centered here

Seeing folks at the show will be great because:
A. We get to share ideas about the trade
B. We get to share jokes about the trade
C. We get to be jokes of the trade
D. I get to walk the show and try to find out if anyone has become paranoid because of this blog

The chance of getting an award at the show would be :
A. Truly overwhelming, even for a cynic like me
B. Very puzzling , especially for a cynic like me
C. Extremely hilarious for a cynic like me
D. A chance for me to do an impression of Jimi Hendrix at Monterey pop with the trophy

Having three full days to talk and breathe bikes would be:
A. Gosh, such a dream....
B. Shit, that's what I do five days a week
C. A recipie for a migraine
D. I guess it depends on who was in the booth with me...

What I hope to gain from the show....if i go is :
A. A better understanding of the trends of today
B. A better misunderstanding of the trends of today
C. A better understanding of how much is misunderstood about the trends of today
D. All of the above

If I build a 'special bike' for the show it should be :
A. Entirely crafted from stainless steel
B. It should be entirely crafted from bamboo
C. It should be wrapped in unborn pony hide
D. It should have no eyes.........
E. It should have no ears..........
F. fill in the rest yourself if you remember the joke...

Upon leaving the show I hope to come away with :
A. Good memories of good times with friends
B. So-so memories of well, kind of lousy times with friends
C. Stuff I would really like to forget but might have a tough time doing so.....
D. Enough gas money to get home

There you go, folks. Be sure and write in and tell me if you think I should go and be part of the scrum that is the handbuilt bike show. I value your input more than you would think. This is a difficult decision for me, even with the show being so close to where I live and knowing that so much material for this blog would be waiting for me. Just the same , I only want to do it if it is the right thing to do. Thanks and good night.

How I got my 29er

2011-05-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

Howdy, folks. Are ya ready for a story ? Well, it is story time again with the over opinionated one-not my usual rant about the wonderful world of bike builders and all that they do....err, don't do.....err, say they are going to do.....and in some cases actually do it. I digress....
A couple of months ago I built a bike for a customer who knew exactly what he wanted in the way of a 29er hard tail, right down to every detail. His geometry was not what I would have used but I figured that his riding experience in So-Cal was extensive enough that he had a good idea of what he was asking for. He was very specific about the components as well-again , most of the stuff was not from my typical go-to list of bike hardware.
When the time came, I built the frame and ordered the parts. When the whole bike was together I rode it around the shop complex. As soon as I took the first left hand turn I knew that this bike rode better than my own MTB-better in fact than most of the bikes I had built all year. I was stunned......a customer had come up with the best 29er geometry I had ever ridden ! I even liked the parts selection.....everything integrated perfectly and after just a few minutes of pedaling I wanted this bike ! Of course, I couldn't keep it as it was not mine-frankly, I could not afford to keep it even if I wanted to. What I decided was to keep the drawing handy so that I could make one for myself when I got the time some day. Later that afternoon, with a heavy heart I carefully packed the bike into two boxes as to ship some items separately to help keep the bike frame from getting damaged. I fully insured the bike and sent it about 400 miles south to its new home.
When I got home from work the next day I got an email from the customer. It seemed that the 7005 aluminum frame had gotten dented and it was pretty much my fault. I had not used firm enough padding on the top tube to protect it from the brake lever that had been zip tied to it. MY guess is that the UPS handlers probably didn't go too easy on the large box, either. The customer asked for a new frame. At first I just wanted to repair it or have the painter fix the small dent.....that was until I thought about several things: # This customer paid for a new bike, not a repaired bike, not a touched up bike.......a new $ 4,800 bike-it was my job to provide him with nothing less than that. There was another thing.....that small dent that was a major factor for the customer was not something I would care about if it were my bike, and hey......it was now going to be my bike !!!
When I told the customer that I would build him a new frame as soon as I could he was really impressed. He told me that this was the kind service that made him happy to have chosen me. I think he really would have been happier if I had padded his bike a little better but he was willing to wait for the new one. He offered to send the first one back but I told him to ride it and let me know what he thought. I guess he felt the same way I did......so now both of us would have the same frame-a very odd situation but in the end two people are happy.
I sold my 26" wheel MTB and started saving for the components for the new frame. Here's the thing-I have been building 29ers since 2003 and have not really been too keen on the wheel size . My take on it was that it was a tall person's bike and I just wasn't tall enough. Every time I had made an attempt to build a 29er for myself I either couldn't find the time or just sold the frame before I could build it up. I guess this frame was telling me: " Come on.....don't just build these bikes......get off your ass and ride one so you can know what the hell they are all about !" I had been on the outside of the whole 29er thing for eight years, all the time building them for other folks. Now this was no longer the case-I have my 29er. I'll be sure and let folks know how it rides. Thanks for reading and don't worry.......I'll get pissed about something and write in the usual nasty style when the time is right.

Blasphemy, part II

2011-04-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

Probably my most vivid memory of the last 20 years of being a bike builder was the time in the mid '90's when big companies, at least by bike industry standards began buying up smaller 'cult' brands like Salsa, Bontrager , Klein and a few others. I was way too small of a player to be on the radar of these larger brands hoping to cash in on the reputation of the names they were paying for. From what I understand, the big companies would offer to buy the operation of a small brand with the understanding that things would proceed as usual and the original intent, employees and methods of the newly acquired brand .
As it turned out, the big companies found out just how un-profitable the small companies were and wound up gutting the small operations , laying off the workforce and turning the once 'made in the USA' brands into trademarks for imported goods with very little of the original character that was the reason for the 'cult' following in the first place. Salsa frames are now made in Taiwan and Bontrager frames are, well....not made at all any more anywhere. The image I remember the best was being summoned to Bontrager by a former employee to harvest the stuff that was no doubt going to the metal yard or worse, the landfill. I saw boxes and boxes of sub-assemblies and proprietory frame hardware that represented hundereds of man-hours and tons of steel being discarded. I took what would fit in my car and told some other folks about the big pile of metal so that they could maybe do something more constructive with it than putting in into a hole in the ground.
This brings me to the current state of affairs. Now that our 'Golden age' of bike shows, artisan frame builders and online ogle-ment is in full flight , how are we to avoid what happened to the cult builders of the '80's and '90's ? What is there to stop the whole artificially inflated market for bike frames with amazing detail from becoming a bunch of unfinished projects being unloaded on craigslist or worse, the dump? What will happen with all of those water-jet cut proprietory dropouts with ( insert name here ) on them when the brand is dead and the builder is working a new job with an actual living wage ?
Here we have a problem, Houston. We have a disconnect between the guys setting the artistic standards and the other guys who actually build fulltime, offering simpler frames for a more affordable price while making sure that the bills are all still paid. The artisan folks, at least a few of them-certainly not all-have a dismissive attitude toward the working stiff builder. Even if the artisan completely respects his full-time brethren , his fans by and large do not. The same is true on the other side-the full-time guys can get quite sarcastic about certain artisan builders who might cultivate a 'Concours d'elegance' image of thier product , while not having to make a living because money miraculously appears from other un-named sources. But here's the biggest disconnect: The fans of the artisan builders would most likely never buy a frame from a full-timer because it would be a 'boring bike'. This is strictly subjective and I fully understand where they are coming from as consumers, enthusiasts or whatever. What is truly bogus is when they go all high and mighty about how frames should be rolling art and stop at that-they make their stand aesthetically but don't buy the very frames they are championing. Maybe it is the high price, maybe they secretly have some carbon 14 lb. bike at home that they ride on Sundays when nobody is looking. These folks, while lining the aisles of the handbuilt shows snapping hundereds of photos in reality have no intention of supporting the very folks they come to see , full time, artisan or whatever.
I named this blog "Can't we just get along" for the reasons I have stated in most of these posts over the last couple of years. While I remain angry ( As I should if I want to have any good inspiration for writing ) I am also hopeful that things in the next decade or so pan out for builders and enthusiasts alike. The lot of a frame builder has always been a path of self indulgence to a degree and is one of little hope for a real living , but I remain stupidly inexplicably hopeful that we eventually can all get along, have our bikes not only be appreciated but viable as a product made by hand, made here and supported by people that appreciate what we do. To have this happen we must all provide good customer service and champion truth in what we do above all other considerations. This is how we will deserve sustainability and support from the people. -Burma Shave.

Blasphemy

2011-04-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who happens to be (at least in my opinion) one of the top creators of rolling art on the planet said to me that there are two types of frame builders. # 1 is someone who crafts frames to do it. # 2 is someone in the business of frame building. He meant this with no judgement in particular as to which type of builder was superior , it was only a distinction based on making a living versus persuing a craft for art's sake. I , of course am type # 2 as I build frames full-time for a living.
In a perfect world, the two types of builders would get along fine as they basically do the same thing . Unfortunately in a lot of cases there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the 'Artisans' and the full-timers . The artisan builders tend to look down on the full-timers who do not have the time to create the award-winning show stopping bling-mobiles . Even if the career guys did make the time to build a masterpiece , they would no doubt take a significant pay cut as there is little likelyhood that a customer would pay the equivalent of a living wage for the frame . There are exceptions but they are rare-there exists a handful of builders who have frames that command many times the price of an average welded custom frame. These few guys are kind of like pied pipers to the newest wave of neo-builders on the scene.
The world of custom bikes is being shaped in a large way by the few builders that can command the kind of price that makes building a labor-intensive masterpiece profitable and therefore a sustainable enterprise. As a result of the influence of these exceptional few, there have sprung up a number of things that didn't exist when I started building. The most notable thing is NAHMBS. Now there are many similar shows , mostly smaller and more regional vying for builders and custom bike fans all over the country. The other new item is the supplier who designs ornate lugs and has them manufactured in Taiwan for the new builders who want to build in a more traditional style.
So, with all these new fancy lugs and eager builders and custom bike shows , there is quite literally a glut of really remarkable bicycle art out there. Who is going to go see these bikes at the show and fill their flickr pages with photos of these beautiful efforts ? Everybody. Conversely , who is going to buy up all of these magnificent and painstakingly crafted creations ? -Nobody, at least if they weren't pre-sold before the show. The amount of folks willing to shell out the big bucks to pay a living wage to these new artisans is almost non existant. The folks who are waiting to find these bikes at drastically reduced prices on craigslist are out there , quite willing to buy your magnum opus for about ten cents on the dollar.
Am I attacking the artisan approach to frame building ? No, I am simply pointing out that it is not self-sustaining. I liken the new breed of builders to the artisans who created works of art for royalty and the church. They were slaves.............are the new wave of builders indentured servants ? Maybe not, but they are likely to sacrifice themselves in the pursuit of trying to get noticed at one or more of the many shows -either that or they'll have to have a lot of monetary support from a spouse , trust fund or family-the support that should really come from the folks that ogle the works of art they produce. Yes, I'll say it......in order for the artisan part of our craft to survive the public must actually pay for the work. From what I saw at the last bike show I attended this is not the case-I saw the same bikes on display as last year , in other words the builder didn't sell his or her entry and cannot afford to build a new one for the next show.
The upshot of all this can be summed up with a few recent happenings: The lug supplier who thought that this would be the time to provide great stuff for the artisan builder is selling his busuiness. Since the customers are not supporting the builders, the supplier has few people to sell to. The next unfortunate developement is that several talented builders have decided to quit and it is likely that more are to follow. While this is happening , more and more shows are cropping up to showcase this seemingly doomed craft. At one point or another this whole thing will implode unless there are actual customers to support it. I for one wish to survive and I can only do that by building what is ordered, not build what people want to photograph and award trophies to. I'm almost wondering if going to these shows is such a financial burden on new builders that it is contributing to their demise rather than giving them a viable place to sell their goods.
I really wish I had some answers, some way to make it all o.k. and that the art portion of frame building could flourish . Time and the public will decide if the new ambition displayed by the latest wave of artisan builders will be rewarded with viability or go the way of everything else unsustainable.

Never say ever....

2011-03-22T21:20:00.001-07:00

What if someone created a bike show and didn't charge the exhibitors ? That's what these pictures show. New jersey transplant Anthony Mangieri , once a pizza superstar in Mahattan has recently put down roots in San Fransisco. As it turns out, it isn't all about pizza with Anthony......it is about bikes and riding as well. I was lucky enough to be participant in this party last Sunday put on by Anthony and Sean Walling of Soulcraft. Was it competition for the other hand-built shows ? No. Was it a society of like minded builders gathering to raise the bar of the craft ? no. It was pizza , bikes and people having a good time.
This brings me to the subject : What do we do this for ? Why are we involved in building bike frames, a pretty unlikely way to make a buck ? Is it for the presitge ? Is it to elevate ourselves in the social strata ? Hmmm.............shit, no. After this particular party my conclusion is that it is what we do and it is what brings us together as a community. No trophies, no societies , no presitge-just a good time and a way to work at something we like.
One of the things I don't really connect with is the idea of a 'guild' of frame builders. Sure, it is great to have standards and group buying of materials and meaningful exchange of info is a great thing , but there seems to be very little of that coming from the places that it should come from.....the internet chat forums. All I see are petty pissing matches for the most part and occasionally a real gem of info from someone-and it usually gets ignored or dismissed by some predatory internet moron on a campaign of wrongness. I find it really amusing when folks go out of their way to prove a point and they show in the process that they are totally full of shit.
Here is my point, for those who need a reference: I feel that there is no need to separate ourselves as frame builders into 'sub-groups' or guilds, or whatever. I like to feel that we are all in the same game at one level or another. We may disagree about certain fine points but at our core, we all build bike frames because we love it. It is for this reason that I have not entered into any of these sub-groups ,whether I was invited or not. Sure, you might say that this last party was all about Nor-Cal. frame builders. Of course it was-we all live here ! It isn't a sub-group , it is a geographic factor that brings us together. The same thing could be said about Portland or New England. It isn't that we think we are special.....it's that we know each other, live within a couple of hours drive from each other and that pretty much covers it. Oh yeah, we like pizza and having a good time with friends.
So.....I'm a Nor-Cal frame builder-so what ? Really, first and foremost I am a frame builder - one of many all over the world and I might have my feelings one way or another about my bretheren , but I do feel that there is no need to divide into 'cliques'. We are much stronger as a community at large and the sooner we all realize that the sooner we will be able to benefit from each others experience and wisdom.

Bike show awards special post.

2011-03-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

Well , the big handmade bike show of 2011 is over and all the builders and bikes have left Austin. The awards have been presented and the next show location has been announced. I didn't get to see the show and I was too busy and maybe too broke to be part of it but that doesn't mean I can't come up with my own take on the whole experience.......back a few years ago I was maybe one of the biggest proponents of this show-I exhibited my work, I played two times at the big show parties in a band and I also had seminars at all three shows that I attended. I do know this show from the inside and I appreciate all that it is.
That said, I have my own awards that I came up with for the show. I hope that all who read this will see the humor in what I am implying and won't get too offended. There will be some truth in what I write, even if it might seem more than a little sarcastic. I assume we are all adults and can get through this without any major shit storms.
Here it is, your 2011 overopinionated framebuilder awards:

1. Greatest disparity in orders vs. wait list award. This award is given to the builder who has the longest waiting time for a frame while having the least actual amount of frames on order.

2. Best spousal income. This award is presented to the framebuilder who's spouse has the highest paying job , along with best benefits that allows the builder to operate without having to actually make a wage.

3. Most complete disregard for structural soundness in pursuit of aesthetic appeal. This most coveted award is given to the builder who succeeds in making a striking work of art that will no doubt disintegrate when ridden off even a very modest curb.

4. Best imitation of last years 'Best in show'. -No explanation needed for this one.....we have all seen it every year.

5. Finest application of paint and graphics to hide shoddy workmanship. This award is pretty much the 'bike that fooled most of the people almost all of the time' certification and there are few entries that get by the keen eye of the folks at the show , but every once in awhile......

6. Bike that starts yet another annoying trend. Not easy to get, this one. A true visionary is needed to create a piece of work that makes the inner conformist moron come out in all of us.

7. Builder that has disappointed more customers but is still highly regarded. To be frank, I have to tip my hat to the person who takes this particular trophy home-I have to be accountable for what I do......I don't know how they get away with treating good meaning customers like disposable garbage.

8. Best 'Spin' award. This prize goes to the builder who can sell literally the 'sizzle' and have no 'steak'. I guess it could be the honorary ' Snake oil salesman' award, but then that would be unfair to the snake oil trade. This could also also be called the: "Excellence in pandering" award.

9. Most prohibitively expensive townie. I always though that the 'townie' would be the cheapest bike in the catalogue..........boy, did I get it wrong or what ?

10. Bike with the least structural integrity. This award is very much in the spirit of award # 3 except for the chance that this builder didn't particularly have aesthetic or structural concerns for his/her entry . This would be the classic 'Concept bike"-Ironic in that the builder might have no concept at all of what a bike really is.

11. Boldest display of questionable 'innovation'. Here's the medal presented to the original thinker........too bad he/she has little to actually think with.

12. Most cryptic and mysterious dialect. This is awarded to the builder who can speak at length about his/her craft without anyone having the slightest clue what the hell he/she is talking about.

13. Most merchandise in booth that have nothing to do with bicycles and/or the show. This prize is given to the builder who mistook the handbuilt bike show for a garage sale. Hey, it costs to do the show......I gotta make some money here.....interested in some pre-1955 cranberries ?

14. Highest price/lowest value bike. The winner of this award would have to be nothing short of a genius-that is, if the bike actually sold.

15. First/last award. This particular prize goes to the builder who devotes 100's of hours to making a truly remarkable and special work of bicycle art that he/she will probably sell at a horrendously low price and realize that such an undertaking was not worth the time. Upon realizing this the builder decides to stop building altogether. This could be called the : "I should have been a plumber" award , named after a builder who told us all that he really should have been a plumber.......I for one am glad that he is not.

16. Mr./Mrs. Omnipresent. This award is given to the builder who is literally in everybody's shit on the internet. It could be 3 a.m. and you are posting a way to true hole saws in your lathe when some guy/gal immediately posts a way that they do in their shop that is so much cooler. This person would probably post a way to use the methane from a cow's ass to fuel his/her torch , eliminating costly acetylene tank refills of $ 30 every 6 months.

A temporary solution to a permanent problem.

2011-02-13T16:44:00.001-08:00

This post was actually written awhile ago. Because of the critical nature of the content, my wife persuaded me to edit it and delay publishing it. I'll say that even though the thoughts contained here are pretty strong, they are only my opinions and really don't count any more than another person's view. I know that the personalities I am assailing in this post are largely figurative and not anyone in particular . I have some personal codes of conduct that I attempt to live my life by and I have this blog to call out the folks that I feel are diametrically opposed to what I think is the best way to approach our craft. That said, you can label me a narrow minded shit head if you like-in some ways I fully qualify for that moniker.
If you are a builder and you have a fragile ego I suggest that you skip this post , even though it is most likely not directed at you.

If you do something long enough and don't screw it up that much, there is a chance that you'll get some sort of approval from folks-a fan base, perhaps. Even if you don't understand or even want this thing ( although I think deep down, even the most curmudgeonly of us wants friends ) people will , by their good nature and enthusiasm elevate you somewhat over where you thought you were in the craftsman food chain. This in my opinion is a good thing , that is if you can have these accolades and not let it change who you are.
Back when I first started getting words of praise from customers ( some deserved, some not ...it is what it is. ) My first reaction was to dismiss the good words, essentially tell good meaning folks that I was no good and did not deserve any praise. This was effectively not allowing anyone to have a positive opinion of my work. Maybe it was false humility, more likely self loathing with an extra helping of insecurity-nevertheless , it was pretty stupid and even I eventually realized that.
I guess I went too far in trying to avoid a thing that we as builders really need to be mindful of-the mistake of feeling too bitchen. What I and a few other builders talk about is the 'kiss of death' of taking praise from people as a license to feel like a special being.....a demigod of the torch. If somebody says you are a 'Master frame builder' , the best thing to do is to say 'Thank you." The worst thing to do is to call yourself that on your website or anywhere else. If one starts believing that one is " The Master" there is a certainty that a great fall is imminent. I have witnessed such falls over the course of my career and they aren't pretty, but usually the person is deserving of such a rapid and public decline-especially in the wake of a campaign of extreme pomposity and/or arrogance. While I feel it is fine and actually healthy to be proud of a job well done, there is some real sickness out there in folks that take the pride thing too far.

My question is this : why does anyone really feel the need to be disingenuous to sell bicycle frames ? What goes though the mind of a person that attempts to create some sort of divinity image about building a frame....... " Hell, I'm good at this and I deserve to be on top! " ........or something like that. How do you make yourself believe such crap ? Is it from outside influence ? Is it from some major psychological insecurity ? Is it a feeling that one hasn't gotten a big enough piece of the pie ? Or is it that one is just falling in love with one's self.....again ?
When the sad day comes , the day I feel I have to start quoting myself in the third person-example :

" The wind came up on the bluffs and we were riding very fast.....it was only a training ride but the speed we were attaining was making it so my tires were drifting in the corners. I pressed the bike as fast as I dared , sliding both wheels in a kind of cycling-ballet on the edge of the ocean-it was here that I knew I had found the ideal bike geometry ." ....Paul Sadoff.

