How to succeed in business with really trying

Walking through the handmade bike show back in 2007 I was on a mission to see which of my fellow framebuilders were actual self-sustaining entities rather than part timers, spouse subsidized or hobbyists-not that builders of these categories are inferior-I just wanted to know who was making a fulltime living at the trade. I was pretty sad when out of around 80 or so exhibitors I found less than a dozen folks like myself. Did I feel special ? Did I feel like I had something figured out that most others were missing out on ? Truthfully, no. I felt like maybe I was beating my head against a wall trying to prove that frame building was a viable profession and that there were not many other folks willing to be so stupid as I.
             That was then and this is now, 2012. I have seen an economic downturn that really slowed my business but thankfully did not kill it. I always had work, just not as much. Things are really picking up now and though I never trust that my work is a reliable thing, it seems to be getting more so as of late. I guess it is time for me to give my observations on how my so-called profession has maintained viability after several decades. I'll give some rules to follow, although I must say that these are the things that worked for me and they might not be the prescription for all fools wanting to tread the same career path as I.

1. Learn to build frames with minimal tools......you'll need to get the feel of filing, sawing and all the metal working skills by hand. If you don't do this first , you'll forever be disconnected with the 'feel' of your materials and be too reliant on power tools. Only when you get the manual skills down  will you begin to figure out which machine tools will aid your ability to produce good work efficiently.

2. Don't 'create' an identity......just be yourself and your identity will grow from that. By identity , mine is 'Rock Lobster'.....makes one think of the B-52's , the Santa Cruz mountains......groups of riders that generally don't take themselves very seriously-at least, that's how it has manifested itself-a kind of  image of fun without much pretense.......a club that does not exclude. I can't say that I created this identity but I roll with it as I think it comes from an sincere place......I might have chosen the name but the identity created itself.

3. Don't spend money that you don't have. Low overhead is crucial as you are a frame builder, correct ? Figure that for the first few years you'll be giving away a lot of your work so income will be microscopic at best. I built about 300 frames in a one-car garage before I got brave enough to rent a 450 square foot shop. There are so many ways to get rid of money in the bike business.......try to not get too far into a financial hole.

4. Show up to work and bust ass. Yeah, this sounds so frigging obvious but over the years I have seen so many builders with idle shops and angry customers hearing all sorts of bullshit excuses why their frames are not done yet. Guys who don't make an effort to get the frames done on time are risking getting lampooned on the many bike chat forums-you don't want that.

5. Don't waste a lot of time on the computer (  As he writes....on a computer...) on forums. Spend the time answering your customer's emails first....then if you have time to kill , check out what folks are saying about the latest tubing, jigs or whatever. There is some good stuff out there to read but there's mostly a lot of useless shit storms amongst some really twisted, bitter folks. Frame building can bring out some dark shit in people.

6. Don't be afraid to share stuff you learn that really works. If you have a good trick that helps you with a building issue , share it with your fellow builders-believe me, the good will come back to you .  Don't share heresay that you read on the forums unless you have proof that whatever it is , it is absolute truth from someone who can prove it.

7. Fix your mistakes and give the customer the benefit of doubt. If you do your job well you will not have a lot of boo-boos to fix. And......If you have a lot of boo-boos , fixing them for free will be an excellent incentive to get your shit together.

8. Know when to say No. You will have to narrow down what you do in your shop to be efficient so don't take on jobs that are too unfamiliar . I have gotten myself involved in some serious time-wasting unsatisfying ( for myself and the customer ) pursuits over the years and knowing when it is best to refer the customer to someone else is a valuable thing for your survival.

9. Pay your bills. If someone gives you terms , be sure and get the bill paid well in advance. Being good to your suppliers will come back to you in ways that you will not know for quite some time. Nobody in any part of the bike business is making a ton of money so we all have to look out for one another and take care of each other-that is unless of course you are a shithead.

10. Don't be dismissive about stuff you have no experience with. Sure, I'm not a huge fan of stainless lugs but I have built a couple of frames with them to come to my opinion-it might not be your opinion ,but at least I have a little bit of experience to back up what I say....for what it's worth.

11. Ride your bike. Yeah, I know......we all ride our bikes. What I'm saying is really ride your bike-do a tour , do some racing, some group rides.....a big adventure....something that involves a group of folks . You will be more in touch with the craft the deeper you get into riding, as long as you can still find time to work.

12. Be truthful about what you can and cannot do. Don't tell your customers that you'll build them a frame in six weeks when you know that six months is the reality. You'll be ahead of more than half the builders if you just do this one thing. I'm not saying that most builders are liars.....they just have a habit of coming up short on time-related promises. We all do it at one time or another.....it is best to really try to avoid this.

13. Don't assume that if you fuck up, you'll be forgiven. Maybe a certain church bases a lot on being forgiven, but the reality for a frame builder is that you have to make good on what you are supposed to do......provide good service. You can forgive yourself after you make good on your promise.

14. Get folks on your bike who really ride the crap out of them. You'll get great promotion and some invaluable real-world testing on your work. I get a lot of cyclocross racers on my bikes....it has always been a good thing for me-probably the best promotion and the most fun times are centered around the races I attend.

15. Be accessible. Answer your phone , return emails-be active on social media or whatever-don't hide from your customers unless you are so under the gun with work that you have no choice. Be sure to explain  politely to folks when you need to be undisturbed  to get things done. Most folks actually will understand.

16. I figure that I'll save the best for last : Know when to give a psycho a full refund. You cannot argue with a sick mind-or so it has been said. Hey, maybe the sick mind is you  and the customer needs to get hooked up with someone less pathological. Go ahead and do the right thing by giving the customer the chance to try the same drill with someone else. You never know.....sometimes the transaction is just not a good fit. You can't make everyone happy..........

Sorry, Mom....I just had to do it...

Making parodies of things and people seems to be a preoccupation that I was born with. I try to keep it lighthearted but there's a underlying trace of menace in my sarcasm, probably a byproduct of being the butt of a few jokes myself. The most notable one happened in 1995-I became involved in sending bicycles to the U.K. , following in the footsteps of Salsa and Bontrager....actually getting distributed by the same company. A couple who ran a bike shop out of a van decided to put together a little club newsletter for the fans of Bontrager and Salsa bikes. The little magazine was called Bad News and even featured Q&A columns written by Ross Shafer ( of Salsa) and Keith Bontrager....all very sarcastic and all in fun. The Bontrager column was persented with a question, most likely put in by the magazine's editor-it read : "Rock Lobster bikes have internal gussetts and Bontragers have external gussettes....how do they compare ?"
To this Keith replied :" Lobsters are exoskeletal so their gussetts are naturally on the inside. The Lobster is a bottom feeder and does not compare with your Bontrager ."
I found the reply from Keith clever but I also got really angry....at this time Keith was bringing his ugliest warranty work to me as I was willing to fix anything for a bit of cash......that was, until I read his little play on words. I spent the next few weeks exchanging faxes with Keith that were to be published in Bad News , me arguing the point that Keith had many more broken bikes than I so I really doubted that my bikes were inferior. This war of words was something I was never going to win so I ended it and asked the magazine folks to not print anything I had written. I also told Keith that I would no longer work on his bikes for any amount of money.
Did I learn anything after this exchange ? Maybe , maybe not. I did realize that I can get pretty indignant when my work is called into question, unless of course I had done some shitty work.....I usually cop to that right away-it's hard to hide the obvious. I also figured out that this kind of sarcasm goes on all the time and that I should not take it personally when somebody says something in print that might make me look like a loser. Hey, Keith is entitled to his opinion regardless of how I may feel about it. There's no denying that he is a far bigger wheel in the bike business that I'll ever be.
So, you may ask-If I haven't lost you already to boredom with this bunch of drivel-What is the next joke ? -Take a look at the photo-it is my latest personal bike. I took some reject materials out of my scrap bin (stuff I would never use in a customer's bike)and did the unthinkable: I built a custom frame out of whatever didn't make the cut for a client's frame. I christened the frame and fork the "Dumpstervaagen". I'm sure that all you custom bike fans don't need any clue as to the reference in my name. The thing is, I'm not parodying any particular custom bike.....I am making a parody of all custom bikes-that includes mine as well.
The root of this parody is the notion that a certain brand of steel or a particular shape or guage is elemental in creating 'Magic' in the ride of a custom bike. While I do appreciate the fact that folks read up on tubing and get excited about air-hardening this or stainless that, when it comes down to what makes a good bike very little of this actually matters ! The 'Magic' of a custom bike is when one first rides it- and if the job is done right , there's no need to get used to the new bike....it already feels like and old friend ( To quote a rider I know).
So, that is my latest sarcastic jab at the custom bike world-I could choose any tubing from any manufacturer but what did I choose to make my very own big-tire travel bike ? Well, don't look in my garbage can as I already emptied it onto my work bench , cut and welded it together and tomorrow I'll probably ride it !