I don't know about you, but if I had just read that thinking that the person writing it was serious I would reach for the vomit bucket.
Maybe it's just me, but something tells me that the product should do most of the selling. Building some sort of 'spin' around your craft is definitely a skill in itself but it is for the most part a skill I avoid. There's truth that we as framebuilders are not just selling bike frames, we are to a degree selling lifestyles. In the best cases, these lifestyles are things like racing, touring or commuting. In some , one might be selling a rolling object of art-I do understand this and don't really think it is wrong. In the worst cases we are selling stuff to make people feel connected to our supposed, often self-proclaimed 'greatness'........buy this bike and you'll be part of a very exclusive club , a club that makes you wait a really long time and pay lots of money to be a member. Essentially this club wants to make you want to be part of it enough to endure the wait and expense that is the entry fee. If you don't like the terms, you are shunned. I really don't understand how or why intelligent people put up with this. Is it really worth it ? Is it going to enrich your life so much that the huge price tag and monumental delay in getting your frame are inconsequential ? Or is it that if this purchase did not involve these hardships it would not have the appeal ? I don't get it......I guess I was never supposed to get it-I'm not a member of the club.

Oh,no....not another quiz ! ?

2011-02-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, friends.....it is time for a quiz. This one is something of a character study , kind of. The names have been eliminated to protect the well.....errr.......I'll leave it at that. Am I insinuating that the person(s) possibly although not necessarily referred to in the quiz are factual ? I'm not telling you.......you'll have to guess, just like you'll have to figure out the proper answers to the questions. First of all, I would like to explain the photo above. I never do this usually-I think the photo is mostly there to convey a mood or perhaps an inside joke that maybe .000135 % of the readers of this blog might get. There's no joke in this photo today. The book is one that I have been writing in for over 33 years. It contains the spoke lengths for a variety of hub/rim/cross combinations. Why don't I use the online spoke calculators available you might ask ? Well, I guess I see other folks getting wrong spoke lengths from these calculators enough that actual documented tested data in a book might save me a step or two. Call me primitive.....I don't even take credit cards at my business. O.K. on to the quiz.

The theme of today's quiz is what kind of person might your framebuilder be if **********. There are many types of folks hanging up a shingle proclaiming that they are framebuilders.......some of them actually are . The rest are, well....lets just say that maybe they ought to have a different job.

If your framebuilder takes your deposit ( and maybe a few others ) and does not actually build the frames that have been ordered......ever.......he is :

A. Just a poor guy trying to make a buck.
B. Just a poor guy trying to steal a buck.
C. Just a poor guy succeeding in stealing a buck.
D. Kind of a pathetic poseur/criminal
E. Maybe has fallen on hard times.
F. Maybe has not fallen on hard times and isn't a framebuilder at all.

If your framebuilder does not return your phone messages and/or emails he is:

A. More important than you, stupid.
B. Probably overwhelmed with his position as king of the dung heap.
C. Wants to cultivate an air of mystery.
D. Needs to heal from the interactions with his fellow humans for a time.
E. Had his phone turned off.

Say your custom frame has an issue that has nothing to do with how you ride or maintain your bike and the framebuilder refuses to service the bike. His/her possible reason(s) are :

A. There is no stated warranty , butthead.
B. Too busy making more frames for folks like you except that they don't actually ride so they have no complaints about the bikes.
C. The customer is always wrong.
D. There's a Jersey Shore marathon this week/month/year.
E. He/she has left no forwarding address and is off to parts unknown.

Your framebuilder teaches other folks framebuilding because :

A. He/she is not threatened by new talent and actually wants to help.
B. He/she/it needs the money and orders are down.
C. There's some sort of sick satisfaction in teaching what one has regarded as a sentence.
D. It's a chance to have people listen to you for once.....
E. Somebody has to carry on this stuff.

What if your framebuilder tells you that you'll get your frame in 5-6 weeks and after nearly a year you still haven't gotten your frame and you payed all the money up front. His/her reason is :

A. Can't be bothered at this time, there's work not to do.
B. Can't be bothered at this time , there's lots of bickering to do with other numbskulls online.
C. Can't be bothered at this time , I have seven blogs......whoops-
D. Can't be bothered at this time , there's a Jersey Shore marathon again.

If you finally get your frame from your builder and the rear wheel does not center....not even close-I'm talking totally cacked , the frame has not been chased, faced, tapped, etc. seatpost won't fit and you told the builder the actual brand of post you were going to use , the builder would describe the parameters of precision as :

A. Tolerance of +/- 2 mm.
B. Tolerance of one hair past a freckle.
C. Tolerance of two fifths of Jack Daniels.
D. Tolerance of "Did I build this ? It doesn't look like my work..."
E. Tolerance of "Just had a bad day......aw hell, I'll fix it."

Say your framebuilder is creative, causes a stir at the bike shows and really has some interesting original ideas that fly in the face of convention in almost playful disregard. What if the buying public does not support this talent and after some time he/she is forced to quit and get a day job. The upshot is:

A. Yee hah ! Don't have to worry about that one any more !
B. Well, he/she did it to him/herself being so damn clever......
C. Probably didn't have enough stainless on them there frames.
D. Maybe we all lose as this particular talent won't be able to fulfill his/her artistic contribution to the craft at large.

Last question. This one is bound to ruffle some feathers but I hope all will see the good natured aspect of the humor contained.......or not. Feel free to hate me.

Framebuilders are creating little guilds or groups to:

A. Have some fun.
B. Create standards that protect builder and client alike.
C. To attempt to elevate themselves above other builders for the sake of ego gratification.
D. To get together for Jersey Shore marathons.
E. Because everyone's doing it.
F. There's power in numbers.
G. Mainly out of boredom.....
H. Because we all really can't quite get along.

Thanks for reading....please don't firebomb my shop-I can burn it down myself.

Voyage to see what's on the bottom...

2011-01-31T20:53:00.000-08:00

O.K. , o.k. , so I'm finally belching out the post I promised a week or two ago. Why the delay ? I had to wait for certain things to play out in my so-called " Professional world". Yes, you cannot make everyone happy and there's a good chance that you'll piss a few people off without even knowing why in this business.......that's about as much of an explanation as you'll get from me right now. But I digress......here's the story:
About the time of the last dinosaurs when I was building my first few frames I had the notion that I would put my artistic background into my new craft. It was my intent to raise the bar of bicycle frame construction single-handedly and show the world what I had in skills. Of course, as soon as I built a few frames, each one more ornate than the last I got the feeling that I was maybe a bit.....no, actually wayyyy ahead of myself. By my nature I was impusive , tempermental , impatient and most of all , not having anywhere near the skills needed to attempt what I was doing. I was a fool. Hey, maybe I still am a fool-I'm a bicycle framebuilder, right ? I'm getting off track here.......what I'm trying to say is that I went in a direction that proved to be a mistake for me-I was placing too much emphasis on the outward appearance of the frame while not concentrating on the more important aspects of framebuiding, namely soundness of construction and geometry. Not too much later I would address these aspects after an epiphany of sorts.
The epiphany was this : Here I was, a bicycle mechanic who had built maybe 8-10 frames and was not really getting the kind of choice ride quality that I was hoping for. I, like a few other builders of the late '70's was kind of trying to re-invent the wheel, so to speak. We , the new builders of the '70's were making bikes stiffer, steeper and tighter than anything we had seen.....why ? Because we thought it was going to be better. Was it better ? Actually it was the shits. The bikes sucked, except for sprinting in a straight line on a totally smooth road. Hey, we were trying for something new that would be better than the Italian bikes of the day and send customers flocking to our doors with deposits in hand. Ahh.......the epiphany. One day in 1982 while working at a bike shop I got a chance to assemble and ride a $ 495 Bianchi Nuovo Racing bicycle in vaguely my size, a 56 cm. All it took was a few trips around the block and I realized what I was doing wrong.....I was dismissing good geometry in favor of trying to create my own new standard. The Bianchi was everything I wanted in a road bike except that it was not made of the best materials and it was maybe cosmetically a bit rough.
The next bike I built for myself was a replica of the Bianchi, at least geometrically. I used Columbus S.L. tubing and a mix of Henry James and Tange cast lugs,essentially all of the best stuff I could buy to construct the frame.The result was the best road bike that I had ever ridden and the template for all of my future road frames. I rode it for a solid 9 years and never laid it down once.....it was a magic bike.
Fast forward to 2011. The lesson from the Bianchi is still with me-make the bike ride right , don't get caught up in trying to make something for the Smithsonian or maybe attempting to set the new standard for bicycle design. I'm not saying that innovation is not possible, it just can't happen without filling a specific need. Need drives invention and need is what makes my job viable. I weld bikes for folks who need them to race, commute , recreate, and so on. I don't build frames to make people look.....I build frames for the folks that ride. There are many framebuilders that share that view. We are not the ones winning awards at the bike shows-to be frank, some of us don't even go to those shows , great though they are. We are from the lowlands-the place of welders. We put tubes together to make things to ride....it isn't what gets the attention of the media for the most part and it isn't what turns heads of the discriminating bike show junkie. Our bikes aren't ugly, they just aren't flashy. You will seldom find stainless bits or much in the way of ornamentation on our bikes. What you'll find on our bikes are people riding them.
Yes, I'm doing it again , calling attention to the folks that don't build a 'special bike for the show' or launch some sort of 'special edition' bike to try to get orders. I'm not saying that either of those labors are worthless, they are just not worth much to folks like us, the lowly welders of bike frames. I guess I get a little pissed off-actually a lot pissed off because welders of bike frames do not get the same level of respect as the folks that build the fancy lugged efforts. I'm pissed because welding is actually more difficult than brazing in that there's no room for error and there's no place to hide shoddy work. A lug can hide not only poor tube contact but also insufficient brazing. With welding everything is out in the open, both the miter of the tube and the result of one's welding skills. If something isn't right it will stick out like a red flag and no amount of paint will cover a really bad welding job.
Welding gets little respect because people assume that is is easy and quick. It is quick for those who have done the many hours of practice to create both a strong and attractive bond. The lugged construction has the benefit of the 'cleanup' phase , a period after brazing where imperfections can be filed away. Essentially , something that was pretty awful looking can be transformed into something quite passable after much filing and some creative paint work. With welding things have to go right the first time........there's no prettying up a tig weld without potentially removing too much metal and creating a future failure zone on the frame.
Maybe I sound pathetic trying to get folks to appreciate welded framebuilding-perhaps it is pathetic and I'm just one of those lazy no good bum framebuilders from the lowlands , the realm of mere welders .........certainly not craftsmen of the order of the ones that dazzle you with " your name here " in stainless steel letters on a prominent place on the frame . Maybe I'm just jealous of the artisans who are charging three times what I get for a frame and making folks wait years.......years !!!! for a bicycle frame. Maybe some people don't value a custom frame by what it does for their riding pleasure.....maybe it isn't desirable if it is too easy to get or too affordable-after all , that would pretty much eliminate the exclusivity part, wouldn't it ? If some schmuck down the street who is a working stiff can afford to buy a such-and-such frame - it isn't special enough , is it ? I rest my case.

It's coming..........

2011-01-24T22:13:00.000-08:00

Get ready for the next salvo.....coming soon.

Living the dream ?

2011-01-04T21:06:00.000-08:00

December was not a particularly great month for me. For one, I had a demolition project next door to my shop going on that made it impossible to work for most of two weeks. The noise and dust caused by the remodel of the bathrooms next door got to be so oppressive that there was no way I could attempt to weld while the floor was shaking with the sawing and hammering.

The next thing to come down the pike was a kidney stone that got stuck and landed me on my back for nearly a week and a half-this infirmity made it so I missed the three biggest races of the cyclocross season and my team had no manager for the Nationals . If you are self employed like me , you know well that there is no unemployment, no state diasbility and no crew to carry on the work while you are incapacitated. So, what are my plans for the new year ? That's pretty easy to figure out.....work my ass off to try to catch up and pay the bills.

This brings me to the point I wanted to make : The phrase " Living the dream" has been bandied about in reference to folks like myself who are supported by building bicycle frames. The person or persons who use this phrase in regards to what I do obviously have no idea what full-time framebuilding is about. If losing money for years , having days of wrench-throwing frustration , working until 10:00 at night to catch up on a build that took way longer than anticipated , not getting any kind of vacation for years-opting instead to go to trade shows where most folks don't even look at the stuff you brought is living the dream , I think most folks would rather take the nightmare option instead.

From the outside looking in , some folks must see the daily jaunt to the workshop and subsequent idyllic time of self-employed crafting as the dream that got away-the escape from the mundane work-a-day life that most people endure to scratch out a living in this crippled economy. From the inside looking out , my view is that all the years that led up to this point were so difficult and debilitating that I find it difficult to rejoice in celebration of my so-called dream.

This is how I got to the life of full-time framebuilding. It wasn't as if I had a calling I could not refuse-it was not that I felt as if I was put on this earth to do just this , build bicycle frames with every micron of my being-and it was certainly not because I thought I would be living the dream. This is what happened. I worked really hard, stupidly hard much of the time. I didn't always believe that I would succeed-I just kept at it , almost like some sort of beat-down. One of us was going to give in-Me or the F$%^ dream. For years I stuck with this craft as if it were my only choice in life..........it wasn't , but I worked at it, fought it, made many blunders , learned and re-learned the same stuff over and over again because of my impatient and slipshod nature- What I did was beat my head against the frigging wall until I made a hole in it and climbed through. What was on the other side of that wall ? A dream ? No. An awakening and some spiritual enlightement ? Not really. What was on the other side was folks that saw what I did and placed a value on it. It was these folks that saw all my blunders, all of the dents in my floor and workbench where tools had been thrown - these amazing people who awarded me for my seemingly hopeless and psychotic devotion to a craft that initially I had little talent for........these folks welcomed me to be someone who was valid as a bike builder.

I have read where a person said that folks like me who were " Living the dream" owed my livelyhood to a builder who came before me who the great majority of my customers have never heard of. Maybe I owe my job to the folks that put on the trade shows. Maybe I owe my success to the internet. These reasons all sound great except for the fact that they ignore two things: # 1, I started this job before the handbuilt shows, before anyone building bikes even knew what a web page was and also ,with just a few exceptions a lot of builders back in the day were not willing to give out any information or support to anyone like me. My position is that I owe my success to the folks that come to my shop and see a reason to have me build something. My customers are my saviors and I always want to be worthy of their trust. That means that I have to fix my fuckups in a timely fashion , I have to on any given day be ready to bear down and focus on a bike that must be depended on to be safe, fun and not hold the rider back in any way. It isn't and easy thing to do and it is no dream......it is reality. I'm living the reality , and the torch, the welder and the materials will never let me forget that. Happy new year !

Perceived value

2010-12-28T20:51:00.000-08:00

Last time I checked, I was not dead yet....or at least the breathing noises I make would indicate that my death has not yet arrived. Since this is the case , I'll have to consider myself one of the 'Not dead yet' framebuilders. Even though my frames are not collectable and as far as I know , not causing any kind of buzz amongst the rabid vintage bike fans I am very happy to be still alive. Being not dead yet has a lot of advantages....at least that's the way it appears to me , having never been to the 'other side' .

There is however , a distinct plus for being a dead guy who built bicycle frames-your legacy of work might get to command a much higher price than when you were alive to open your wallet and receive the proceeds. I'll cite the example of the late Mario Confente , noted Italian transplant to California who was sent here to re-create the famed Masi branded bicycles here in the U.S.A. as the demand for the bikes was sufficient to merit a satellite factory close to the new fertile market. Americans were going nuts over Masi, Cinelli, Colnago and a host of noted Italian racing bikes but it was Masi who made the move to get manufacturing nearer to the dollars . From what I understand , Mario Confente was the man to head up the operation.

This is where it all gets fuzzy to me......I don't know the details of what happened and why Mario wound up leaving and building under his own name but what I do know is that back in the late '70's , Mr. Confente was regarded was a real master of his craft by many bicycle shops-the shop where I worked was no exception. Any time a Masi made in California showed up in my shop, the serial number was checked to see if it could possibly be a "Confente built Masi". I didn't understand the significance as no matter how closely I looked at the workmanship, I could not distinguish one Masi frame from another. They seemed all to be built to a certain standard and almost boringly consistent. When an actual Confente came into the store there was quite a stir amongst the crew.....this I really didn't get as the Bruce Gordon sitting in the shop in near anonymity was light years beyond the Confente in terms of attention to detail and impeccability.

Fast forward to 2010. These are different times with the internet and much information and mis-information being bandied about by experts and complete morons alike about the value of certain 'collectable' bicycles. While one of my lugged frames from the early '80's might fetch a whopping $ 300 on craigslist on a good day, a Confente might be sold in a bidding war for well over $ 10,000 ! Is the Confente worth the price ? I guess that is not for me to say......the price is set by whoever pays it. While I love the whole nostalgia of vintage bikes and own a small fleet of relics, I don't really get why some bikes are worth over $ 10,000 and why others that display better craftsmanship and equal rarity are snubbed by the collectors. I guess it has something to do with death. If you are not dead, people can't really fabricate your legendary life......the life you lead is maybe too real and accessable . If you are still alive people can still talk to you, even order a bike from you. Conversely if you are dead , there's a finite supply of your work and probably a legend about the magical quality of your work-both of theses factors can be used to manipulate the price of your bikes. The bikes might be good or bad, the legend could be complete bullshit but for some folks it doesn't matter-you are dead , therefore your bikes are a must-have holy grail item.

I'm not supposed to be angry about anything that enhances the perceived value of bikes-that would be shooting myself and every other framebuilder in the foot. We all want our work to be valued as a lot of us devote out lives to this dubious pursuit. What makes me mad is the fact that collectors are rewarding the dead guys and pretty much ignoring the guys who are still alive , in effect rewarding speculation rather than craftsmanship and dedication. While there are a couple of actual living builders who have frames that are highly sought after by collectors , there's a whole army of neglected artisans out there putting out incredible work -a lot of it arguably superior to much of the collectable cult items. I'm not including myself in this group as I mostly build bikes for competition and don't consider myself a builder who caters to the collectors.

After more than 30 years in the business and many visits to bike shows, swaps and the like I have grown weary of the notion that some dead guy's bike is worth 20 times more than a living builders bike on the open used market. It is not a fucking Matisse !

Trying to do too much...

2010-11-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

Building bike is what I do and for the most part , it's really all I have time to do. I get to ride a bit , I also have Saturdays to do laundry and the weekly shopping but it is a solid five-day a week grind just trying to keep the work rolling, even if the list isn't all that long. Stuff just takes more time than one suspects , even if there's many years of experience in the books. It's all about expectations of oneself , usually a bit higher than reasonable.
This brings me to current times and what I'm hooked into every fall/winter....cycolcross. Ever since the late '70's Iv'e been a big fan of the sport and watched it grow dramatically here in northern California. About 1998 I got the idea to try racing myself when I got involved in sponsoring a local team. At first, my racing was just me, no team affiliation and no expectations other than to have some fun and make a few people laugh. I'm not a talented rider by any stretch and my years of dabbling in other forms of bicycle racing have resulted in a big two wins in 20 years. In 2004 I, and my helper Simon Vickers formed a cyclocross team around my bikes and things changed in a big way. I was present at races every weekend and I wore the same kit as the real racers, although my racing was still pretty much a joke-trying not to be last in the 45-A masters division.
After an injury kept me out of most of the 2007 season, I decided correctly that I never belonged in an A division race and demoted myself to the 45 + B catagory in 2008. This is when things got weird.....I started getting on the podium. About 2/3 of the way through the season I did something I haden't done in 20 years-I won a race. This made me the leader of a series and I nearly won the whole four-race Peak Season series but for a bad cold during the last race. This success was probably the worst thing that could have happened to me.....I started getting a little serious about racing.
In 2009 I trained like a madman and went into the season expecting to start where I left off.....racing well and always being a threat for the podium , even if it was usually the lowest step. I was plagued by back problems and wound up just like I had started in 1998, giving a few folks laughs and finding myself behind most of the field every weekend. I decided to get physical therapy for my back, not so much for racing ( Although I can't lie that it wasn't a major factor in getting my reluctant ass to the doctor..) but for being able to get through a day of welding at the shop. My racing was making me a cripple.
After about five weeks of P.T. and doing core exercises it was time to go north to Oregon for the last big races of the season, the USGP in Portland and the nationals in Bend. Although my back was getting better , my racing was not and I had no expectations of any kind of results. I was going north to support the team and work in the pits. I was only racing because back in October I had paid the entry.
In Portland I had a pretty bad race on Saturday, crashing about 4-5 times and finishing pretty far back. Sunday I had 'good legs' as they say and was really surprising myself until with a lap and a half to go , the thick Portland mud destroyed my rear derailleur. I raced both days but had no real idea of how I would go at the nationals.
The next week I went to the nationals course and rode many practice laps in the frozen conditions , surveying every inch of the course. I didn't think I would have a good race but I at least wanted to have a safe one. When the day came for my heat , it was a clear sky but 13 degrees and very icy. I'm not used to the ice but I guess a lot of other folks didn't get the practice like me and were falling down all around me. I managed to get through the whole thing with only one really bad fall on my hip and a few stumbles. I finished without getting lapped by the winner, well beyond my expectations. I even had a race long battle with another builder, a much better racer than me, just not on that day. This was yet another thing that probably wasn't at it's root good for me.
Here it is, 2010 and I'm back racing again. After last year's back trouble, I have been doing 35 minutes of core work each morning. I'm more co-ordinated and I'm having a much less painful work day. I don't groan when I'm getting out of bed and I can actually bend down and pick up the morning paper for the first time in years without wincing in pain. There is a down side, though.....I'm racing better than ever and I won another race. The problem with this is that I could start believing that I have talent.......I cannot begin to do this as I have seen it in other folks and it is a sad sight. I may wear the same kit as the folks on the team and I do wear it with pride but I know full and well that I'm a bike builder, not an elite athlete . I do know some builders that have a legacy of great racing....Steve Garro, Scott Nicol, Rick Hunter......these guys were exceptional on a bike. Much as I love to ride and when I race, I definitely try my hardest , I know that there's a difference between me and the guys that win.
Racing is a test and not only is one's ability on trial , but one's sincerity as well. Someone who makes a sincere effort at preparation and on race day leaves it all on the course can be rewarded with a podium or even a win. Pretenders are lucky sometimes , but the cream always rises to the top. Builders can call themselves 'Master builders' but it is the folks that ride the bikes that make the ultimate assessment of one's ability to construct a truly fine machine. The saying of the team this year is " Don't start believing "........I feel it is when we start expecting too much or believing in our own legend we are heading for a bad fall. I may have had some good races this year and I might have a few more left in me but I'm not going to start believing..............

The shrinking pot

2010-10-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

2010 has been an interesting year , at least for me. During this economic slowdown my business has not slowed down-it actually set records in terms of incoming orders in 2008 and 2009 and looked to be doing the same in 2010 until about mid August. Suddenly, the phone stopped ringing.....normally I would welcome some hours where I could just weld and not have to jump up and go to the phone every 10 minutes. Now , a typical day will be largely devoid of the phone ringing and I can merrliy weld away on the now rapidly shrinking list of orders. Last year at this time I had about three times the orders on the list as I do now in the fall of 2010. Is this the economic slowdown finally catching up with me , or did I do something to piss off the frame buying public at large ?
This is the dilemma of the self-employed small framebuilder: What ca we attribute a sudden silence of the phone to ? Economic trends ? More competition from newer builders ? Maybe our style has become outmoded as we have not evolved with the ever changing trends in bike building ? It is stuff like this that keeps people like me awake at night .......what did I do to cause this and what, if anything can I do to turn things around ?
Maybe , there's a reason I'm not really taking into account-perhaps what has caused this lull in new business is something I didn't cause and maybe it is something I can't do anything about. I know well that what I do is largely a luxury and not something of an impulse purchase.....people plan ahead to get a custom frame, way ahead in most cases. Sooo, if the slowdown in my business isn't caused by me and cannot be changed by me , what the heck do I do ? Maybe I should shut the hell up and do my job, at least while I have it. As I have said before , I'm very lucky to have work in this fickle field and the run of the last 7-odd years has been exceptional. All over the world people are looking at situations much more grave than what I am faced with-it's time for me to take whatever resources I have and do something for folks less fortunate than myself. If my business does not survive this slump I would rather go out on a note of having done some constructive and community-based work rather than having some sort of 'fire sale' or the like. Maybe a lull like this is a time when I can attend to projects long neglected........maybe all I need to do is to start restoring that old Colnago and as soon as I get about halfway though , the phone will start ringing again and all of my noble efforts will come to a grinding halt while I go back to earning a living.....or not !

This is why there aren't any pretty frame pictures

2010-10-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

There's new noises in my shop-sounds of sawzalls and hammers banging and prying out nails. In a quest for more storage space my building superintendant has appropriated my office. I had a nice upstairs space that was part of my shop, although technically I was not charged any rent for it. I moved into this shop in late 1996 and have accumulated a lot of stuff since then. The 160 square ft. office was about 25% of my total space and it was a good place to store my old music gear that was choking my house. This photo is a view of where the office used to be, up a flight of stairs. It had a window that looked down on my workspace, a colossal 538 square ft.
This is not where you want to stand in the event of an earthquake. I have no doubt that a good deal of this stuff that used to be in the office will come cascading down with anything 4.0 or above on the Richter scale.
This used to be the office. I have no idea what it will become , but I know that I will no longer be welcome in this space. While it is always good to periodically purge and try to keep an orderly shop, this practice does not come naturally to me and I was not really ready to give up this space, especially on only two days notice. For better or worse, Rock Lobster cycles is shrinking. Maybe I'm only a Langostino now

The powers that be

2010-10-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sixteen years ago I had the good fortune to to find an affordable shop space on the west side of town, only about 10 minutes by bike from my front door. The space was pretty small, about 530 square feet but there was a bonus included in the rent, or rather, not charged for. The bonus was an upstairs office of about 160 square feet that was up a small flight of wooden stairs. I don't know about you, but give a guy like me some extra square footage and enough time and I'll fill that space with lots of crap -most of which I probably should have thrown away.
Flash forward 16 plus years later and sure enough, the shop and the office are jam packed with all sorts of stuff that framebuilders accumulate : Lots of frames needing repairs that are abandoned, some day to be resurrected into rideable classics when the work load gets thin ,posters of bike racers and catalogues from bike component companies,bike magazines,jerseys-can't seem to part with them, even if the moths have eaten many holes in them......old frame drawing..on and on. In my sixteen years of occupying this space I had done a good job of filling every square inch of space and a bad job of throwing stuff out.
A few days ago the building superintendent came by and gave me a real surprise-my office was going away. The landlady was supposedly appropriating the 160 square foot office and stairwell for storage. I was to lose my universal catch-all space for all the stuff that wouldn't fit downstairs in the shop. My desk, computer , rollers , sales and tax records, shipping boxes and old musical gear would have to find a new home, most likely the recycling center at the county dump. The superintendent gave me all fo three days to re-arrange 16 years of accumulation. Saddled with this new unexpected task ,I was trying really hard not to be mad , sad and or sentimental. What I had to do was to get a lot of stuff organized downstairs and make room for whatever I felt was too essential to either give away or throw away.
With grim determination I began the task of looking through all the boxes and piles of stuff upstairs , trying to really not get too caught up in looking through memory lane and stay at the task of downsizing my substantial accumulation. Ignoring the stories in each box of stuff was pretty much impossible for me and I began to get sidetracked in looking at receipts for frames sold in years past , trying to remember the faces of the people who had ordered them. I came across names of people who have passed on, bike shops long out of business , prices that were so low that I wondered how I survived. I looked for a time at the old books but soon figured out that I could easily run out of valuable time spending the day looking at things I had ignored for over a decade. I came to the conclusion that placing the receipt books in a box and keeping to the task at hand was needed, although this sensibility did not come natural to me. I thought about all the years I had been building bikes and what all of this stuff represented to my personal history. After pondering this I had a moment of clarity, a kind of resignation that whatever value this mountian of stuff represented to me, most of it would have to go-personal history be damned.
I got in the mode of "Get rid of anything as long as it hasn't been useful in the last two years"......this amounted to nearly two truck loads. Lots of bike parts got donated to the local "Bike Church" self service bike co-op. A lot of metal got recycled-fancy US made aluminum tubing ,about the equivalent to $ 1,500 worth became $ 38.40 in recycle value. My oldest bike drawings, many of which were from the early '90's went into the dumpster . Old catalogues and magazines got recycled or went to friends. It was a blood-letting of personal accumulation like I had never had-more like something that should happen when someone dies, but I wasn't dead yet. Maybe it was the death of something else, the passing of my inability to cut loose of all the junk that I thought held my identity and told my story. I had the thought , who really cares about this junk anyway ? who wants to know in such rediculous detail the complete and unabridged archeological evidence of my time on earth ? If I had been ignoring it all these years , wouldn't it follow that even I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to it ? I started to feel pretty empty and started thinking in jest about leaving enough room in the dumpster for myself ! After all, nothing lasts forever.

Everyone wants what I don't have....

2010-08-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's just me but there's a lot of chatter about the whole framebuilding question: Keep it a hobby or go pro ? I cannot offer advice on this, only personal experience. As a 22 year full-timer and former hobbyist, I have delved pretty deeply into both worlds and can't really say what is a better place to be-it really depends on your circumstances.
Back in 1978 I was a really lonely neurotic bike mechanic with nothing to occupy my time except any and all things bike. I had moved to a new town, knew practically no one and was not really good at making new friends. To add to that, I was pretty depressed and virtually excommunicated from nearly all of my family back home. I guess I chose bikes instead of drugs......or both, kind of-with the bikes being much more influential in the end. I became a hobby builder out of a drive to know all I could about bikes, right down to the way they were brazed together. I had no idea what the future held and really didn't care...it was all about the moment.
Now it is 2010 and I have been at this full time since 1988 and this week is all about fixing broken team bikes. I don't care what anyone says about building simple welded race bikes being the easy way out. Building fancy lugged frames for people who will worship and pamper their shiny expensive rigs is not easy but I don't see it as any more challenging than what i do. I build really light bikes for people that want to win races. These bikes can and do break.....not generally in a catastrophic way but more of a fatigue crack situation. I have four of them to resurrect this week , two more than I had all of last year. Backing up what I build and fixing it in a timely fashion- fixing it in most cases for no charge is what I would call, not taking the easy way out. The fleet has to remain functional and for better or worse, I'm the one who has to step up-these frames don't get sent back to Taiwan, they come to my shop.
While some folks might think I'm completely out of my mind for choosing this part of the framebuilding profession, I offer this thought : Lots of people want to do what I do- or at least what they think I do but most of them will not get the chance. They will try to create some sort of livelyhood out of bike building and realize that they cannot survive financially for one reason or another. They will have to remain hobbyists......not as bad as it sounds, but still short of some of these folks framebuilding goals they had set for themselves. The fact that I have remained viable for so many years is a testiment to something.....I'm not completely sure what but I'll have to say that a bit of personal sacrifice is needed.
One person who emailed me a number of months ago was wanting to accumulate the skills and tools to build a frame or two. This person scoured the forums and really sought out much advice from a lot of builders active on these forums. His conclusion was that a lot of these builders were unhelpful , pompus , coddled and really propped up by a huge fan-base and really weren't that great at all. He scrapped his plans entirely , disgusted and for the most part,quite bitter. I'm not in complete disagreement with him about some of what he said but the guys who actually make a living building frames are few, dedicated and willing to go to the shop on a Sunday and fix something for someone who was nice enough to buy a frame from them. This is my world-I don't need or want a hug for my sacrifice -I'm happy to be viable at this questionable trade and hope to continue as long as I can. My customers will make that decision for me but if I treat them right , I'll be able to influence that decision a little.

What we stand to lose

2010-07-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

In the interest of providing more efficient service, large corporations are making more use of online services and phasing out having actual representatives that you can contact by phone. The new form of online commerce is the B-to-B system........no need for a phone at all-it's all done on the computer: Ordering, inventory check, shipping tracking......you name it ,you'll be able to access it right from your laptop, I-phone or whatever. I have recently been using these systems and when they work, it's pretty easy and quick.
Here's the problem for me : While the online system is really easy and nobody has to be there to answer your call ( Handy for orders that happen after work hours, particularly from companies hours ahead in time zones ) I have spent much of my work life building up relationships with the folks on the other end of the phone that B-to-B systems are replacing. I consider many of these people to be my friends-they let me know what is going on in their world.....this is what I consider the real thing that makes a life-long job more than a job -the community in the field we call home most of our waking lives.
The computer, while being a great tool could effectively take away our ability to talk to people at a great many companies-not because they don't have good people....it's because their good people are being spread too thin. The corporate board of directors mentality only sees profit numbers and efficiency ratios......there's no way they can quantify customer loyalty-nor do they seem to want to take the time. I'm profoundly worried about this trend as it means that the folks that run these companies are truly out of touch with the other 98 % of the human race that surrounds them. Call me old fashioned if you will, but I really appreciate people who answer the phone, call back and take their clients and their jobs seriously. I also appreciate companies who value good employees and find ways to utilize and reward their best skills.
As a person in the bike business, I feel that as builders, suppliers , manufacturers , sales reps , warehouse workers , we are all in this thing together and we are the ones that give it life.....we and the customers . After many of these large corporations have gone through buyouts and re-organizations , the folks at the top might not have any idea how their company came to be and what personal relationships made that possible. This is the big dis-connect ( to use an all-too-popular catchword) between the top and everyone below.
In the food supply and restaurant world there's a movement to make everything 'sustainable and local' from farming to running an eating establishment. I feel there is something to learn here for every line of work, in particular the bicycle business. Are we 'sustainable and local' going the direction we are- at least according to the corporate model-where person-to-person sales and domestic manufacturing is being phased out ? Will our business and craft improve with the trends that are set by the people at the top of these leading companies ? Are we really on the brink of losing what holds us together just so that a few folks can be proud of the profits they have secured and the jobs they have eliminated ?
Maybe I'm not the one to speak here.....I'm so primitive that i don't even take credit cards at my shop. I don't have or want paypal.....the way I see it, there's no life-or-death need for a custom bike-you either plan for it and save up the cash or you just live without it. I'm not saying that if you don't have the money, you don't deserve a custom bike..............just be thoughtful about it and realize that good things take time-time that corporate America doesn't seem to have for working folks right now.

Ralph me out.

2010-07-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

I'll warn you in advance.....this will not be very engaging. I am heavily involved in cyclcross so this post will deal with that exclusively.
Lately on the framebuilder chat forums ( The ones I do not participate in anymore...) There has been a number of firestorms-at least, that's what I call them. Topics that get people arguing fine points. The big problem I see is that some of the folks giving opinions really don't know jack about cyclocross.The latest topic is the UCI's move to reverse their ban on the use of disc brakes in cyclocross events at the elite UCI level. Since about 99% of cyclocross racing is not at that level, most of us will not be effected by this ruling and shouldn't give a rat's ass.
Well, get on the forum and you'll see who gives a rat's ass-people who should really just keep thier mouths shut for the most part until they do some racing or work as a mechanic in the pit area of an elite cyclocross race. These are things that I have done......for about 10 seasons so far and I'm not quitting soon. While I don't claim to be any great or even average 54 year old racer ( 26th at the nationals being my best result at that level) I have been washing the mud off of bikes at some of the premiere events on both coasts. What I notice are which of my framebuilding bretheren are out there racing and being bike grunts with me. Almost all of the folks on the forum with greatly detailed arguments and engineering data on why we should all switch to disc brakes are absent......maybe I wouldn't know them if I saw them , but they are most assuredly not at the race. Why then, do they argue thier points so vehemently when they are completely clueless about the experience of the race itself ?These are folks who want to have the last word , even if it means ignoring the elemental truths of the actual subject ! Ahh, this is the essence of the internet-people who want to be right but really don't want to actually wade in the mud or beat themselves up on the bike to find out the real truth about cylclocross racing. If I were someone wanting to find out information on the forum, I think I would shut up and listen , perchance to somebody with real world experience in the subject at hand.
Year after year, I go to the nationals although not every year. When I go there I get to race but more importantly, I get to support the riders on my team who really are talented and will be in contention for medals or at least a top-ten finish. These and the folks in the pit are the ones who will give me the real world data that will help me improve as a builder, making bikes that will not hold them back when everything is on the line in a race. I'll look to my left.....there's Sacha White , ready to catch a bike and rinse the mud off of it before the rider completes the next half a lap. I look to my right....there's Richard Sachs, ready to do the same. While I might not build bikes the same way as these two builders might, I know that we are all in the same place at the same time for a reason....it is because we care. We , and other builders are there at trackside because it is a real world reality check on weather or not the stuff we do in the shop will hold up. Sooo.......all you other folks weighing in opinions on what should or shouldn't be on the bikes we build for the athletes we support-I guess you had better get your sorrel boots on and come out to the races or just shut the fuck up.
Oh, yeah.....disc brakes. hmmm, should they be on 'cross bikes ? Don't ask me......ask the guy who is trying to get the stars and stirpes jersey. I'm sure he'll give you an informed opinion, even if he isn't and out of work engineer.

Old number one, part II

2010-06-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Back in ancient times , beginning framebuilders used to assemble thier frames into rideable bikes before committing to paint. It the spirit of this nearly forgotten tradition, I built up old number one to see if the work I put into it made it less of a piece of shit. I'm happy to say that now, 32 years later this old turd is actually a nice riding bike. It's no real velodrome bike but it rolls along well and I haven't clipped a pedal yet. Maybe I'll get some paint on it.......after a few more test rides to make sure it dosen't disintegrate when I take it off a curb.

Number one

2010-05-30T22:08:00.001-07:00

Memorial day weekend arrived and I thought that if I had time, I would attend to finishing a long-delayed project hanging over my bench.Back in June of 1978, or thereabouts I built my first frame. Since it was my very first, there were some real blunders in the building of this opus-one that it never really rode correctly. This did not deter me from riding it for a number of years, even riding a metric century in the sierra foothills-this was no mean feat as my first frame was a track frame and I put stupidly tall gearing on it as well. Fast forward to 1994.....I was having a particularly rough week and my temper was boiling over. I needed to break something in the shop....anything, so long as it wasn't a customer owned item. My old number one was hanging on a hook , all disassembled waiting for the day I would re-build the rear triangle and make it ride the way it should have originally. I took the frame down and got out a large piece of tubing and beat the crap out of the rear triangle . ( those were different days....primitive times of high frustration and long hours) I reasoned that the rear stays would all be replaced anyway, might as well get some good venting in.
Old number one remained in that state until about three months ago when I finally got the paint stripped and redied the frame for repair. I did nothing further on the frame until this particular Memorial day weekend-I made the time on Sunday afternoon and set out to fix this old relic 32 years after I hastily and haphazardly threw it together. As I started work on the frame I became aware that the mistakes that I knew about such as the rear triangle being set too high , lowering the bottom bracket and slackening the angles ( pretty much the opposite one would want for a track bike ) and the fork being built too short were just the beginning of the maladies. When I started building the frame in 1978, the one guy who guided me , Ross Shafer kept telling me : "Paul, you really should do a full-scale drawing first ." -Of course, I was much too anxoius and headstrong to listen.....the result : My first frame was a total piece of shit....rideable, but a real genuine steaming piece. I had put all my energy into the lugs and fork crown, gracefully and ambitiously crafting neat little crest-shaped cutouts everywhere they could possibly fit. I spent six weeks of after work hours cutting, filing, thinking that I was going to make a stunning groundbreaking work of framebuilding genius. What I made was as I said before, a total piece of shit.
Now it is almost 32 years later to the day and I am working on this P.O.S., going about rebuilding the rear-end and putting new dropouts in the fork in an attempt to make this track bike a good riding machine. As I hold the front triangle with it's nicely crafted cutout lugs and old Italian threaded Cinelli/Fischer bottom bracket up to my drawing paper I notice that my lack of planning back in 1978 had created a frame that most likely would never be correct as a track frame. # 1, the BB was too low. # 2, the angles were too slack,even when the rear triangle was re-done. # 3, the fork being so short really made getting the BB higher pretty much an impossibility. Faced with this, I pondered throwing the whole mess into the shop dumpster and letting go of old number one forever. At this point I decided to call another builder, a friend who just might get a chuckle out of my predicament . This builder is someone who I regard as one of the top in the field and also someone who can appreciate irony like myself. The builder asked me what my background was before I had built the frame. I told him that I was a fulltime bicycle mechanic with no metalworking skills at all. What I should have said is this: My background.......lousy bike racer, obsessed mechanic, social zero , borderline psychopath...and yes......ignorant asshole who couldn't take the time to do a drawing. I was so focused and obsessed with the artistic part of the frame that I completely dismissed the fundamentals needed for proper bicycle design. This is what created my P.O.S. and it was a waste of materials. But......on this Memorial day weekend I felt that scrapping old # 1 would be an even bigger waste of materials so I spent the afternoon carefully doing what I could to make this bike roll again. I was sure to use old tubing where I could and period-correct dropouts to try to capture the original look. A customer called and told me : " Sure, it will roll again, but don't you think that by repairing it 32 years later you are destroying some of the authenticity ?" I assured the customer that no amount of repair, even with all the skill I have from a couple thousand frames under my belt could change the authenticity of this bike. It is and will always be, a total piece of shit.