Here we are now...entertain us.....NAHMBS 2012 review

NAHMBS 2012 in Sacramento is in the books, finished-done-gone-not to return for a long time to these parts. Was it a bike show or an art show ? I guess it depends on where you stood. MY show was all about standing in my own booth surrounded by people leaning in to see the odd guy and all the old dusty bikes he brought. I made it a point this year to fill my booth with history rather than flash. Don't get me wrong...there's an unrealistic and spiteful part of me that wants to try to make some really whacked-out art piece for the show for folks to gawk at , but reality keeps me from going there. I got some really good feedback from folks who seemed to get what I was trying to show at my booth-a 34 year time line of building frames shown in seven examples. I was not afraid to show my older bikes with all of their respective imperfections...me and my bikes , off-brand culls in a sea of art-bike fetishism. I'm sure that some folks dismissed my display-I'm totally fine with that.....what can I expect if I bring old and dusty stuff to such a show.I even went so far as to enter my uncleaned seven year old cyclocross bike into the awards for that type knowing full well that the chance of a win for such a bike would be impossible. National wins and such really don't enter into the qualifications at a beauty contest.

The good : For me, the show was a huge success, in spite of the lingering thought in my head that I was really not fitting into the mold of a true participant in this show. # 1, I did not build a special bike for the show. # 2, I didn't make any new fixtures for my booth but elected to use mostly old stuff and a couple newer banners left over from races. # 3, My focus was on what I had done over the last 34 years, not what I had most recently built in attempt to out-bling my fellow builders. # 4, I stupidly neglected to get anyone to help me in the booth ....a mistake I'll hopefully never make again.
Even with all of these factors I was pleasantly surprised at the positive reception I got from the press, industry folks and show visitors alike. The best thing at the show were the volunteers at the load-in. They cut the time of the load-in by half and were super helpful through most of the show. I must also praise the publicity as this show broke attendance records for NAHMBS-they really put the word out so that everyone knew the when and where.

The bad: At the risk of being banished from the show for life there are some of the aspects of the show that I find to be...well....unfitting with what I think is the essence of bicycles. # 1, the awards are purely for the physical look of the bike and it's presumed ride-ability based on visual characteristics. In other words, none of these award winning bikes are ridden to determine their performance as bicycles !! To me, this completely invalidates the awards from a cycling standpoint. If the awards are purely a beauty contest, so be it-otherwise , I call bullshit on the whole exercise.
#2, There were frequent and really disruptive P.A. announcements during the show, invariably right when I was attempting to talk to someone in my booth-after all, that's what we come to the show for, right ? We as builders are there to represent our craft and be available to the people at the show. While I understand that some of these announcements were important, there were some that were questionable. I'll cite an example: " Will the ''Original six please come to the stage". Really.....the 'Original Six'......soo.........the show is calling attention to the few builders who have been at all the shows-Hmmm, and who might that be ? Perhaps one of those 'Original Six' is the founder of the show, Don Walker himself. So Don-you are calling attention to the fact that you have attended every one of your shows ? You want an award for that ? -Sorry, but that is downright comical. Of course you have to be at every one of the shows.....YOU PUT THE SHOW ON !! You do not deserve an award for showing up to your own show.....come on ! It's idiotic. You want an award ? I'll give you one: It's called the NAHMBS and you created it and it is huge and you justifiably should be proud-it is a hell of an accomplishment.I bow to you....we all do ! When you are at the show you are literally surrounded by your award -accept it and chuck the fake award.....it demeans your achievement. The other 4-5 'Original six' builders would probably rather be back at their respective booths selling bikes - not standing uncomfortably on stage for some award they don't really care about. The award all the builders want is viability-sales ! Without that they won't survive in this fickle business. I'm sure they can survive without an 'Original six' award and the show's survival depends on the builder's viability as well.

Whew ! O.K., now that I have probably ended my eligability for being at the next show I can speak freely. Call me crazy but I have this misplaced notion that bikes are made to be ridden. Sure, there are some that are so priceless and rare that they should be preserved for artistic and historical significance-this is as it should be....bikes like these are usually old and fragile and irreplaceable , but way back when they were built they were built to be ridden. What I do not understand is a crop of builders creating bikes like this that are meant to be Smithsonian exhibits as soon as the paint dries-needless to say , these bikes were really amazing to behold and the work that went into them was staggering. Don't get me wrong....I saw plenty of other fancy bikes -but the builders that made them that were showing bikes to ride , not bikes to acquire as status symbols . These bikes may be artistic but they were created to be ridden and the outward artistic appeal was secondary.

In years to come I wonder what folks will say about this era of the re-birth of the hand-crafted highly ornate bicycle frame.....is it a living , breathing art or is it akin to a brain-dead patient on life support unable to sustain itself. When people start buying these bikes in numbers and the brave builders crafting them start making a living wage, we'll be able to take it off life support and it will breathe on it's own again. The show displayed a lot of amazing craftsmanship but evidence of actual economic sustainability was scarce. All the art bikes remind me of a time about 600 years ago when amazing art was being produced for the royal families and for the Vatican..........primarily by slaves , guided by artisans -many of whom died in poverty or in prison. Let us hope that we are witnessing something that won't crash and burn like the real estate market, the stock market and just about every other artificially inflated human folly since the beginning of humanity.

How don't you like me, now ?

Back in 2007 ...or was it 2006 ? -Hell, I don't know...all I know is that I tried to pander to the gawkers at the San Jose NAHMBS with a stainless lugged frame. I am not known for doing this type of work but I still wanted something with some shiny bits to fool the primitives.....which is a really coarse way of saying that I wanted the folks to know that I, too was able to build a nice rolling house of ill-repute fit for the Maharaja of whatever.
The frame was an arduous undertaking and I was to find myself seething after many hours of dealing with the labor intensive process of getting a frame like this together. After the first two days I christened the frame :" The bike that hate built " as it wore me down like no frame had done in a decade or more. It turned out quite nicely and was quickly sold after the show for about half price. During the show it did not attract much attention-what folks were really gravitated toward was bike # 5, a time trial bike I built in 1979...primitive and dusty, this old dinosaur was the star of the booth. This was an epiphany of sorts for me-the history of what I have done was much more appealing to people than the attempt I had made to be Mr. 'fancy bike '. I took note.
Now it is 2012 and I fully intend to fill my 10x10 foot space with older work, some of it older than a good many folks showing frames at the show. One bike I took down from a hook in my shop is a road bike from 1982. I remember it as being a bike that I had never crashed, never even fallen over on....something of an anomaly for me. I always crash my bikes....it's in my nature. This 1982 bike is so stable, so friendly of a bike that it won't let you crash ! -At least, not yet. So....I took it down, put some new tires on it for the first time in about 14 years and have been riding it a bit. made this frame and fork with no fixtures of any kind, just a hand drill, some files and a torch and tanks. When I took out the rear wheel to mount the new tire it glided out of the bike. The same thing happened with the front wheel......I was stunned. I knew that I had liked this bike immensely and had ridden it a ton for nine solid years before building something to replace it. What I didn't expect was the precision.
So now it is still 2012 and I am bringing this bike and six others to the show...most with grime and crappy paint-some with a good deal of wear and tear , but all of them authentic bikes of their respective periods. These were all my own personal bikes and they all did some sort of duty-built of some inspiration back in the day. They may be old, but in their time they were good-I can't imagine building frames the way I did back then and getting the precision that is evident , such as the 1982 bike. I'm not blowing my own horn here.....I'm honestly in disbelief that I was able to pull it off......a really nice straight frame and fork built in neanderthal conditions.....primitive and for the most part, clueless.
I accept that folks coming to see the show are looking to see who is out-doing who.....what new take on traditional framebuilding will shake the foundations of the craft-how cleanly the shorelines of the stainless lugged rolling heirloom quality frames can be. For me, the shoreline I'll be thinking about is the one to my right as I'm rolling down highway one north of town on my 1982 bike , still in effect, still good and still under the art-bike radar....as am I.