Perverse osmosis

2010-05-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing really says you have arrived as a framebuilder more than seeing stuff you built for sale on Craigslist . If you have enough bikes under your belt there's a good chance that your fine craftsmanship will occasionally wind up on the open market-people upgrade, downgrade, sidegrade, go on benders, decide that your bike sucks, lose a job and have to downsize......all sorts of reasons exist for someone to cut loose of the frame you built for them. I guess for me it is a little sad as I would hope that a custom frame is something that one does not sell as it is a very personal purchase. Then again, if your brand has been around long enough there might be some serious resale value available that could come in handy in a time of need. For my esteemed bikes this might not be the case , at least not yet. While I like to state that I attempt to build a very serious racing bike and always strive to make every one better than the last , the market does not care how focused I might think I am . Just yesterday I saw a nearly complete bike on Craigslist for sale.....a track bike-a real genuine velodrome mass-start steel bike that I had built maybe 6-8 years ago. It was missing the front wheel but the rest of it was all there and it looked pretty used but far from used up. A frame nearly Identical to this one had been ridden to a national championship in the Madison. This bike was offered at $ 500. The frame was a 53 cm, not an unpopular size by any stretch of the imagination. A complete bike such as this would cost about $ 3,000 new and here it was , the same bike that was ridden on board tracks across the USA to national titles and many medals for sale at about the price of used fixie from Taiwan. Most likely, this was a frame I built for the junior developement program in Los Gatos, Calif. I built these frames at a greatly reduced rate, about a third what I charge normally as I feel that getting talented juniors on good bikes is a worthy cause. I guess it makes me a little sad to see a bike like this , one that I made for a possible future champion for sale at a really low price that dosen't reflect what kind of effort went into the construction of this machine . This is the reality of a fulltime builder......it's as if these bikes are our children-some of them end up at an ivy league school, others will end up in the street. It isn't up to me.

Us vs. them......

2010-04-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

We as bicycle frame builders in order to have buisness need to get exposure for our work-for me it is mostly at the races....for my more artistic brethren the venue is one or more of the various trade shows that showcase custom and/or collectable bicycles. Both avenues are potentially great but both require time and money to participate in and there is no guarantee that sales will result from either venture. The internet serves well as a place to have work displayed and information available to the potential customer but if you are not showing your wares out in the real world, your chances of sales are pretty slim. When the shows as we now know them first started up about five years ago ( the framebuilder exclusive ones...) they were gatherings that for the first time brought builders together in one place and for the most part helped solidify the framebuilder community. This process of celebrating the craft while at the same time re-enforcing the bonds of framebuilding folks was so long overdue , it was like a huge dam of enthusiasm and inspiration had broken open.We , as builders were no longer working in relative isolation. I, personally was moved by the first three shows I displayed at....they served to inspire me in a big way. The show had an unspoken theme, at least in my mind. It was :" Hey, we build frames....check out what we do." Now, just a few years later the show is now several shows....the community is now divided into sub-groups. The enormous size of the country and the increasing costs associated with the original show are the main cause but for me the focus of the original show is what spun me off. Now the handmade bike show can be distilled to this theme .: " Hey, look at what i build....". The "We" part of it is gone, buried under a big pile of one-upsmanship and big gaudy bowling trophies. While I applaud the talent of folks who win awards at the show-you really can't win an award with anything less than exceptional-The thing that still is not awarded for the most part is the commitment that some folks have to the craft, be it what they do for racers, junior developement or mentoring new builders. In my mind, that's what is where the focus needs to be and that is what will keep this craft from dying. No amount of museum quailty adornment will convince the bulk of cyclists that a custom bike is worth seeking out. I'm sticking with " Look at what we do " as the saying for the present and future builders who wish to not see the demise of framebuilding. You can save the " Look at what I do" for your blog.

Selling out......

2010-03-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Back in 1988 when I got my short music career behind me and decided to be fulltime in the frame building craft I didn't have any plan at all. My goal was to try to get better at the job and hopefully have a reliable clientele based on the kind of service I would try to provide. Sure, I had a lot to learn in all respects ( I still do...) but I was a 32 year old with energy, a few tools and a number of frames under my belt. I was not alone in Nor-Cal in those days-a few others were a bit ahead of me in terms of brand name recognition and product offerings. One of my competitors even had a patent or two. Two of these framebuilders would eventually sell their buisnesses and get back some of the money they had invested working hard for really low wages , considering the skills and comittment needed for the job. Both of these builders had done a lot to spread the word of thier brands with t-shirts and small accessories that were perfect for folks who wanted to buy something with the comany logo but couldn't spring for the bike.These two builders had built thier shops into small companies with between 20-30 employees . Not being a big thinker , I had no such accessories, no patents , a small dealer network and no employees. My company had stayed small because I was afraid of losing control of the situation.....also, I really liked the building process itself and didn't want to wind up in an office , away from the set of tasks that were the reason I was in the trade in the first place. Here it is, 2010 and I'm still at it as a sole proprietor in a small shop. I still build the frames myself and as of now have no employees, a small dealer network and seldom have any logo-emblazoned stuff that finds itself into the consumer market. Folks come to the shop and say " Dang, you have to be one of the only guys from the eighties who never sold out or quit .". Yes, it may be true that almost everyone who was building when I started out has ether sold thier companies or quit the buisness. Some might think that it was dedication and commitment that has kept me at it all these years. At one time I used to say that unlike my brethren, my company was not for sale. "You can't sell out if you are not for sale!" The bigger truth is that I never had any offers worth considering-the only one I got was from a German distributor who actually laughed at the paltry sum I was asking for permanent ownership of my trademark for all of Europe . I didn't lower my price as I pretty much figured that the German company was looking to get something for nothing and even though I really could have used the money , I was not willing to give away all those years of labor for chump change . The real truth about selling out is this : " You can't sell out if nobody is buying." So, along with the fact that I like the process , I was unable to cash in back in 1998 when people like Trek were scooping up every cult bike name they could . The money would have been nice but I would have missed all those years since in my shop..........can't put a price on that.

Listen to the pros and the bros.

2010-03-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

While I drink my morning tea and eat my daily three pieces of toast at 7:30 a.m. I get a chance to read what framebuilders are discussing...or sometimes arguing about on the forums. That's right-while I'm no longer a part of these scrums I do check them out from a distance. The eternal battle seems to be framebuilders vs. engineers. The framebuilders have actual experience with tubes,lugs,brazing , etc. The way a framebuilder finds out if something dosen't work is if it comes back to the shop broken. The way and engineer finds out if something dosen't work is much the same except for the fact that most engineers do their work in labs and never get to actually build the final product themselves. Framebuilders see this as a disconnect. Engineers see framebuilders as primitives who by the seat of their collective pants put things together in sometimes a haphazard fashion that wouldn't cut it in the world of testing labs. The truth is that egineers and framebuilders benefit from each other and need each other for problem solving and real-world feedback. Where would framebuilders be without the engineers figuring out the best alloys and processes to make tubing ? Conversely, where would engineers be without framebuilders putting the torch to these raw materials and finding out if the engineering really adds up to a success for the end user , or if it falls short. Neither framebuilder nor engineer is immune from making a blunder but each of them are very sure that the other is missing something in the equasion of bicycle building. I read on the forum where a hobbyist-builder was asking if silver solder was better for attatching cantilever bosses than bronze as it melted at a lower temperature. Several experienced builders gave evidence that silver was a bad choice, to which the hobbyist replied : " I'm going to use silver, check the engineering data". Hey, mr. Hobbyist.....you are ignoring the most important data-that of people who braze on hundereds of cantilever bosses , exactly what you are trying to attempt for the first time. While the engineers will tell you properties that are very valuable, the engineers are not actually building the bikes, brazing on the bosses and dealing directly with the results. Think about it-free advice from seasoned pro builders.......years ago when I started out, this advice was almost impossible to come by. While we as builders depend on the engineering community to a large degree it is we, the guys in sheds all over the world who really knows what works in the bike building shop and the advice to " Read the data" from someone with little or no experience is downright laughable. To Mr. "Read the data " I say : Dude, we live the data....hell , our frames are the data . We , as builders accept responsability for failures that could be ours, or could be the data . Maybe you need to check some data of a more real-world kind-Hey, it's free !

Refund ??? Refund ???

2010-02-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile I have had to cut the cord with a customer ( or them with me..). I used to think that maybe this person who ordered a bike frame from me might be mentally unsound or just playing some sort of sick control game with me and possibly other craftspeople types . That's what I thought, until recently. A client/builder relationship is not unlike a friendship-trust is a major part of the relationship. The client must trust that the builder will do his or her utmost to satisfy what the customer ordered. Conversely , the builder must trust that the customer is being clear in what they are requesting and is acting in good faith, i.e. not going to flake on payment when the frame is completed. Both parties are taking a bit of a leap of faith-if either is unsure of the other, that is when the whole exchange can go south. So here it is, years since my last unfortunate aborted transaction with a clearly displeased customer......suddenly it hit me: Maybe this person was not insane...maybe they really weren't playing any kind of sick control game at all. Perhaps the issue with this customer is that they didn't trust me, the builder. Even though it has been a long time coming, this realization about trust ..but now I know why I couldn't satisfy them and also I know why I came away comletely insulted. I would like to think that I, like most of my framebuilding brethren do our utmost to make the customer happy. I also need to point out that when some of us do make an error we do all that we can to rectify the mistake in a timely fashion . While most of us do not advertise that we fix our flub-ups quickly , I believe it is an unspoken code that customer service is what sets us apart from larger companies and/or unethical practitioners of bicycle frame construction ( Names witheld to protect the cheeky bastards ) . Sooo.....here I am, thinking I'm going to build this customer the best frame they ever had and whammo.......the customer isn't happy, sometimes before I have even lit the torch ! I recently sent a deposit back to a customer who I spent quite a bit of time with in person and on the phone-all the time I was talking to this person I got the feeling that he/she was having a terribly hard time commiting to an order or even a design for the frame. I always tell people who appear this indecisive that perhaps they should not order a frame until they know exactly what they want . Now I know that indecision on the part of this customer was only a symptom of the greater issue: This person didn't trust me. Even though the customer clearly did not trust my ability to build what they want in the time they had envisioned , I recieved a deposit from the customer, albeit about three months later than I was told I would. In that three months I had accumulated about thirty orders , so the three and one-half month waiting time I had qouted the customer was out of the question. I phoned and left the customer a message on voicemail that now the frame would not be ready for perhaps four to five months. I gave the customer two weeks to reply as to weather this was acceptable ( if not I would send the deposit check back ) and then deposited the check. In a couple of days the customer called me and said that the check had cleared but that he hadn't given me the o.k. on the additional waiting time. I waited for another couple of weeks and then the custome called to have me refund the deposit, which I did immediately. I also sent back all the fit info so that it could be put to use by the other builder who would now be building the frame that was no longer my responsability. I was seriously scratching my head over this whole episode when it dawned on me that the indecision, the long delay in sending the deposit and the delay in getting back to me with the final solution were the red flags of mistrust on the part of the customer. I can understand that it is a big leap of faith to order a frame from someone you might not know personally but people do it every day . What I don't understand is why someone who clearly didn't trust me sent me money ..........it makes no sense . I'm not a mental health professional and some would say that I could benefit from a little analysis myself - this stuff is beyond me . I close with this : To all those untrusting individuals I say, go ahead -don't trust me.....pass me up as your potential builder, please ! Just remember that unless you are building the damn frame yourself you will indeed have to suck it up and trust somebody . Good night and good luck.

Have a nice time at the show for me.......

2010-02-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, the NAHMBS is almost here and I for one am not going to be there. Don't think that I'm dissing the show.....it is the best of its kind in the known world, it's just that my energies are best spent in the shop rather than out at a show trying to wow people. I may sound like a whiner , mr. sour grapes and all that but the reason I'm not going is because other than seeing all the great work and getting to hang out with some of my favorite folks , it isn't a place where I'm going to write orders, wow people.....there's just too much other 'bling' that I can't compete with. I read on one of the forums about some guy deviding builders into two catagories. One catagory was "boring builders'. These are builders who don't put long stainless steel logos on their downtubes, don't build with ornate shiny bits and might only weld thier boring bikes and powdercoat them one measily color. Hey....that's me ! I'm officially a boring builder. People walk the isles of the show.....walk....hmm, down an aisle....... of bicycles-wait.....bicycles......what about riding the bicycles ? Does anyone do that at the shows ? The only riding I ever did at the show was to transport a bike to the photographer or to the lecture I was giving that day . Nobody rides at these shows. No trophies are awarded to any bike based on the way it rides , yet riding is what bicycles are for ! But noooo....these priceless works of art are to be looked at, worshipped and spared the indignity of being ridden . Often I see bikes that were obviously one-off labors of many hours of concentrated , commited painstaking work-the kind of work that only a hobbyist could find time to do. This pretty much makes the working stiff framebuilder , the guy who makes bikes for people that ride them , a boring framebuilder by the standards of at least some of the viewing public at the show. O.K. , I agree. My bikes will not wow you visually and since you will not be able to ride them at the show, you won't be able to judge that favorably, either. I see the show evolving into something of an exhibit for the obsessed. Hey, the custom bicycle market depends on the obsessed so I heartily endorse their obsessions and am glad the show exists to give builders a venue to display the stuff these people long to see. I can't compete with someone who is willing to put more time into filing one lug than I put into building an entire frame. That said, I don't want to compete with these folks......I willingly concede defeat. What is my concellation prize for losing this battle ? I'll bet you already know that..........

Test scores

2010-01-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

O.K. , folks. If any of you actually bothered to do the quiz, here are your scores for each answer. The higher scores are awarded to the answers that I feel reflect the reality of building frames and not the fantasy. Pretense and negativity do not merit high numbers, even though so many of you champion both of those questionable attributes.

A one-point score indicates almost complete culelessness

A two point score indicates an almost imperceptable glimmer of grasping the concept.

A three point score shows some understanding , but clearly not the best choice.

A four point score indicates that this answer will work in a pinch.

A five point score means that you get it, whatever that may be.

A zero point score really isn't worth as much print as I have given it.

#1. A= 3

B= 3

C=4

D= 5

#2. A=2

B=3

C=2

D=1

E=5

#3. A=2

B=1

C=1

D=5

E=1

#4. A=1

B=1

C=1

D=5

E=2

#5. A=3

B=1

C=0

D=5

E=0

#6. A=2

B=0

C=5

D=1

E=1

#7. A=3

B=4

C=2

D=0

E=0

F=5

#8. A=3

B=2

C=5

D=0

E=3

In depth explanations of the reasoning behind the scores is something I have considered but I really don't want to waste your time unless there is a groundswell of enthusiasm.

A score of 40 indicates that you have a grasp, or at least my grasp of the framebuilders reality.....well done, bucko.

a score of 30 or more means that while you may have the grasp, you also think that there is some wiggle room with the rules, which there is, just not for me.

A score of less than 20 would say that you and I should never meet, at least not without a moderator or legal councel present.

Don't take it personally if you don't get a high score........taking this stuff personally is what drives the negative shit-circle that much of the chat forums have become. My advice ? Don't stir the shit........it will get on you and eventually all over you.

This is only a test......

2010-01-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

So you want to build frames, eh ? Maybe you don't want to build frames.....maybe you already build frames....heck , I don't know why you found me but you are here and you can check out this questioneer I have come up with. This multiple-choice quiz was inspired but the NYC bike snob's Friday quizzes - the difference is that his are funnier. The quiz I am offering up is for aspiring framebuilders or anyone who wishes to waste a little of their time with the following questions. You won't win anything no matter how well you do at the quiz and I'm sure that whatever I believe is the correct answer to any question might be up for debate-then again , this is my blog so I get to be the supposed authority , for what its worth.

So you want to be a framebuider ? Answer me this:

#1. If you were to build frames for a profession , what kind or style would you build ?

A. Lugged, classic style.

B. Welded steel

C. A variety of materials depending on use.

D.The kind that sell.

#2. How would you set yourself apart from the myriad of builders out there in the trade ?

A. Make your shop a 'destination shop' with a nice area with couches and an espresso machine.

B. Get the latest fitting method with all the most modern bike fit equipment.

C. Have a super organized space that exudes an organized , professional approach.

D. Have custom logos and fittings made for your frames that nobody else can use on their frames.

E. Actually do what you say you will do and be truthful.

#3. If a client comes into your shop, how will you go about selling your product to the prospective buyer ?

A. First, point out what notable feature(s) set your frame apart from the other builders.

B. Let the customer know that they really have arrived at the place where dreams are realized.

C. Ask them what they want, then tell them what you think they need.

D. Listen to what they have to say, then offer up some suggestions.

E. Tell them that you have limited time and that they need to make up their mind quickly as you have several years worth of orders to fill.

#4. What do you do if someone asks for some sort of frame that you don't know how to build ?

A. You tell them that they are asking for something really stupid.

B. You refer them to someone you know will build them a total piece of shit and that'll teach 'em.

C. You ask them why hell they came to you with this request and then show them the door.

D. You make an effort to find a compromise between what they are asking for and what you can build for them without going out of your comfort zone.

E. You take the order and learn how to build the frame , even if it means you are getting involved in a potential career-ending time-toilet.

#5. What do you do if someone has issues or a complaint with something you built for them? A. Tell them that you will do anything to rectify the situation except for a full refund.

B. Educate them as to what is proper and what is not proper with bicycle frame construction and assure them that what they are complaining about is not your problem.

C. Hide somwhere in your shop where you are sure they won't find you.

D. Do your best to fix the problem but if the person becomes abusive and/or irate offer them a full refund.

E. Move your shop and don't give a forwarding address.

#6. As a bicycle enthusiast , you would most like to :

A. Build frames all day long, every day.

B. Yell at cars as often as possible and let the world know that they need to share your road .

C. Go for a ride.

D. Spend time on the internet discussing frame building.

E. Smoke cigarettes while riding backward circles on a fixed gear.

#7. If you go on the internet framebuilding forums you are primarily :

A. Checking out the gossip.

B. Wanting to find an answer to a framebuilding question.

C. Wanting to show off your latest project.

D. Looking to argue and be abusive, particularly to the newbies.

E. Needing to show that you are right and that they are wrong.

F. Wanting to exchange useful info with non-deranged like minded folks.

#8. If you don't know a procedure, what do you do to learn how to do said procedure ?

A. Go to the forums and ask the folks at large.

B. Just figure out by trying things in your shop, caveman style.

C. Find a more experienced builder and ask him/her how it is done.

D. Go check a number of sources and authorities , then disregard all the sound advice and figure it out for yourself because you are a genius and they are not.

E. Find a way to live your life never knowing.......

Well, Folks-that is your quiz. I'll be posting what I think are the best answers and there will be point values for each answer. A hig score means you think like I do which may or may not serve you well-it depends on what circles you travel in. Good luck and happy new year to all.

Embarassments of poverty

2009-12-28T08:10:00.001-08:00

If you are like me, and if you are lucky you probably aren't, you run a buisness all by yourself.Don't get me wrong.....I'm fine with it and it suits my abilities and inabilities: Ability to amuse myself while working diligently......essential. Inability to work for other companies that will likely have a heirarchy and tyrant boss of some sort......well, it got me here. So here I am, all by myself in my shop building frames. How long can it go on ? How many can I produce ? In the grand scheme of things, not all that many. This is the case with just about every small framebuilder......limited life of the builder and therefore, the buisness-hence , limited number of frames produced. It always warms my heart a little when I see one of my frames on ebay or craigslist described as "rare". Of course its rare, compared to a Trek. For small builders to offer a "Limited edition" is kind of silly.....they are all limited editions ! I can understand the need to produce an "Anniversary" model that signifies a milestone in one's career as a builder-I built one to celebrate ( or perhaps rue..) my 25th year since I built my first frame. The bikes is all assembled and hanging in my shop. Did people line up to buy it ? No.....so the 30th anniversary came and went without my building a commemorative frame.....I don't have the time, I guess. Maybe if I make it to 50........It is because of our short lifespan and miniscule production relative to large companies that some builders attempt ( and some succeed ) to establish an "exclusivity" about thier brand .......just like beachfront property or admission into one of those clubs that only people on the 'list' gain entry to. In reality, the person who writes the check gets the frame-at least that's all it takes to get on my list. My exclusive club has but one requirement.....just pay me for my work. Sure, custom frames are not cheap and the wait can be long, but a $ 350 deposit gets you on the list.....you don't need to be a certain age, you don't need a full head of hair, I won't ask you to write an essay on why you and not someone else should deserve to get the next frame I produce. There is no special handshake , there's no drug test......really, if you want a frame built and have the money and are willing to wait, you qualify. The whole concept of feeling special or elevated above your fellow cyclists because you have such and such's frame makes me a little ill. Heck, if it is a great frame and it fits you well and you are happy with it, definitely be proud of it....just don't expect anyone to bow to you as you ride by. I do make exceptions to my take on things here-there are a few guys who only produce a few frames a year and the artistic content of these masterpieces is undeniable. Even still, these few artisans will insist that it is still a bicycle made for riding foremost.....even if it will someday wind up in the Smithsonian. To end this rambling rant, I'll say this : Shows that promote bike building get a thumbs up from me. Shows and businesses that portray framebuilders as demi-gods and leaders of super-exclusive members only clubs don't even get a thumbs down from me.....they don't even get a thumb.....I need it to hold the welding rod, anyway. To these self-important strutting gasbags I ask " When your career is over, how would you like best to be forgotten ?".........I'll bet you won't be forgotten like me !

Don't thank me...

2009-11-20T22:08:00.000-08:00

Every day I come to my shop and get to work , building the next frame or doing some sort of repair or modification. My day started out typically-I had a frame that I had started the day before and needed to finish it today or else I would be falling behind my self imposed shedule. The more efficient I am, the more money I make and the sooner the customer gets the frame-this is why I work many hours without thinking about who I depend on for the stuff that makes my job easier....sometimes making it possible at all. Today was a day where the lightning bolt hit...all of a sudden I realized that this particular frame was coming together really well and inspite of my need for expediency was actually fun to build. This isn't to say that framebuilding is normally not a fun thing , but it is often hard work with many chances for frustration. This brings me to a subject that is often on my mind: Good materials for small builders are not something that large companies want to produce any more. One by one the large companies that used to make quality stuff for the US market are deciding that there isn't enough profit in supplying small framebuilders , now that the large bicycle companies are all having their bikes made in Taiwan or China. With this being the case small framebuilders have a real problem looming in the near future.......the stuff they depend on to build with may be soon an extinct species. The solution ? Build the stuff here-and fortunately, there are a few folks still willing to do this. These folks are heros in my book because they don't care about the bottom line as much as they care about this symbiotic world of suppliers, builders, painters and others. The frame in the picture has yokes and dropouts designed by Mike Aherens. Mike's stuff is what he uses on his own bikes but he sells these excellent fittings to anyone who wants to build with them. I could not build this type of frame without Mikes stuff. Another US manufaturer of framebuilding suppies is Mark Norstad of Paragon Machine works. Nearly every frame I build has one of his bottom bracket shells , made right here in California. Paul Price of Paul Components makes a terrific steel track dropout....it isn't a product he makes a lot of money on -he makes them because builders want them . Kirk Pacenti may have his lugs and BB shells made overseas but he creates them for US builders for the most part. Hank Folsom of Henry James has been having lugsets cast in the US for thirty years and sells the last US made tubing, True Temper. These folks are going out on a limb financially to keep a small industry alive and none of them are getting rich . While large bicycle companies go away from metal frames in favor of carbon fiber ( No need for skilled labor such as welders or machinists ) the folks that make supplies for the small builder see value in sustaining the craft . Carbon fiber bicycles are very popular but they are probably the least green bike available. Metals of all kinds can be recycled and some can easily be repaired. This is not the case for carbon fiber for the most part . Essentially ,every carbon fiber frame is destined for the landfill. Today I though about that.....and the folks I depend on. I hope you all are thinking about it as well.

being there

2009-11-12T22:18:00.001-08:00

It's 10:17 p.m. and I just got home from the shop. I got there about 9:15 a.m. - a long day by my standards but there was a time when my days at the shop were often this long or longer. When I still was working out of my garage and didn't have the array of machinery that I now am lucky to posess I would work long into the night, brazing frames together. I was so slow that it took me a week what I can now do in a day. This necessitated marathon work days that could go from 8:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. . I remember one night with the torch in my hand looking at the thermometer in my unheated garage one winter night. The thermometer read 28 degrees......I thought that the next time my dad would tell me about bad working conditions that he had endured I would tell him about this night. There was a difference, though....my dad was working a job he didn't like-I chose this job and here I was, reveling in how much it sucked. I could complain about how long the hours were and how low the pay was and the fact that the shop was filthy, unheated and not altogether pleasant.....trouble is I was a victim of myself. While I remain dedicated to what I'm doing still , I can spend the hours, answer the emails and phone calls , think that I'm doing a great job...then I remember-I have a repair hanging above my bench that has been there 11 months. What about that handlebar stem I promised earlier this year that never got built ? How about the bike shows I had to miss because I didn't want to interupt my work routine ? Or today....a brilliant blue sky that I didn't hardly bother to look at because I had so much work laid out for the day ? Or the many bike rides I missed because I was building.................Bikes ?!? This line of work demands that one be present and accounted for. A lot of work does but when you are a one-person operation the pressure to be there is substantial. I have no children. I'm not going to ever have children....nobody to continue the insanity I started, my bike framebuilding buisness. The bikes are my children.....hundereds of them. Some day ,maybe thousands -if I keep at it another ten or fifteen years. I had somebody ask me " How do you keep doing the same thing every day ? Don't you ever want to try something else ? " The truth is that it's not the same thing every day....it changes, challenges, infuriates , trancends , evolves , falls apart , redeems , repels , flounders, defeats , reveals , mystifies , becons. If this weren't the case , a lot less people would want to try it. Once tried , the test will go on and on and one's presence and focus will be the difference between being on the outside or being immersed in the craft . It isn't about arriving somewhere or attaining something-it's about maintaining something. Its work-it goes on only as long as you are willing to be there.

Long time subscriber, first time caller

2009-10-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Every day I, like my brethren go to my shop and do my best to try and build bikes that fulfill what the customer asked for. Of course, it is impossible to make everyone happy who comes in your door for your services but we as builders always seem to try, as if we thought it was possible. So why do we do this ? What personality defect makes us so blind to think that we alone are the final destination for this and any customer , regardless of what they want ? Is it the thought that maybe nothing is beyond our capeabilities as builders ? Is it because we are wanting to have a perfect failure-free 100% customer satisfaction record ? I think not.....it's probably more the fear of failure on the part of the customer and worse, the success of a competitor with the very same customer. So.....when we do fail and get called into question by the customer , why do we get overly defensive ? Why do we forget that it isn't possible to make everyone happy and to go through life without making a mistake or without occsionally pissing someone off ? Again, I think it goes to the personality type that chooses to do this for a living. I recently had an email exchange with a guy who had dealings with several framebuilders as a customer and on the forums. This guys assesment of framebuilders was that they were premadonnas for the most part and if I had had the same experiences as he, it is likely I would have come tothe same conclusion. That said, some of the builders he referred to are top-notch supreme craftsmen and have built amazing stuff over the years. I guess what I'm puzzled by is why most of us get so incredlbly defensive when someone dosen't find us to be as complete and flawless as we want to be ? How come we can't remember something as simple as " You can't please all the people all the time"? What is it that re-enforces our collective insecurities and unrealistic self images ? Is it the fumes from the flux ? Was it how we were raised ? Is it a part of our makeup that also happens to point us in the direction of building bicycle frames ? It is almost as if some of us-actually a lot of us are like feudal lords in really tiny castles , defending ourselves pathetically-I know, it's real stretch of an image but think of each builder as a separate'Kingdom" with its own philosophy, its own set of ethics that must be defended to the death. Builder "A" had a customer who waited X amount of months for a frame and then declared that it wasn't what he wanted, got a refund and then went to builder "B" and had a positive experience. Builder "A" was of course convinced that this customer was in error and that builder"B" was and is a hack. If it sounds like I have experience with this , I do. I have been both builder 'A" and builder "B". I would like to be neither for the duration of my career and try to keep the neuroses at bay-we all need to in my opinion because if we don't, every one of our customers will be going to the large companies for their bicycles....you see, the large companies don't get into the petty stuff that framebuilders do-they just take your money and that is that.

They will find you.

2009-10-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'm a lucky guy. I have a buisness that I created and struggled with for many years and now it actually seems to be a for real livelyhood. I support myself by building bicycle frames.....just me in my shop with my crazy music blaring all day long, building bicycle frames. It's almost as if I got a pass on the whole growing up into an adult and getting a job thing. I'm still living as if I were and adolescent......maybe a bit more regimented but still like a teenager in a lot of regards. For this privalege I owe my customers a debt of gratitude for making my lifestyle possible. People getting in touch with me to order bikes from all over the world is still something I wonder at and don't fully comprehend. I just keep building 'em if people keep wanting 'em. That said , there are times when I'm found by a person who might not be somebody I can make happy with what I do. I figure that in most cases my website info and reputation will filter out all who might wind up regretting their decision to entrust me with the job of making their rolling dream a reality. Sometimes on the phone or even in an email I will get the sense that the person inquiring might be someone who should shop elsewhere. I have had several instances where I have had to refund a deposit or even buy a frame back from a dissatisfied client. I like to avoid these situations but sometimes I'm blindsided by a person who's motivation for the famebuider-customer relationship might be considered off the beaten path. These folks are what I would call " Psychotic". This is of course a very strong word and I can count the people who merit the description on one hand for my entire career. All the same, these few folks have taught me the most about what I should and shouldn't promise when talking about frames to anyone. About a decade ago I built a frame for a person who was very set on using some hardware on his frame that I was not familiar with. I assured him that what I normally used was superior and that I would build a better frame with what was familiar to me. This did not deter the customer....he wanted his dropouts and other fittings just so. I ordered the stuff requested and had a miserable time building the frame. The end result was not up to my normal standards but the bike was and still is a rideable racing bike. I sent the customer the frame and waited for his opinion on the work and for my payment. I got an email stating that the frame was not what he wanted and he immediately requested that I start on another one. I asked for him to send the frame back and offered to pay the shipping and refund his deposit ( I had not been paid the balance ) to which he replied angrily that I was dropping the ball in the middle of the project. I replied that I had done what he requested with the materials he specified to the best of my ability and was not going to chance having him reject another frame. He was livid but sent back the frame. I sent him his money immediatelty.....this actually impressed him. What I learned is that in rare cases there are a few folks who want the process of interaction with the builder but probably don't want the actual frame at all. What they want is for people like me to keep trying to make them happy while they keep either changing their minds or just become abusive. It's kind of a patrician-servant relationship.......they need to be catered to in ways unrelated to bicycles,riding or anything of that nature. I do not fully understand the motivation for this need and do not feel qualified to fulfill it. Not only that, I really should be building bikes for folks who will ride them , not argue about a file mark in a stainless steel dropout. Do I admit to failing these rare people ? Yes, by all means. Do I intend to get more in touch with their needs as customers ? No F-ing way. As Joe Walsh said ; " You can't argue with a sick mind ".

The birth of single speed mountian biking ?

2009-09-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

I wrote this story for a friend so I thought I would bore the rest of the world.....or at least the part that looks at this blog with the history of the dawn of the single-speed mountian bike.....err......something like that. Way back in 1985-86 I was a part time framebuilder mostly building fillet-brazed mountain bike frames, forks and stems as that's what people were asking for. One thing I learned early on ,in this buisness you need to build stuff that people want or they will get it somewhere else and you'll be a non-framebuilder in a hurry. Fortunately I liked building mountian bikes and enjoyed the riding part, once I figured out how to not crash every time I went out on a ride. My impression of mountain biking initially was that it was chaotic , irreverent and a real contrast to the staid and uptight world of road racing. I also was thinking about the clatter that the bikes made over the rough terrain and the complexity of the primitive gear shifiting setup. Another thing I noticed was that the bikes were heavy and not all that quick on the climbs. I got it in my head that a single speed mountian bike might solve some of these issues...it would be quiet with no chain-slap , it would be lighter without the derailleurs, shifters, triple crank, etc. The only thing holding me back from building such a bike was money and time. In early 1987 I was talking to a guy named John Miller about my single speed project and to my surprise he said that he would order one if the price were right-not only that, he would race it ( cruise-class actually did exist then, even though specific bikes for the class appearantly didn't)and represent Rock Lobster and my tiny one-car garage frame buisness. Now that I had an actual order I went to work and in a few weeks , single speed # 1 was completed. To help the bike have a quick feel I used a 24" rear wheel with a light rolled-down road rim from Keith Bontrager. I stayed with the 26" up front so that the bike would roll over rough stuff like a normal mountain bike. The frame had a wishbone seatstay, my first ever. I gave it a spin and realized that I had built something that you could really haul ass on, if you had the legs to turn the gear on the climbs. John Miller had the legs and went on to win almost every cruiser-class race he entered. John told me that the bike was a definite advantage and that nobody had anything like it at any of the races he went to. At the end of the season John decided to stop racing. I asked him what was I going to do now that i had lost my factory rider. He told me to build a bike, get in shape and race. I had never done a mountian bike race and had never intended to but this challenge sounded like just the thing to get me on a single speed......my vision of simpicity in the dirt. I did build the bike and I spent six weeks training on it for my first race. I noticed that I was able to really fly up short climbs on the bike and the lack of clatter made me feel more confident on the downhills. I ventured up to North Lake Tahoe for the T.N.T. race, an event that had a criuser-class catagory. There were 270-plus racers there but only six in the cruiser class. I decided to start in the back and avoid any chance of an early crash. I rode along and after the dustcloud of the mass start thinned I saw that I was passing a single speeder. A little later I passed a couple more. Before the top of the big climb of the race I passed one more and realized that I was in second place with a chance to win. I went all out to try to catch the front runner. When I crossed the line I was a little disappointed thinking that I had not won when a friend of mine told me that I had. As it turns out, the leader might have made a pit stop somewhere and I passed him without knowing. At that point I really thought that single speeding in the dirt was destined to become a big sport. In 1988 it was almost unknown and for the most part considered insane. It took another four years for single speeding to catch on ,but it did. I don't know if the John Miller bike was the first actual race-specific mountian bike ever built but it was the first around here . After my win in the T.N.T. I decided to quit racing and be an undefeated single speeder as long as I could.I was fully aware that my win was a fluke , not likely to be repeated ,especially if actual talented atheletes got the idea to race single speed. I continue to ride single speed in the dirt as it was and is what I hoped it would be-fast, quiet and simple.

Be careful what you don't ask for...

2009-08-19T18:36:00.001-07:00

I think most bicycle framebuilders are folks that felt a strong desire to pursue the craft , as if it was the thing they most wanted out of life. I wasn't one of those-maybe for the first few weeks but after the reality of how hard it would be to earn a living at it sunk in , I was pretty much a hobbyist for the next nine years. I even quit for a time when my girlfriend at the time broke up with me and ordered me and my torch out of the apartment forever. I moved to a place where there was no room for a shop so all of my tools went into storage for nearly two years . I had only built about eleven frames so I was still in the beginner stage and blundering my way through for the most part. Little did I know back then what would later be my daily duty for the bulk of my working life. I would like to think that my motivation to build bikes was steadfast and unwavering since the start but I admit that I got discouraged and it fell from the top of my list as a job I could endure. Now that I have been at it fulltime for over twenty-one years , I have come to the conclusion that I always had what it takes to be a framebuilder , not that I am proud of the fact. What I see as necessary components for a potential career framebuilder are the following : # 1, A love of bicycles and riding bicycles , even if you can't ride for one reason or another. # 2, an inability to work for anyone else in any capacity other than framebuilding.# 3, A healthy dose of low self-esteem and need to make folks happy with what you can build so you can get kudos and not feel so absolutely loathsome of yourself for a minute or two.#4 , Some not-so-buried wishes to prove to people in your past that you could indeed amount to something-essentially put it back in thier faces , all those doubters.....pretty much everyone in your highschool. #5 , A need to confront an inanimate pile of metal and turn it into an elegant machine-this comes from your inability to deal with society and social situations comfortably. #6, The desire to have a job that not only skirts the need to conform to adulthood, it literally prevents the transiton. So........what I am saying is that to be a framebuilder needs to be an outcast , a bit of a psychological sicko , incapeable of earning a living in a more conventional profession , and last but not least-immature,insecure and for the most part an emotional house of cards. With these traits it is no surprise why a lot of us do not see eye to eye on what we do and get in to stupid little arguments about details that most people wouldn't even waste a fart on. And so it is, my profession-not what I chose in the beginning but I choose it now , after all....I'm fully qualified.

Look out, world.....here comes the UBI class of 2009.

2009-08-15T09:37:00.001-07:00

Once a year I go up to U.B.I. ( United Bicycle Institute) and teach a framebuilding class, the steel tig welding edition. It's debateable wheather or not there will be room for all or any of the graduates of this program but with the talent in this group it is certainly possible that some of them will be in the next generation of bike builders.....all, no doubt will build more frames. Attending a class at U.B.I. is perhaps the best way to get your feet wet in the world of cutting and welding bicycle frame tubing. Taking my class is a good way of finding out what over 20 years of framebuilding as a job will do to your selection of off-color jokes and musical choices. This class survived it all and I didn't have to finish a weld on a single frame-something unusual in such an accelerated course. You want my opinion ? ...These guys rock !..I think you have it .

You know you are a framebuilder when.......

2009-07-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

I guess I know what it this month in a big way , now that frame # 18 for july is about to go to the painter. Yes, nearly 20 frames built this month-that's why I have not made any entries on the blog lately. What's up for tomorrow ? Drive up to Ashland and teach a tig course at UBI......at least I'll only have to build one frame in two weeks instead of nine , but I will oversee the building of eight frames by the students. You can call me a poser, you can all me as s.o.b. , all sorts of stuff-but this summer you'll have to top off the pile of explitives with 'framebuilder', too. I wrote about the genuine fake framebuilder last time so here are the things that let you know when you are truly a framebuilder: # 1, The faster you build 'em, the longer the list gets. # 2, You get emails and phone calls from places where there's now way they should even know you exist.# 3, folks bring by deceased people's bikes to hang in your shop. # 4, Your shelves are filled with many frame tubes, so many that you don't stand a chance of using them all before you quit, die or both. #5, You are excited to build yourself a new frame, even though there's no way you need it and/or can afford to build it up. # 6, People order a frame and tell you: " Take your time...." and actually mean it. #7. There's a few projects hanging up in the shop that date back to the '90's that you swear you'll finish this winter. #8 , All of your bikes are filthy and you never take the time to work on them or clean them. #9 , Your hands are never completely clean except at the end of the two-week vacation that you never get, at least not in the last 4-5 years. # 10, You have set aside enough time to do X number of jobs and still take in another one even though it will burn you out , make you sick and most likely not get done on time. Well, those are the ones I could come up with. Add your own if you like . Of course, these are merely my obsevations and are not necessarily applicable to all, or even many framebuilders-just ones that are as primitive as me. Cheers, Paul.

Legend of the fake framebuilder

2009-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Details are sketchy in this story and my recollection of events is full of holes but the following is true, even if it isn't a perfect recollection . Back in the late '70's , my buddy was looking to work for a framebuilder-someone with a real shop with machines , paint booth , customers......all the stuff that makes for an actual buisness. My friend had built about ten frames but felt that he needed to get some knowhow from a veteran in the trade, most likely a Brit or an Italian......certainly not an American , unless one showed up who had the goods. One day a fellow came into the bike shop where my friend worked wheeling in a stunning black bicycle with no decals on it. The gentleman had a British accent and said that the bike was a Philbrook and that he indeed was the builder. My friend asked the supposed Brit what he was doing in Santa Cruz-to this, the gentleman said : " I'm here to set up a framebuilding shop in the hills here, Bonny Doon perhaps.". My friend was suddenly seeing visions of a new job in his dream career being the right hand man of this " Philbrook" character up in Bonny Doon in a clean, well appointed shop that turned out top-notch frames for discriminating clientele. From that day forward my friend went on bikerides with this supposed framebuilder up in the hills to scout out possible locations for the shop. My friend kept asking the Brit guy :" Hey, where are your tools ? Do you have any other frames here ?" The Brit kept riding , saying that in good time all would be in order and all the questions would be answered. This went on for weeks and after awhile folks in the bike shop were beginning to wonder if this Brit was really a framebuilder, or even a Brit at all. Some asking around was done ( This was long before the internet , so things like this took time to unravel.) Eventually , the identity of the stunning black bicycle was revealed......it was made by Jeff Lyons , right here in California, not in Britain. And the supposed Philbrook ? Philbrook is an actual builder in the U.K. but the man who came into the bike shop and charmed my friend was not a framebuilder or a Brit , but an impostor.....a psychopath who was living some sort of twisted fantasy life and bringing in anyone who fell for his convincing act. Yes , this guy had never built a frame , was a local Santa Cruz guy with serious psychological issues but with a gift for storytelling that fooled many people. When all was revealed, my friend was crestfallen. His dream of building with a mentor was shattered......but time would go by and my friend would go to the U.K., work there, work in Southern California for Santana and within 5-6 years start a successful bicycle company of his own that was real-not a fantasy and it would be built on integrity. So who would want to be a fake framebuilder ? Why would someone bother to cook up an elaborate story and try to convince people that he was a framebuilder ? Seems to me if one is willing to do that much , might as well go the whole route and build the damn frames. Faking it may seem easier but I'm not so sure. All this said, this story is an example of something that I see currently.......it isn't necesarrily as twisted as this example but the end result is the same-there are some folks ou there who advertise that they build frames when in reality, they don't . I don't think less of these folks if they don't build frames-they might have great skills in some other forms of work or art......my issue is that for people looking to get a frame built,these impostors make it tougher for the guys actually doing the work to get noticed. The impostors have a gift for conversation, self promotion and spin......something actual framebuilders might not posess as thier attention is mainly to the building process. I guess the fakers kind of hurt everybody a little bit , customers and builders alike. Keeping it real in this buisness to me is what its all about and I know i'm not the lone voice in that regard . The fakers are very convincing , after all-it's what they do fulltime. The folks actually doing the real work need to get more vocal and not hide behind the torch, so to speak. A lot of us who have good skills with metal aren't paying enough attention to the skills interacting with people. This opens the door to snake-oil salesmen fake Philbrooks and the like. It's time to open the shop door and show people the real thing......they will know the difference.

Why do we do it ?