Thank you notes

My wife is a big Jimmy Fallon show fan and the part that she likes best is when he reads his 'Thank-you notes". Here's my cheap-ass framebuilder inside-joke pathetic version. If you haven't seen the show, don't worry.....it's just more irony for you.

1. Thank you, cyclocross....for being a sport where even the last place guy gets cheered on .

2. Thank you, team skinsuit......for holding my gut in on race day.

3.Thank you , Don Walker.....for successfully herding the cats and creating the handmade bike show. Maybe its time to stop trying to herd the cats......

4. Thank you , insecurity and self loathing......for giving me the psychological makeup for being a 'Rock-star frame builder".......not my words.....

5. Thank you faithful customers , Cyclocross magazine and U.B.I. for making me feel like I'm somebody.

6. Thank you disgruntled customers and Gary Mathis for reminding me that I am really nobody.

7. Thank you Bruce Gordon ....for being able to out 'dark-side' me any time.....there's the imitators and then there's the real master.

8. Thank you, frame building.....for providing me a way to not have to be worrying about my retirement..........there won't be any.

9. Thank you, stainless steel lugs........for giving me something to loath.

10. Thank you, regret.........for giving me something to come to grips with on a daily basis.

11. Thank you , blogger......for providing me a no-charge outlet with which to vent and annoy people.

12. Thank you, cheap Chinese medals that I get every once in awhile.......to help fuel my rise to mediocrity in cyclocross racing.

13. Thank you, hobby frame builders who spend 300-400 hours on a masterpiece.........so I get to see what I thought I was going to build back in the late '70's.-Bravo!

14. Thank you , mega-bike companies.....for not building the sizes and types of frames that my customers want.

15. Thank you, my racing team.......for showing that a guy in a shed can make you bikes that don't hold you back when you want to go fast.

16. Thank you, my own race bike.......for not complaining when it is I who is holding you back from going fast.

17. Thank you mail man.....for not going 'postal' on us.

18. Thank you ,all the people who comment on this blog.......proof that somebody is actually
reading this...........dang !

19. Thank you, internet......for allowing anyone who has a computer and internet access to become the new expert on bicycle frame construction , even if they are a hopeless idiot.

20. Thank you again, cyclocross......for being a sport where a small builder's work can still be seen in the peloton.

21. Thank you, Giant bicycle co. .......for copying my 'wavy gussets' a few years ago.....then later discarding them as a waste of time. -I defer to your expertise......

22. Thank you, Joe Bell......for terrifying me into my best work when I send a bare frame to you to be painted. Ever wonder why you don't get many of them ? -I'm too scared !

23. Thank you, Kurt Cobian......for creating a sound track for those angst filled afternoons at my previous shop. I'm sorry you aren't around any more....really sorry.

Why it must continue......

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

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.