2009-07-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

What a strange and potentially frustrating thing to do with one's life.....to build bicycle frames for a living. I have done a few things to keep a roof over my head-worked graveyard at a donut shop ....no I didn't put the holes in the donuts. I worked at a Mexican restaurant , a furniture store , played guitar in just about every shit-hole bar and restaurant in northern California , spent eleven years in bicycle shops wrenching and selling -I even was a house cleaner for one summer. Little did I know that I would wind up spending 40-50 hours a week cutting and welding expensive tubing together. Twenty-two years in fulltime buisness and I'm still at it-maybe you might wonder why, maybe not-hell, I'll tell you not why I do this every day. Wrong Reason # 1, to get laid. It's a common misconception ( like that ?) that lighting a torch will get you a groupie.....at least a female one. # 2, to get the respect of my parents.......that's downright laughable: " So your boy is a Velder ? Vot dose he veld.......the Brooklyn Bridge ? The Sears Tower ? .....Bicycles ! oy, soch a buisness-where did we go wrong ? # 3, to gain notoriety......as I have found, there are easier and much funnier ways to gain notoriety......#4, to make myself feel that I am better than someone else, most likely another framebuilder (s).........that kind of emptiness is way too scary to contemplate. O.K.,Here's my reason, or at least the reason for the day : I like to go to the races and see my bikes go around in circles being ridden by the most jolly folks I know-then sometimes I like to make a fool of myself and go out there,too and go around in circles-pointlessly trying to keep up with real atheletes.....I also like the bitch of a challenge that this line of work presents-how it shows me daily what a stupid moron I can be, then a minute later it will reveal that I have learned something after all these years-something that i can get excited about, something that I will notice on the next bike that makes me glad that I haven't given up yet. I like to share these discoveries with my jolly friends and see if they think that the latest edition is better than the previous one. It's not a planned obsolesence thing, Hell-I am walking and talking planned obsolesence...I'm 53 years old and battered from years of clutzy bike incedents.....what I get excited about is evolution. I guess if you don't believe in evolution, the concept is useless to you. Absence of developement, forward thinking and experimentation would kill the whole thing for me, just as lack of tradition would kill it for some other builders ( and me, too...believe it or not..) I keep at it because I know that I'll no doubt have a chance to learn something exciting every once in awhile....something that other folks can get excited about, too. I guess that was more than one reason.......

I hope you are happy...

2009-07-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah, another good source of info and supplies says 'fongool' to the framebuilder's chat world. Yep, all you guys who chime in with your dismissives have won another battle against enlightenment....what am I talking about ? Same old thing-In a perfect world the internet could serve as an exchange of pertinent information for everyone, even stinky anti-social framebuilders working away in garages and the like all over the world. The problem is the same old thing.....loud and animated bleatings from a few drown out the constructive info from the others. No doubt,here....the internet is the domain of all sorts of people looking for a scrap , some sort of debate-even if there is none.....these folks want to be the final word, even if that final word is bullshit from a narrow mind. Well, yet another learned person has given you the middle finger , depriving the rest of us from any useful information we could have gleaned. The person I refer to was a suppier of cutting edge brazing supplies......stuff that helps all of you stainless-steel junkies join your tempermental tubes to your shiny bits in an easier more reliable fashion. I know for a fact that if any one of us got in some sort of problem with any brazing/soldering situation we could call this person and with almost no exceptions he would get us out of it. So, all you crumudgeons.....are you satisfied ? Now that a voice of experience has been dispatched are you happier that now you can rule the internet with your opinons ? Hmmm, truth and usefule information got in the way of your quest for the last word ? O.K., now you can have the last word , even though your last word isn't useful information, most likely not based in truth and not helpful to anyone else in any way........my guess is that the word is " Ignorance".

Made in the U.S.A. ?

2009-06-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

In the eighties when I was foolish enough to get a buisness license and turn my hobby into a fulltime job there were a number of small bicycle companies that struggled to do battle with the big brands of the day-Trek, Specialized , Bianchi.....mostly these small companies were producing all sorts of stuff related to the newly popular sport of Mountian biking. These small companies made frames, forks , cranks, stems , headsets , q.r. skewers.....you name it. I used to see all of these little operations flogging their colorful anodized offerings at Interbike, the big bicycle trade show. One by one these small companies started fnding out that building stuff in the U.S.A. was not only expensive, the process was tightly regulated and aggressively taxed by federal and state governments-not only that, the insurance costs for liability were not cheap. All of these factors, along with an increaslingly saturated market drove these companies down one of two paths: Path # 1, quit......liquidate and get a job in high tech. # 2, get bought by the competition. You see, in the mid '90's , the larger companies were losing market share to the smaller folks as a percentage of the buying public thought that the big companies had no 'soul' and the smaller compaines were producing hipper, more appealing goods. Another factor was the ability of small compaines to change and improve products -innovate at a rapid pace compared to the gigantic corporations with their layers of beurocracy and delay-ridden outsourced products. Trek, Schwinn and a few other industry giants began buying up smaller brands , trying to get a 'hipper' image....in effect, they were not really interested in the products of the small folks they were buying-what they were mainly after were the names and trademarks that folks associated with a group of people in a small building doing their best to created the best and latest stuff to ride in the woods. Since most of these small companies inspite of their popularity were not all that profitable, the big new owners set out to make them cash cows , dismantling the little operations, laying off most or all of the employees , selling off tooling and disposing of old inventory. Now these popular small brands would be just that-brands. All new products would be made offshore to lower costs and to boost the production numbers. Essentially , your old favorite brand from Nor-Cal would appear on something made in Taiwan and would have the outward appearance of the original but not the same quality . Prices on these products didn't get much lower, either. Net result ? Loss of U.S. jobs, loss of some of the driving forces in the pursuit of excellence and innovation in bicycles -but what I find saddest of all is the dismantling of these small brands , destroying the public trust. While I do believe that good products are coming from offshore, some are even better than domestic products, I feel that the golden age of the small shop-buisness in the bicycle industry has passed. The temptation of small companies to cash in by selling out to the big companies has made branding more important that substance , marketing more important than quality. Lucky for me, my company was too small, to pathetic and not innovative enough to get and offer I couldn't refuse. Am I sorry ? Believe it or not , I feel that my little treadmill is just fine.

What it is

2009-06-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

Here it is, another beginning to another summer and invitations are coming in for builders to participate in any number of bike shows around the country. These shows are usually well attended and are a unique opportunity for builders and enthusiasts to meet in one place , face to face. While I do take part in some of these shows and appreciate the fact that they exist I do temper my enthusiasm . I don't expect to take orders at any of these shows and sometimes don't even bring any order forms.......custom frames are not and never have been impulse purchases -in most cases they are a result of weeks of research and intense , almost obsessive combing of the internet and magazines on the part of the customer. While I have indeed written a few orders at shows over the years , it has never been the main purpose of my being there. I go to see all the work of my fellow builders and show the folks that I am still at it, still in effect after all these years. What about the builders that come to the show with the purpose of taking orders, or maybe winning an award that will hopefully generate orders ? I really don't know what to tell these folks......I never won an award at any show but I stay busy, most of the time really busy. I contrast this with a builder who recently quit , even after winning an award at the biggest custom bike show, NAHMBS-the guy simply had no work....he was creative , original and really looked to be one of the top new talents. Maybe this builder will get a chance to come back and try his luck again , but for now he's back working at a bike shop. What does one learn from this ? I can't say that there is much to learn except that what sells and what dosen't in the world of custom frames isn't tied to talent, awards, shows......maybe not even experience. Framebuilding for a living is about as uncertain a livelyhood as acting or playing music . While I do see value in shows and award competitions are very popular with show attendees I'm not too sure how relavant any of it is in the real world of framebuilding as a career . A talented hobby builder with lots of spare time will most likely be the guy who takes home a trophy from a show but this style of building isn't sustainable in a practical fulltime gig. Ask any established builder who is known for impeccable and detailed artistic work and I'll bet they'll tell you that they are making the kind of hourly wage more associated with someone working the deep-fryer at burger King. So the masters of the craft get the lowest wages while the working-stiff welders make slightly more.....what is wrong with this picture ? In a perfect world custom bike shows should serve to elevate the publics awareness and appreciation of the skill level and commitment involved in being a fulltime framebuilder. With what I have experienced at these shows, that has yet to happen in such a way that folks that I know who are undisputed talents of the craft can exit poverty, or in some cases even survive. Most folks who walk the isles at these shows are enthusiastic for sure-but when it comes to buying the stuff they admire , they don't open their wallets. Folks will take photos, buy t-shirts.....even chronicle their visit to the show with photos on the web-in effect, free advertising for the builders........but still for the most part they don't come to the show to order a frame. Where are the people who want this craft to survive ? Do they even exist ? If they do, they shouldn't hide any longer........

a tale of two shirts

2009-06-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

I'm getting the idea that some folks are not into this blog unless I'm on some sort of rant. I also get the feeling that some folks are bored with it rant or no rant. That's fine with me, I'm not trying to win a popularity contest but the story I'm about to tell needs to be told , so please be patient and give this one a read, even if you think I'm full of shit-this is about somebody who isn't. Back in around 1992-93 I was a struggling framebuilder looking to get a more national clientele as I had pretty much saturated the folks out here who were looking for custom mountian bikes. A friend of mine who was a sales rep for two other builders told me I should go to Flagstaff, Az. and ride with the locals. It seemed that a few of them were breaking just about every high-end bike in short order and were looking for somebody to build them bikes that would last a bit longer. My salesrep friend told me that he only way I would know how to do this was to go and ride with these folks and see just what they and Flagstaff riding were all about. This group of crazy daredevil gonzo mountain bikers were the 'Mutants" and they numbered about 8-12...I don't remember all that well. When I got to Flagstaff my bike which I had shipped wasn't there yet so the mutants lent me a Mantis to ride. They took me on a really rocky rite-of-passage and I was humbled by the skill by which these locals left me panting in the dust. The next day my bike arrived and I got to ride with the crew again , only this time it was way up in the San Fransisco peaks -prpbably not a big ride for the locals but a serious lung burner for me. It was rocky , high elevation riding that made me realize why these folks had super low gears on thier bikes and why their bikes were so beat up. Two guys in the Mutants really stood out as monsters on the bike: Yod Branch and Steve Garro. Steve and his girlfriend at the time were looking to get bikes. I was the only builder who had bothered to come out there to check out the scene -these folks had spent plenty on bikes through the years only to wind up destroying them and pitching them in the scrap heap after a short time. Steve and Yod had toured throughout the southwest, had been in magazine photos doing the most death defying stuff on mountian bikes at that time. I knew I had to forget about building light, nimble Nor-Cal style bike for the likes of these folks and give them super-mega thick Tange prestige tubes to resist the rocks and riding of northern Arizona. Months passed and two of my frames made their way to Flagstaff, one of them for Steve. He rode and beat that frame for years-I was waiting for the phone call to say that he had killed it because if anyone could kill a frame, it was Steve. Steve rode through Copper Canyon in Mexico and was with a group that were the first people to do so...he toured south America , made many excursions all over the southwest. Many years passed and Steve decided to learn how to build frames himself. Not many framebuilders have ridden as much or as hard as Steve so his experience and passion for riding would make him a great candidate for building. After a few years building frames Steve, a guy who cheated death on countless occasions on a bike got hit by a car and nearly killed. After weeks in the hospital and many operations he was allowed to go home. It was pretty certain that he would never walk again, let alone ride a bike. This was not enough to stop Steve from continuing as a framebuilder. Friends helped modify his shop so that if he wanted to, Steve could attempt building frames while in a wheelchair. It took some time but Steve was able to re-start his career and although he will probably never ride a two-wheel bicycle again he will continue building bikes for those that can. Steve can crutch around a little and now he has a hand-cycle that he takes up some of the same rocky trails that he used to ride back in the day on his mountian bike. His wife Denise is an avid mountian biker and Steve has build some stellar bikes for her that she rides and beats up in the Flagstaff tradition. Steve builds frames named after the forests of northern Arizona, Coconino . What he builds is a product of hundereds of days of riding and racing in that forest.I personally doubt that there exisits a more dedicated spirit who is currently putting frames together .......Steve will proudly tell you about stuff that he has done-it's not boasting, it's just facts-facts that he is justifyably proud of. I'll take genuine pride over false modesty any day of the week. Steve Garro has much to be proud of . I'm happy to know the guy. He made me a better builder, no doubt.

Background check

2009-06-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

Seems to me that my past is largely unknown to a lot of my readership , if I may be so bold as to call it that. The reason for this is because my role in the world of framebuilding is realatively insignificant outside of my small circle. I think people have the impression that I am a fry cook as opposed to a gourmet chef in the framebuilding kitchen. Ou contraire , folks. I can understand someone equating building simple welded racing bikes as the cheesburger in the world of haute-couisine cutom framery. If you think that, I would like to see you try doing my job for a week.....maybe better just try it for a day. These cheeseburgers have to be just so in order to win national cheeseburger titles. Pictured here is a stainless steel lug. Yes, a lug , and it was used in a frame that I built in 2006. Yes, I do build lugged frames and for the first 6 years of my framebuilding sentence that is all that I did, lugged frames and forks. Was I making a living at framebuilding at the time ? No, I was still a hobbyist selling a frame now and then. All told I'm not sure how many lugged frames I have built but it is in the hundereds......at least two hundered anyway. So what made this lugged framebuilder change to the tool of the devil, the tig welder? I would call that change a result of having an open mind, something that a few of my fellow builders do not seem to posess. Heck, I was trash-talking tig, aluminum , mountain bikes , clipless pedals, shock forks , index shifting , anything that I was ignorant about was dogshit. I can't really say exactly what made me look inside myself and see what an ignoramus I had become but I venture it was around the time when I turned fulltime at framebuilding. In order to make a living at this stuff I had to answer the phone and say 'yes' to just about every request. I was building tons of fillet-brazed handlebar stems.....I can't tell you what a time toilet that was , especially at $ 4-5 and hour -at least that's what I was maikng on a good day. Suddenly I realized why big companies were tig-welding stems, frames and forks-it was fast, it was cleaner and the results were every bit as strong as brazing , as long as you knew what you were doing. There is as much to know and plenty of challenge in any form of framebuilding, it's just that more traditional methods do take more time and make it more difficult for the builder to earn a living wage. I have some good friends who still build in the tradition in which they, and I started . It wasn't like now-a revival of sorts-back then it was the way it was done. The few folks who are left building in the same way they were 30-40 years ago have nothing to prove....they are as they have always been . They never saw the need to change - a good bike is always a good bike. I still have a few of my first 13 odd bikes in my shop. They are still rideable and when I get the rare occasion to pull one down and take it for a spin I'm always surprised at what I notice....the old thing still rolls......the thing still feels good. What could I sell it for ? Probably not much at all , but it's not for sale so it dosen't matter. I guess my point is that maybe I'm making a lot of fast food these days but back in the day I could cook up a nice chateaubriand.....just don't ask me to make one now. For that I can reccomend a few master chefs , some of which you may already know.

The cheese stands alone

2009-06-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

Back in 1975 I was working at the donut shop day shift. Working days gave me the dubious pleasure of working with the patriarch of Arlenes Donuts.....the old man himself. Even though technically it was his son who really ran the place, the old man came in for a few hours some days to instill some dicipline to the newer employees , like myself. One day I was cutting onions to be used for the many hamburgers served to all the police and drunks that would come in on graveyard shift.....my future . As I was cutting my way through a 50 lb. bag of the San Juaquin's finest, I accidently knocked a few chunks on the floor, to which the old man screamed at me:" Don't drop those onions, Paul...onions are expensive !" . Actually, these onions cost 50 cents a bag....a 50 lb. bag , to be exact. I had the knife in my hand...I could have cut the old bastards head off right then , but I didn't. My point here is that I hate hypocritical tyrants....probably why I work for myself. I may on occasion be a hypocrite, but I am not tyrant....ask anybody who currently works for me. Hmmm, right now that's nobody so there is no argument to the contrary. Seriously, though-there are some bosses who might be better off not being bosses as they make the workday a living hell for the whole crew. I did a stint at a company, and I use that term in the loosest sense. The boss was a visionary, a guy with a lot of ideas and a great intellect. One thing he didn't have was any people skills at all. I was brought in to do production brazing-it seemed that nobody in his crew had the knowhow and the guy who came by occasionally to do the work was pretty much unreliable, another way of saying that maybe he had another life that was more important to him than working the torch at ********* bicycles. So there I was, brazing all afternoon, trying to please this boss as I admired him and considered him a good friend. After brazing dropouts into forkblades for about 3 hours I almost jumped out of my shoes....somebody had hit the bench with a large rubber mallet and had hit it really hard. I had my goggles on and a lit torch in my hand, I could have burned myself and/or somebody else....including the boss. Shaken , I turned off the torch and pulled off my goggles to see the boss standing next to me. He said : "I needed to get your attention.". I asked what the problem was. The boss said that I was burning too much flux and causing more cleanup work than necessary. I handed him the torch and asked for a demo on the way to avoid burning flux. The boss took up the torch, deftly lit it and began to braze in a dropout. When he was done with his demo there was every bit as much burned flux on his work as there was on mine. Upon finishing he said : " I'm out of practice....there would have been no burnt flux if I had been brazing recently." That was enough for me to decide that this particular employer was not my cup of tea and the next day I announced my intention to never again darken his door , which I believe I haven't. I really set out to be a good employee and a good asset to this boss , even though I had a lot of my own work at my shop building my own frames for my own customers. Just like the donut shop I was put in my supposed place by a petty tyrant, a person who was lacking in people skills but was not lacking in the hot air department. Framebuiding is a trade that is attracting a lot of folks as of late and I for one am glad of it, inspite of what I see as some misled enthusiasm. It is my great hope that the companies that hire these new excited and inspired folks do not abuse them and cultivate them to become valuable to the industry and the customers. Without a supportive industry for these new folks our craft will die with us and all the bikes that people ride will come from a country where labor is cheap, abused and treated as expendable. Much as I may stand here on my virtual soapbox and decry what I don't like in current trends in framebuilding, it isn't because I want folks to fail.....I want everyone to flourish. I put out there what I know has worked to keep me employed as a fulltime framebuilder for over 21 years. What I say might sound like a bunch of opinions to some but it is undisputable that I'm still here, still busy and very happy to keep at my job as long as people want what I build. Hobbyists can do this craft for themselves-I was a hobby builder for 9 years. Fulltimers have a greater responsability.....we have to make other folks happy, not just ourselves. Figure that out and you might have a future in this crazy job.

Pass me the Kool aid

2009-06-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago a very respected builder wrote that stainless is "The poor mans chrome ". I know what he's trying to say with this but as far as I know only really rich guys have bikes with stainless bits on the frame while I see homeless on old bikes with peeling rusty chrome. This brings me to my love-hate affair with stainless steel on bicycle frames. I love the way it looks, can't get around that.....I equate it with donuts-I used to wotk graveyard shift in a donut shop putting myself through the last year of college. Those donuts sure smelled and tasted great but they f%^&ed you up. Eat enough donuts and your face would break out, your colon would clog and you would need bigger pants. That's the way I feel about stainless-what you have to go through to incorporate it into a bicycle frame in terms of additional steps, difficulty and compromises to the simplicity of the structure make it a job I avoid. But what of the folks who gladly take on the mantle of 'Stainless-master" ? I wish them luck. They probably don't need or want my well wishes but they'll get them anyway-it's my way of saying thanks for creating a magnet for the work I don't want. A long time ago, before the internet and framebuilding classes there was a time when one had to learn by listening to the few builders of the day if you were lucky enough to , or by Fred Flintstoning your primitive way by yourself learning by trial and error......actually lots of errors. Some of what I see in current building styles are what we called in those days " Errors". Things like putting on seat-binders,seat stays, brake bridges, cantilever bosses, rear disc droputs with 56% silver solder. Hey, it's clean....it's low temperature.....".wow , the metal didn't even change color when I soldered on that front derailleur boss !" -All this is true but what is also true is that most of these attatchments will let go in time, sometimes in very little time. Imagine coming down a hill , applying your rear disc brake and the whole dropout rips out of the frame ? Not good for the rider or the builder. Where do the builders learn these errors ? Not from the old guard , not from the framebuilding schools......they learn it from each other on the frame forums . Heck, here I am spouting my opinions.....am I any better ? No ,but at least when I have made my mistakes it was from not asking questions - it wasn't from bad advice. Another thing I see is the preponderance of really beautiful " Randonneur" bicycles built in the style of the great Rene Herse. I love the way these bikes look and the work that goes into some of them is monumental.....but......after my years of randonneuring in the real world of endurance cycling I realized that my bike with nice lugs and lots of carrying capacity was laughable to the veteran European randonneurs. The Euros were riding stripped-down racing bikes with triple cranks and as little extra provisions as possible so that they wouldn't have the same burden as I and all of the rest of the American randonneurs. While I did complete two years of qualifiers and Paris Brest Paris , I still feel that I'm not a builder that folks would assosciate as a builder of reputable randonneur bikes-I guess all those miles don't add up to what you get from all that shiny stainless hardware and those hip wooden fenders. When you are deep into a 600K ride , you essentially become a caveman....none of the fancy trim means anything....it's not a parade-it's a long, terribly difficult rite of passage. All you want is a comfortable seat,handlebars in as comfortable a position as possible and a bike that won't hold you back. Yes, you heard that here. I guess all I'm trying to say is that the next generation of builders has to cut back on the fluff and be real about this craft . We have to remember who we are doing it for and respect that they have to be provided with a safe and solid product that won't let them down, hold them back and make them feel glad that they got it from you.

Legacy

2009-05-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Too bad it's one of my frames in the picture when it really should be a frame from the subject of this post.....what can I say, my camera is full of my own stuff-I don't get out enough. Anyway, I spend a lot of time discussing things that I really don't like on this blog......folks on the forums who haven't made a frame, maybe haven't made anything except an ass of themselves on the internet .......guys who are essentially chasing lug shorelines for bowling trophies ........hey, it's my blog and I can say what I want. Maybe if some of you don't like what you read, start your own blog. What I wish to cover today is the group of folks that were established builders when I started getting the idea to try to build a frame or two. The '70's was when the U.S. builders were out to prove themselves against all of the imports coming from Euorpe. The U.S. builders were doing this by paying attention to stuff that the Euro's were largely ignoring, especially with regard to the finish of the frame. My memory isn't all that great and I might miss a few names but here are the ones that I got my inspiration from initially: Wizard ( Bryan Baylis ) Bruce Gordon , Albert Eisentraut , Art Stump,Strawberry ( Andy Newlands) , Keith Lippy ,Ross Shafer , Fred Parr. There were other folks, too that I became aware of a little later: Richard Sachs, Dale Saso, Roland Della Santa .....more than I can recall. Some of these folks as you might know are still building-some still in the tradition of the time when they started some 40 years ago. The level of impeccability and devotion to the craft does set these folks apart in my view, even if they don't feel that way themselves. Though some of my writings would sound like I'm calling the '70's style of building obsolete , in the case of most of these folks that is not the case. A good bike is always a good bike. There is a timless quality to a impeccably built machine. The shop I worked in back in 1977-78 had some very nice frames from Europe but the frames from the builders I mentioned clearly outclassed the best of what Europe was sending over here. The Merckx orange Colnago I cherished when I moved to Santa Cruz in 1977 quickly got sold-I was either going to get a frame made by a U.S. builder or build one for myself if i could. Now it has been 31 years plus since I built my first frame and one might think that I feel like I'm one of the '70's guys I looked up to back then but that is not the way I see it. The Della Santa hanging in my shop , built in 1978 really humbles me with it's meticulous craftsmanship. When I go to the bike shows and see Bruce Gordon's or Brian Baylis's frames I really know how far I would have to go to build anything of that caliber.....and I doubt I could do it if I tried. Some folks, very few indeed have this ability. The frames they create are a legacy that will outlive them . Who are the next builders to create such a legacy of work ? I can't say. Times are different now , people put emphesis on different things . I'm not saying that newer builders can't do a great job of building frames........it's a question of authenticity and commitment.

A tale of two cities : Does Portland need to get over itself ?

2009-05-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Back in 2003 I went up to Portland for the cyclocross nationals in which I was to try my luck . I would be happy just to finish unhurt and hopefully not last. I had no idea what I was in for. The city of Portland has per capita more cyclists and more cycling fans that just about anywhere on earth. The nationals were held at Portland International Raceway, normally the domain of automobiles but this time it was all about bikes. What I experienced was the most exciting and rewarding racing and spectating weekend of my life. Portland people show up, rain,shine,snow...whatever-they are seemingly unaffected by weather in a negative way. For the elite races a drum corps came onto the infield of the course and created an atmosphere of tremendous excitement for the racers and fans alike. It was this weekend that I fell in love with Portland the first time. The next year the nationals were held in Portland again and I had a similar time and renewed enthusiasm for the town and people. The following year the nationals moved to Providence , Rhode Island but I still went to Portland for the U.C.I. final race weekend where I scored my first top-ten ever at a cyclocross race. It was at this race where I first saw Sacha White and his team , sitting in a hot tub on the course infield before they all went and lined up to do the single speed event in their speedos....bear in mind, it was in the low 50's and raining. This kind of irreverent enthusiasm was making me feel like I was living in the wrong town. Soon after that, the Handmade Bike Show would come to Portland and for me it was the best bicycle show of all time....I had lots of fun and lots of interest in my frames. Great racing, super enthusiastic people and a town with a serious appreciation for independently built bicycle frames....what could be better ? Later that year I heard of an independent custom bicycle show, the Manifest that was to be held in Portland. For me it was chance to go back to my favorite city away from home, after all-Jay Sycip was moving there to work for Chris King, Rick Hunter was thinking of moving there as well....it seemed like lots of folks in my line of work were gravitating north. What I found at the Manifest show was a scene that sadly made me fall out of love with Portland......it was a show that showcased Porltand builders primarily but was open to builders from out of the area. What we weren't told is that if you were not one of the Portland builders , you would be pretty much a second-class citizen largely ignored by the people who came to see the show. A huge show party was held at a large advertising agency and on display were life-size arty black and white posters of about 20 builders from Portland, only three of which whom I recognized. There was a reason for this-most of the builders were pretty new at it, some having built less than ten frames, yet these new builders were being propped up as veritable legends of the art while several of us from California and southern Oregon with about 5,000 frames built between us languished in obscurity. Was our commitment to the craft insufficient ? was our 15-20 years in the buisness not enough to indicate dedication ? Did the fact that we travelled far to take part in this show mean nothing ? That's the way it seemed to me. The other thing I noted about the show was the emerging "Portland school of framebuilding design " Which to me essentially was about copying Vanilla bikes right down to all of the builders getting the same water-jet cutout dropouts with their own logos. It reminded me of Stevie Ray Vaughan......he was incredible as a guitarist/singer but after he died the world got flooded with imitators, none of which would ever be S.R.V. . Similarly, none of the Portland folks have any chance to be Sacha White. I wonder why they just can't be themselves. Once I packed up and disgutedly left the show I headed south for Wilsonville where a Cross Crusade race was to happen. When I got there I was witness to 1,400 plus people signed up to race....an unprecedented turnout for a cyclocross event. I lined up for my 50 plus race and saw about seven rows of racers behind me....the largest field i had ever raced in. I did my laps, finished and realized that the show might have been a bust for me and that the whole pretentiousness of the party was but a sidenote to the real Portland.....the town where people ride in any kind of weather and turn out in the thousands to see folks race in the mud.I fell back in love immediately. I'm coming back this fall......not for the fake show, I'm coming back for the real one.

I make my wine from sour grapes

2009-05-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I have a few regrets when I reflect on my life. I'm not just talking about the bike building thing-I'm talking about regrets that haunt me....in my dreams, in my general life. Some of these regrets were from times when I didn't stand up for myself-I was one of those kids who got bullied and picked on, an outcast for the most part. Maybe this blog is my way of getting back at people who I thought were out of line and used their pushy nature to force me into a retreat of sorts, a backing down from what I stood for or identified with. This fuel for my fire isn't the healthiest of propellants but no amount of trying to pretend to evolve in some sort of phony new age consciousness can put this twisted fire out. Lets face it-some folks are prone to being bastards. I regret all the times I have been such a bastard and possibly hurt some folks needlessly . Whew, now that that's over I can tell you the next tale of woe. A phenomonon that is a part of any sort of profession has been the tendency of folks elevating their favorite such and such to sainthood. There are some really great craftsmen in our trade that deservingly command huge respect for the impeccability of their craft and unflagging dedication towards excellence in what they do. Excellence such as this is justly rewarded with the respect of the framebuilding community at large and the buying public. Some of these builders attain the status of demi-gods , almost other worldly 'saints of the torch' in peoples eyes. The problem starts when these builders see themselves the same way that their fans do and practically float on air above the rest of us , ocasionally bestowing us with their wisdom and grace. I guess this kind of makes me want to vomit. What are we ? We are blacksmiths , welders, filers, sawers , cursing loathsome beaters of metal into bicycle frames. While some of us can make art out of the tubes, lugs and paint , the thing that all of us are presumed to produce is of course, something to be ridden- a bicycle. What I fail to fully understand is why there has been a trend toward making bicycle frames that look impressive but that are in effect impractical objects du art that might collapse if ridden off a curb a few too many times. Some builders are so hell-bent on becoming the 'saints' of the trade that they are failing to become good bike builders. I feel that the blame belongs to some of the builders that are cultivating a 'Concours d' elegance ' approach to marketing , a real promotion of exclusivity for the folks lucky enough to get one of their shiny rolling exhibits . While I do belive that there is room for art in bicycles I also feel that it needs to be tempered by the original identity of the bicycle , a form of transportation. Many of the top craftsmen in the buisness build this way-the art is merely an expression carried by the fully functional and reliable bicycle. The builders that go for the aesthetic touches without making sound decisions in regards to the bikes fit , ride or durability are pretty much taking the M.T.V. approach to building :" Who cares what it can do, what is the most important is the visual aspect and what kind of status it can represent." You know what I think.......make up your own mind what kind of bike you want to be on when you are going on your next ride.

Misinformation highway part II

2009-05-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, one post isn't enough to cover this subject-maybe two posts isn't enough, either. Anyway , I'm sure that the folks who started the forums for discussions about framebuilding never intended to create such a hershey-highway of verbal effluent but these things have a way of taking on a life of their own. Call me old fashioned but I thought the forums were a super good idea for exchanging useful and proven information. Unfortunately the forums are pretty much about 10% of what I think they should be-the other 90% is a pissing match between the following fractured factions: # 1, the pros....the few, the proud, the ones who actually make a living building frames every day....sometimes too many days in a row. This is the group that has the most to give , even if some folks aren't willing to take them seriously. # 2, the genuine 'Fake pros" These are the folks that have the appearence of being fulltime and probably do spit out a number of quality units, show up at the shows and have a nice website ...but.....maybe the wife has the real money job and/or the folks helped set up a trust. These guys might be really good at what they do but they don't have to do it to pay the rent. # 3, the serious hobbyist. These guys know how to build and might make some really pretty stuff but they don't know the fulltime gig at all , even if they come off like seasoned pros. They have insight and experience but since they do this for fun, they have no concept of the practical aspects of making a living building frames. # 4, the guys who just built their first frame. These are the ones who not only have the questions, they appreciate the help. They might not be pros and their experience is limited but they are the ones most excited about the process. # 5, The guys planning on building thier first frame. These guys do a lot of reading and scouring the net for information. They may never use this information, they might not even buy their first file but that dosen't keep them from chiming in often to express their opinion on the subject that they really don't know jack about. #6, the guys who have not built a frame, won't ever build a frame , never intended to build a frame but out of some mental sickness want to lurk on these forums and stir up shit with strong opinions about all sorts of stuff they know nothing about. This might be the biggest group on the forum, at least they have the largest presence. O.K., these are the groups but there are subgroups as well. Among the pros are the classic guys, folks that build in the lugged timeless style of their predecessors. Funny, these guys might build in the same fashion but a lot of them don't get along. Framebuilding is that way, strong opinions abound and things can get personal.....don't ask me why, I can't figure it out to save my life. Another group are the " Let's build in whatever style works for a given situation" . These guys are pretty low key for the most part as they don't care how you build a frame, long as it is a safe to ride quality piece of machinery. Not much excitement in this group, just a bunch of working stiffs. A lot of the purists who aren't pros hate these guys......go figure. It's the net again, the land ruled by the opinion that trumps the fact , nearly every time. Narrow mindedness and dismissal of any sound form of building is a declaration of ignorance. Ignorance is a declaration of stupidity. Stupidity is the barrier to enlightenment. Burma shave. So as a result of these strong opinions , we framebuilders are broken up into various factions rather than uniting into one strong group. The Handmade bike show was and is an attempt to get us all together but even it has taken on a bit of excusivity with the requirements and various back-slapping that seemingly cannot be avoided in shows that involve any kind of craft. My feeling is that if we continue to fracture, we will stay right where we are, a struggling group of skilled craftspeople, always one short step from going under. This was really obvious when I went around at the Handmade show and did a headcount of fulltime builders, you remember group # 1 ? I think out of 150 plus exhibitors there were around a dozen. We are indeed hanging by a thread.......maybe we should learn to get along.

Misinformation highway

2009-05-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

Remember those " Question authority" bumper stickers that were everywhere about 15-20 years ago ? I don't see them any more-maybe it's a given that folks question authority every day without the need to advertise . Back in the day I thought to myself : " Maybe some of the authorities need to be questioned , but some of the questioneers need to seek something significant, not just assume that somebody who might know more than you needs to be dismissed ignorantly". -Hey, it's just what I felt at the time because most of my friends who had those bumper stickers were dumbasses posing as rebels. This brings me to the subject of internet forums, particularly the ones involving discussions about framebuilding. I used to be on one of these forums, checking for nuggets of information and to post something now and then that might help one of the new folks avoid the numerous mistakes that I made . I guess its some character flaw within me that makes me want to help folks......people I'll probably never meet-some who might very well become competitors.The way I see it, whoever can do the job best deserves the buisness....I know it dosen't always work that way but its how I feel. After about a year and a half of being part of the maelstrom of the forum I had to cut the cord . My sin was posting factual methods learned and proven in my shop humdereds of times , stuff that I know would be helpful. I posted these bits in response to questions from new folks on the forum. What I got for my troubles was usually some guy , probably an out of work engineer who had read a bit and had gotten a lot of heresay advice and was now an 'expert' telling me that what I was posting was incorrect, according to what he had read or heard. I call this person an " Ignorant shithead posing as a person with a brain". It's the same guy who says :" I'm hooking up a pipe to the ass of one of my cows so I can use the methane to run my torch, therefore avoiding using the questionable established and proven oxy-acetylene setup". Maybe it's the guy who told me that tig-welded on cable stops cause frame failures ......I asked him for photos and/or any documentation of this and he said that he had none but that he heard it from a friend who had built a frame. Nice . Then there was the guy who told me I was not a good buisnessman because I had only sold two lugged frames that year and that he had built 400. I personally had never seen one of his frames , not at any of the shows , not in a magazine, not at a race. The guy was lying. He was a good builder, too....he didn't need to bullshit but he did-after all, its the internet and the framebuilder's forum so anything goes, right ? Actually, not right. The truth is, very little goes and the rest is absolute garbage. There are ways to build frames that work-they are well documented and effective, proven in shops all around the world as well as on the world stage of racing. Still, thats not enough for some complete moron in a garage somewhere who thinks that they might someday try to build a frame say : " Hey, I heard that I can use beef tallow for flux ". Yeah, and milk is cow's pee. So I left the forum after mr. 400 lugged frames in one year flamed me with a steaming load of bullshit. I have seen a few really talented and established builders get questioned mercilessly about the soundness of thier methods and it put me over the edge. I still want to and do teach folks, after all-30 years of trying to figure out this crap caveman style has given me some enlightenment on the subject , at least I would like to think so. One guy said to me : " Why are you still building with that aluminum crap?" I said to him , Hey......I'm booked up for 4-5 months with orders....how many orders do you have ? ......silence.

I didn't ask to be born....

2009-05-10T17:21:00.001-07:00

I spend a lot of this blog ranting about the wrongs and misdeeds of some of my fellow frame torchers but I haven't addressed my own library of congress card-catalogue of failures . I have said many things to folks that I regret and I have also witheld comment when I shouldn't have. What is life without regret ? Stillbirth. So what are my biggest blunders ? I really don't know where to start so I won't.....I'll just leave it to all to conjure up images of massive dumbass blunders that I have the sole responsability for. One thing I do know is this : Not a day goes by that I don't think of how lucky I am to be doing a job I like......also, not a day goes by when I don't fully realize that this livelyhood of mine can cease to be viable in a very short time. I know of three builders, talented guys who hung it up in the last year. I can't say why I am busy and why they weren't but I am thankful that year after year I have been able to keep at it and learn how to do my job better along the way. When I started out as a hobbyist I had no intention of going fulltime.....it just turned out that a lot of work was coming my way and my other job was getting in the way. That was 1988, a different time and a smaller pool of builders on the scene. Now , the internet and custom bike shows provide a place for new builders to get visible to the world. They are seen but that doesn't mean that they'll be able to make a living from framebuilding. I think it is important for anyone starting out that they realize that learning the craft is a great thing but that framebuilding as a livelyhood is a fleeting and uncertain pursuit. In 2003 I got down to two orders on the list and I took a part time job in a winery tasting room-only one day a week but it was a chance to look at another field just in case my buisness tanked. I worked at the winery for a summer for $8 an hour.....not a living but at least a little money and something to do with my new found idle time. Soon after taking the job frame orders started coming in and by the end of the summer the fun job at the winery had to go. Since then I have been busy , so busy that I have had to figure out ways to be more efficient in the shop. Stressful as keeping up with a big work load may be, I know of a lot of builders who would like to have this kind of stress. However long it lasts you know I'll appreciate it and try to show that in what I build.

Negative re-enforcement

2009-05-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

We as framebuilders and bike-frame information junkies are very fortunate to not be living in the '70's . Times were quite a bit different back then and the huge exchange of information, misinformation, opinions, and just plain b.s. about framebuilding that we see today on the internet was not the case back in the day. In the '70's I would sat that two types of builders existed in my town: # 1, just a humble guy who was building frames , probably in a borrowed garage hoping to someday make it his livelyhood. # 2, a guy who actually had his own garage and was maybe a bit more smug because of this and also because of the fact he had actually sold a few frames and had more on order. When I got the idea to build myself a frame I had the good fortune of meeting two guys who had built some frames, Dean Hovey ( my bike shop bosses son-in-law) and Ross Shafer, just a guy who happened to come by the shop asking to consign a frame and possibly get a few weeks of work, which he did. Dean Hovey provided the shop crew with a bunch of materials for cheap so that we could pursue our beginnings as bike builders and Ross let me use his shop and gave me guidence on how to construct my first frame. Early on, Ross and I decided to go check in on the town's actual framebuilder-a guy who's bikes I had seen on the club rides and who had a reputation for building good racing bikes. When we found this builders garage, he was in it filing on a lug, doing his signature cutout for some customer. This builder was happy to talk to us, perhaps thinking that we might be potential customers. Things changed in an instant when I said that I was planning my first frame and that Ross himself had already completed about eight frames and was working on a couple more for customers. Immediately, the builder got a frown on his face and told us that he had much work to do and urged us to be on our way. Fine......he was busy, no doubt. Yes, he came upon his framebuilding knowhow the hard way, maybe. Yeah, we were just punks who he didn't owe anything to and could do without-after all, we could become the competition if he helped us.......or maybe, this guy was just an asshole who thought that his regal position as a builder in a garage with a few orders made him some sort of diety to be revered.....don't dare waste his time ! -He's a cherished and valued asset to his community !....nooooooooo, he's a prick who can build a nice frame. This is how I feel on the issue of exchanging framebuilding information. I am fine telling anyone anything about what i have learned on the subject of building frames. As far as I am concerned, if there is someone who can take this info and based on thier drive and talent can do a better job than I, so be it. This new person deserves to have his or her chance....conversely, if I am slacking in my job, having a new face come along and show me some inspiration is a good thing. What we have today is a whole worldwide information exchange going on between builders, hobbyists and the like....it's something that really was not possible in the '70's, at least not when some of the builders were like the guy that Ross and I visited back then. One thing though, Ross and I did come away from that meeting with some clear inspiration-either one or both of us were determined to build more and better bikes than that smug guy in the garage . Only a couple of years later I got the chance to repair one of mr. smug's frames that had been crashed and needed a whole new front triangle. When I pulled it apart I noticed some voids inside the lugs that had no silver and black, burnt flux here and there. Here I was, just the punk kid finding less than stellar workmanship in a frame from the self-proclamed 'Master". I wound up repairing the frame, even re-creating the signature cutout in the downtube lug. When I asked the builder to sell me replacement decals , he wouldn't sell them to me stating that the bike was no longer original. Pretty much, this is what I expected, asshole to the end. The builder eventually moved out of town, got a job in a different field and has done very little building since the mid '80's. Ross went on to create Salsa, a very successful buisness and I, well i got to keep building long enough to experience the "Age of enlightenment " , or at least, the age of less assholes. What this post really speaks to is that the two builders I spoke of in the beginning are really # 1, an actual builder # 2 , a poser in the form of a builder who wants the supposed trappings of the field ( what a joke...) and is probably more than a little insecure of his precarious perch constructed primarily of bullshit. I don't know about you, but I do not miss the '70's.

Building in the school of.....

2009-04-28T20:33:00.001-07:00

Back in the day, well.....a long time ago when I was a bicycle mechanic and a piss-poor racer I was hell bent on getting a nice frame for all of the nice Campagnolo bits I had collected over the previous four years. I had scammed, borrowed and begged my way into pretty much a Super Record gruppo, minus the titanium stuff that was way to rare and spendy for anyone making $ 3.25 an hour. I put $ 50 down on a Bob Jackson Messina , nice looking frame and it was my size and lucky for me, it was at the bike shop where I worked hanging only about four feet over my head five days a week. A few weeks went by and I got into a bit of a financial bind and had to ask my boss for the $ 50 back, temporarily-of course. My boss said that there wasn't any worry, the frame had been hanging there for two years and was unlikely to sell. Next week it sold and I was really depressed. I was so depressed that I got the stupid notion to build a frame myself ! Tubsets were only $ 20-30 back then so all I needed was the knowhow and some tools. The knowhow thing was not as easy as the tool thing but at least I had some inspiration in the form of frames hanging in the shop-bear in mind, this was no funky little repair shop-this was 'The Bicycle Center" and some of the finest frames available were hanging from the walls. Two that struck me as impossibly perfectly crafted were those of Albert Eisentraut and Bruce Gordon.......and it was a real surprise to me that two Americans of whom I had never heard of were giving all the European builders a run for thier money. The Bob Jackson was only $ 210 while the Gordon was over $ 500, but you did get what you paid for-it was undeniable. While I had no idea what any of these frames rode like I know what I wanted my frame to resemble in terms of craftsmanship-that was if I could miraculously turn into a master craftsman on the first try. Anyone who ever lit a torch could tell me that I was aiming way too high and should just try to build something rideable the first time. Well......it was rideable, but not much better than that , so I better get back on the subject. Here it was, 1978 and I was witnessing the 'American school' of framebuilding....insanely thin lugs, innovative seatpost binders, imron paint applied as lightly as possible to show every minute detail, much the opposite of my Bob Jackson where the enamel was thick to hide all the file-marks and ugliness of a more crude approach. I was to learn that this school included many other names, some that we know today, some that have been overlooked in the ensuing decades since. All shared the same phiosophy: Building in a manner that meant to raise the bar in the craft of framebuilding beyond anything coming from Europe, by far the biggest producer of upper-end racing and touring bicycles. I tried to be a late addition to this group of talented folks but my patience level was not sufficient and after about seven frames I decided to take a break and think about what the hell I was doing with all of this framebuilding stuff . The frustration involved in my primitive approach was really making the whole experience miserable. After a break of nine months I found a new shop to work in and some folks asked me to build them a few frames. It wasn't so tough this time and I found it almost pleasureable , the building process. Soon, Mountain bikes were in demand and I found myself in a new school, the' Fillet-brazed mountain bike' school, only this time I was not a late addition....I was right in the middle of it. Within a few years the lugs that I had been using were sitting idle in boxes under my bench and fillet brazed bikes of all kinds were leaving the shop, so many that I had to quit my job and go fulltime to meet the orders. Within three years I was tig welding , another school, the school of late '80's and '90's MTB and cyclocross framebuilding. This period was not that much different from the original '70's school of trying to outdo the Europeans but this time the builders were trying to outdo the Japanese, the large American manufacturers by finding ways to build better riding and longer lasting frames. By the end of the '90's I was using aluminum,scandium and some carbon pieces to try to build the same bikes I was seeing in the Tour de France and at the Olympics.....I don't know what one would call this school.....the school of looking for broader horizons , a simple case of evolution or was it economic survival? Probably all three. But what is the current school , the school of 'now' in framebuilding ? Hard to say for me.....what I see is a return to the aesthetic considerations of the '70's with some new twists, some good, some that I feel are not . A 'school' should indicate some sort of knowhow based on teachings based on tried and tested methods . Sure, there is room for innovation and though it is said repeatedly that "It has all been done before " and " I saw that on page 34 of the Data book and it was done in 1896" there is always a chance to do something new. That is what I feel the new school might be......the shool of pushing boundaries, but that's what they all have been . The trick is to push the boundaries but not to make a mistake in the process, a bike that is structurally compromised by some new untested method . Where am I going with this ? That's not the real question....the real question is where are we going with this ?

Said 'my,my' from the spider to the fly.....

2009-04-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

When you build bikes there's two aspects of the buisness: # 1, the fun part-putting frames together in the shop. # 2 the selling part . This is done through the media, the internet and at various trade shows . Another part of selling is word-of-mouth, but that dosen't qualify for this next chapter in which I conjure up all the dread I feel for this part of the buisness , my friggin' buisness. Selling......I don't know, I just never really felt comfortable with the concept. At some of these trade shows, not all of them thankfully, I feel like we are sitting in out booths just waiting for someone to walk in-just like a spider waiting for a fly to hit the web and be tonights dinner. This part of the buisness to me is so not what I got into this line of work for. To me, the product should sell itself on its own merits, not something I spew out of my mouth or write on my website . Sadly, this is too idealistic of an approach in this world but i do believe that the majority of my bikes are sold because somebody saw them being ridden somewhere and it made a positive impression on them.....not me, the bike. Sure, I want to be very good to the folks that put their trust in me to build them something that most likely they saved a long time for and sifted through a number of choices before giving me a call. It's a tough balance , really- I want to be successful at what I do but I don't want to get to a place where I hate myself because of what I have to do to sell my wares. When I start interviewing myself on my own website I give anyone reading this permission to put a bullet in my head-you would be doing me and the world a favor. Don't get me wrong, I know that any craft like this can be a popularity contest and things like catchy graphics and what I call "logo-wear" go a long way to build your name. For me its different-I spend much more time at races than in shows or updating my website. I want to be part of the cycling community , not just feed off of it. Fullfilling a need to me is much more purposeful than creating something for someone to parade around like some priceless painting ...........but still, some of the folks who build these rolling works of art doing it for the same fundamental reason I build racing bikes - we love the bicycle. We love the bicycle more than popularity, more than prosperity , more than having things like a retirement or health insurance. it's more than what we want to do.....its what we cannot help ourselves from doing. With that kind of motivation and purity of intent there is a good chance that if you have something built by one of these folks, there will be a lot of them in the bike.......consider it a gift -a gift that goes both ways as your trust in them and validation of their craft is the ultimate gift.

Don't take this personally......o.k., go ahead.

2009-04-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

Seems as if I am failing somewhat in this blog.....I'm trying to be informative and maybe stepping a bit too lightly, trying to avoid really saying anything that might offend my fellow braziers.....err, whatever you call 'em. This is the internet afterall and I read a lot of completely insulting rubbish all the time , some of it being passed off as infomation when its just another butthead letting off steam or reacting to a fellow butthead letting off steam. O.K., buttheads, react to this. The following is what I really wanted to say in this blog but it has taken me a few weeks to really arrive at the proper headspace to spell it out and no, I'm not drunk. I decided to do this one stone cold sober......."How to not be a successful framebuilder" by the overopinionated one hisself. # 1, Tell people that they will get their frames in 4-5 weeks when you know damn well that it is an impossibility. Being a little late is normal and people expect this of our craft.....its almost unnatural and possibly against some code we all adhere to to actually deliver something on time. My gripe is with the folks that say 4-5 weeks and the frame hasn't been delivered and its now 9 months. Shame on you.......hey, if something traumatic happens in your life and you can't get the thing done, that is acceptable-as long as you have informed the customer of such and don't give them the " Its still at the painter" bullshit. # 2, Telling folks that you have a two year waiting list when you have 5 frames on order. How unbelievably moronic......trying to gain prestige from a ficticious work load.......spare me. You either have the work or you don't. Be truthful and that will actually sell more of your frames . # 3 , Talking down some process or some material that you have not even a micron of a clue about.......this is prejudice and it serves only to magnify and spread your own ignorance. It actually shows class to admit you are not informed about something and would reserve comment on it until you gain such information. I myself have trash-talked stuff that I now rely on for my daily livelyhood......boy, was I an idiot. #4, believing that you have arrived at the top of the heap, the king-the master of your craft. This is for other people to decide, not you. If they say it is so, all the nicer for you. If you state it yourself, the gods of flame will surely set your pants on fire when you least expect it and burn your ass right down.# 5, don't return peoples calls and/or emails in a timely fashion , especially folks who are waiting for frames. What can I say about this that isn't obvious to any person of average intelligence ? I guess maybe the folks who can't get this are not the sharpest minds of our time. #6 , Not respecting customer requests........ahem, who is paying your rent ? Think about it......when someone hires you to build a frame they not only put thier trust in you to do a good job but also to build them what they asked for. Trying to talk someone out of what they want or changing specifications of the frame without telling them means that you are the wrong guy for this particular customer. I'm not talking about a customer who asks for utterly rediculous stuff, those are folks that should be avoided anyway. And now for the final insult.......#7, Putting on fancy trim that actually makes the frame weaker. Yeah, I know all of that stuff looks so cool and it sells like hotcakes but come on, what are we building....bicycles or wall hangings ? Nobody will listen to me about this stuff as I'm probably not the most convincing or reputable person to be addressing this but I have seen lots of overcooked and compromised tubes and my fear is that some people in a few years will be left with some really super awesome looking bike that broke an is rendered useless. Don't get me wrong, there are some uber-fancy bikes that will conceivably last forever built by a few folks that have the structural strength of the frame formost in thier minds. Building such a frame is a feat and truly approaches fine art. O.K., have I pissed some of you off ? Good, now return the favor and do the same to me.

Your steel may no longer be real..

2009-04-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

That's right.....your steel, maybe aluminum, ti, whatever might not be what you think it is. An alarming trend that started about ten years ago with framebuiding supplied has gained momentum and could really wind up causing a lot of frustration for small builders. That trend is of course, outsourcing and it is not limited to U.S. companies. Over the last ten-odd years I have purchased hundereds of tubes from several suppliers and directly from a couple of manufacturers. Most of the time I get what I ordered but here and there , what I call " Mystery metal" has found its way into my shop. The first time was in 1999 when I thought I would try Columbus 'Brain" tubing to build a run of seven tig welded cyclocross frames-five of them going to a top local team. On the second ride , one of these frames buckled and ripped at the downtube. The rider was startled but unhurt and phoned me to report the failure. I inspected the frame and realized that the tubes were quite a bit thinner and softer than the last shipment of tubes I had purchased from the same supplier.I immediately recalled all the frames and replaced the front triangles with Tange Presige. Even though I have been building for over thirty years I have little ability to analyze materials I purchase......my hope is that the engineers at the tubing compaines do this for me and all the other builders-I have no metallurgy degree and no hardness tester, only calipers and a dial-guage device for checking butt-length and location. By the time the tubing is on the market we as builders assume that the engineering and testing have already been done. This has been the case in the past but now with this frame failure I was no longer sure of anything, even if the tubes were made by Columbus at all. Was my supplier trying to sell me garbage, hoping I wouldn't know ? I don't think so....I had been buying from them for fourteen years and I'm sure they want me to continue as a faithful customer. So who is at fault for selling this garbage and what the heck was it ? After doing a little asking around I have this assesment : These tubes were the first wave of S.F.C. , which stands for 'shit from China'. Seeing as how the frame failure was nowhere near a weld or braze , I was convinced that the tube itself that was at fault . After sending the tube to an engineer friend of mine my suspicions were confirmed.....not only was this tubing not to spec but its origin of manufacture was a mystery. Since then I have been a lot more dillegent about checking all the tubes that I use , after all-it's someones safety and my reputation at stake. Even if the big manufacturers might not care about that I have to. A similar problem happened when I needed some chaintays to complete a run of aluminum team cyclocross frames. normally, these frames will last a good many seasons. Two frames that got some supposed Columbus aluminum chainstays had failures within three months. These were the first failures of any kind with aluminum in my career. Again, I found the tubes to be thinner and softer than the tubes I normally bought. I checked with my suppier and he said that he was pretty sure that this particular chainstay was manufactured somehwere in the far east and that he had some others of genuine Italian orgin that I could purchase and he sent me samples to try. There was no comparison, the Italian chainstays were far superior and were up to the rigors of racing , one of the bikes wound up winning a nationa championship a couple months later. O.K., so what are we buying ? Who is making the good stuff and who is selling us unusable garbage ? It changes so much week to week that I can't tell you but I will say that if you are going to put someone on one of your custom bikes it had better be made of the good stuff. Finding N.O.S. tubes is a good thing and working closely with your supplier to ensure that you aren't getting any SFC is essential. If we are to be able to continue what we do successfully we have to have a reliable supply of tubing that is up to the task. Most modern high-end steel is made so light that it is too delicate for a big percentage of our customers. Most of the heavier tubing is just crap, soft and poorly made. I don't know what to tell you, just stay informed and go for some good solid mid-weight steel that has no evidence of coming from China. Taiwan is o.k. for the most part , some of the Fujilite tubes I used many years ago were really good. You'll have to be diligent.

Nazis of all kinds

2009-04-11T08:27:00.001-07:00

Any time a buider says ; " ****** is the only way to build a frame. " I take this view as a sign of a person who is either 1. Bitter old guy .2. Bitter young guy. 3. Bitter young or old gal . 4. Somebody who really sincerely has one unshakeable view. 5. Completely ignorant of the process he/she is dismissing. I say to these folks, good on ya.....more work for the folks who aren't so dismissive. There are those who unashamedly build in one style and do so with tremendous dedication and attention to detail. This does not mean that they have lots of customers even though their hard work is inspiring and a show of pure dedication. I'm not dissing these folks....they are my heroes. I choose to diss the folks that say " My way or the highway" about building for all of us. I fart in their general direction, or more aptly, aim my torch at thier rear parts to set thier pants on fire. In my mind, building something such as a bicycle is to respond to a need , although it can be a personal expression as well. For me, the expression is something I leave mostly to the end user.....they will express themselves on a ride, in a race or whatever. My expression is what I give them in terms of a tool for racing , training , enjoyment , commuting or just not having to fire up the car to get somewhere. Ironically when I build a bike for a show it will have to have some sort of 'hook' to get people to look at it. Shows are all about the visual......I have never seen an award at a bike show that has anything to do with the ride and/or fit of the bike or even the customer satisfaction. This is really something that drives me crazy but it can't be helped as the bikes are stationary in a show and with few exceptions cannot be ridden. This leaves the door open for folks to develope opinions and prejudices based on purely aesthetic reasons. Not only that, all sorts of structurally questionable practices are viewed as " Innovations" at shows.......I call them " Mistakes that will inevitably put a rider on his/her face ". Where am I going with this ? Probably nowhere really....it's just this: If you want to make a living in this field you'll have to open your mind, but not too much. Consider all the ways that a frame can be put together and go with the method that suits your customers as long as it's sound. Put in your aesthetic but don't let it get in the way of the safety or enjoyment potential of the end user. Don't preach, unless you are a preacher by nature . Don't criticize another builder unless you have in fact walked a mile in his/her shoes, at least figuratively. The folks that diss tig welding probably haven't ever tired it. The welders that don't understand the validity of brazing and/or lugs are maybe too lazy to check that out. People who think that a sub 3 lb. steel frame is durable.......they are just nuts.

In the style of.......

2009-04-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the scenario: X builder finds himself with a ton of work and a ton of press.....or this is how a lot of folks view it. After a time it looks like this new talent on the framebuilding scene isn't going away-he's no flash-in-the-pan, as a matter of fact his momentum is gaining and his waiting list for frames is getting really long. New builders see this and a lot of them think: " X builder is who I want to be....loads of work, lots of prestige and the envy of his peers." Now some years pass and there are not just a few , but many imitators/emulators of X builder and they are all pretty good, some of them truly talented but no matter how talented they are , they just can't seem to get anywhere near the orders that X builder has. These new guys are making two mistakes in my opinion. Mistake # 1 , they don't really know what X builder went through ( and goes through on a daily basis ) to get so successful and assume that a website and some super nice looking frames will do the trick, maybe get a booth at the Handmade show to really get known. #2, They didn't really get an idea of what thier immediate cycling community needed in terms of custom frames. As I see it, many new builders want to be X builder and forgot that the needs of thier cycling community will go much further to secure a fulltime framebuilding gig than appealing to folks who buy from X builder. There isn't much room for more famous builders in the framebuilding world and there are only so many wealthy collectors who drive that market. The big numbers are the folks who need a custom bike for riding and a good deal of them can't afford to pay what X builder charges and aren't willing to wait for years to get a frame. I say to the new builders : These are your people ! Don't ignore them ! If you build 3-4 frames , put up your blog , make a really super fancy frame and photograph the crap out of it , put your prices up at the X builder level you will probably remain a hobbyist indefinitely. Unless you are the next X builder who had the vision, timing, drive and luck to start a major trend you will languish in obscurity, even if your work is absolutely stunning and your website is impeccably tasteful.

Herding cats

2009-04-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

About 5-6 years ago a guy named Don Walker created a bike show specifically for small framebuilders. Much discussion of such a show had been made over the years but nobody could agree on the location, vision , requirements or really anything at all to create such a show. This is the world of framebuilders, opinionated, individualistic, sometimes downright bristly folks who although all involved in the same livelyhood cannot seem to get together on much of anything, at least when it comes to doing something as a group. Along comes Don Walker who pretty much says :" O.K., folks, we have been kicking this around for years, its time for somebody to actually stick thier neck out and make it happen." Stick his neck out he did and as a result we now have the premier framebuilders expo, the North American Handmade bike show. Don's creation is arguably the best place for a small builder to show what they make and some newer builders owe a lot to Don and his creation. One would think that all would be harmonious now that a travelling show ( it travels so that framebuilders who are scattered all over the country can some day count on having the show at or near where they live ) would tame all of these stron individualistic builders into a somewhat cohesive group for at least the 4-5 days of the show. In the last two years this cohesion has broken down and a few smaller shows have been popping up here and there, a couple in Portland , Oregon , one in Denver , another in Ashland, Oregon ( Connected to the United Bicycle acadamy , a school that is perhaps the best place to learn framebuilding on earth) and now one in San Diego, California. Why more shows ? Well.......it's like this: A group of individuals ( Framebuilders ) who really couldn't agree on much as a rule now have issues with Don Walkers show . Don's style , although heavy handed at times evolved from having some really daunting problems putting on his show. Eevry year Don hosts his show he gets a lttle more savvy at figuring out what will make it successful but the very things that make the show financially viable can be at odds with what some of the framebuilders want. If the show is to survive it has to make a profit , regardless of what that might mean in terms of turning some of the framebuilders off. This year the show was held in Indianapolis, Don's home town. While a bunch of west coast framebuilders opted out of the show, it still was well attended and turned out to be quite a sucess. Not to be outdone, the west coast contingent....or at least a small portion thereof has created a smaller framebuilder show to be held this weekend in San Diego. I will be exhibiting at this show and I am curious to see weather it will garner anywhere near the attention from the public that Don's show attracts. A very established and talented framebuilder Brian Bayliss along with David Ybarolla and some others has created this show and I have no doubt that the organization will be good and that the amenities will be top-notch. Don's show will probably continue to be the largest and most important show of its kind but these smaller shows will allow each demographic to try and see who has the best response to such shows and which of these shows will survive in the future. It's all symtomatic of trying to herd cats, otherwise known as framebuilders.

Am I supposed to care what you think ?

2009-03-27T22:34:00.001-07:00

Well, I have to care a little. You can't do this stuff in a bubble forever. Anyway, I have too many blogs so anyone who happens to stumble across this brand new avenue for my spleen venting activities of the virtual nature, feel free to comment often and use profanity with complete abandon if you like. Even thought I am a bicycle framebuilder of over 30 year of servitude, my opinions are still just that- opinions , and no amount of arguing on my part makes them any more valid than yours, unless of course, yours are wrong. Much as I love my world of building bikes, there also is so much to hate. As I see it, there are two predominant schools of being a bike framebuilder. School # 1, the authority......who I like to refer to as "snake-oil salesman" and # 2, the olde villige smithye, the guy who serves his community in ways that it cannot serve itself. Builder # 1 will tell you what you want. Builder # 2 will ask you what you need. But wait.....this is a custom bike ! What about all the glitter and shiny stuff ? What about the art, poetry and romance that attracts folks to such a purchase ? Those things are offered by both types of builders, its just that # 1 relies more heavily on these aspects while # 2 will consider the shiny bits optional and almost inconsequential to the purpose of the bike. Right now the big trend for new builders is to be # 1, the guy who makes rolling art, mobile jewelry........pretense you can pedal. I don't blame the new folks for wanting to build such bikes as I wanted to do the same in 1978. I saw bikes built by Albert Eisentraut, Bruce Gordon , Art Stump and Hetchins and thought: " Gee, that's what I want to do, only I want to do it my way !". After filing on lugs seemingly for weeks and building frames that had hundereds of hours invested in their construction I got a bit frustrated. I guess it really wasn't me. I started thinking that fit and function of the bike were enough of a challenge to attempt to master and that the extreme artfulness just got in the way of making a good bike. While this is an oversimplification and here are lots of beautiful bikes that ride extremely well and suit thier riders needs to a tee , I am always reminded when I go to a bicycle race and see none of these bikes in top competetive events it re-enforces my position that art, although impressive and attractive can get in the way of what a bicycle is supposed to do-be a good thing to ride. There are some builders that live on both worlds of building, the functional and the purley artistic. I'm most impressed with these few and hold them in high esteem. Obviously I lean to the builder # 2 side........hey, I run a racing team and I do race a little myself so that is my world. I do think, however that if the time was available and I felt like it I could make a really fancy frame. my contention is that nobody would care, at least not as much as if it were made by a builder with the reputation for doing such fancy work. There it is, my excuse to not make rolling art ! Stay tuned for more utterly one-sided rantings from one of the west coasts most nauseatingly outspoken builders.