Why It’s Taking So Long

A friend/former co-worker snarked in my Facebook this weekend about the pace at which I’m building frames. Something to the effect of “you’ll be doing one per year” — in further discussion, he indicated that it was more just an issue of him being jealous. The remainder of that conversation isn’t really germane to this post. I realized that if Morgan were thinking it, it was probable that other people in our circle of friends/acquaintances were thinking similar thoughts, so I wanted to address that here.

First, it’s an apprenticeship. This isn’t some pump-and-dump UBI course where they slam dunk you through the basics of framebuilding in two weeks and when you leave, you have what you have and that’s it. We’re covering everything from welding (both TIG and brazing), to design, to business, and so on. Since September, I have learned more about frame building than I thought possible. We started with welding, and we moved to design, and now we’re on implementation. I have two frames underway, and parts stockpiled for two more.

Secondly is a time consideration. Because of our schedules, and the distances involved (it’s 50 miles one-way to Paul’s place), we try for once a week. Sometimes, it’s less than that. So we cram as much as we can into 7-10 hours every Sunday we have a chance to get together. There have been stretches where we haven’t seen each other for three weeks.

So that’s why it’s taking so long. Because it’s a time-consuming process to learn all of this, and I want to make sure I do everything right. See also: the old adage about two ways of doing things — the fast way and the right way.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to write up a price quote for my boy, Clint, for whom I’ll be producing the Coolest Bike Ever Made™.

No Session This Weekend

No session this weekend, as Paul’s come down with some sort of illness acquired while at NAHBS. Going to take the opportunity to work on the website’s visual layer and see if I can’t get that done.

Also, I’ve provided some feedback to the artist that’s handling the artwork for my head tube badge. Hoping to hear back on that by Monday or Tuesday.

And since temps are going to be pushing 45°F today, I think I’m going to get out for a few hours on the road bike in the morning, before I go to the gym this evening (weights, followed by an S1 workout on the trainer for 60 minutes). It’ll be good to test out the new contacts out on the road.^*

If you’re local (Minneapolis) and aren’t out on your bike sometime today, please smack yourself in the face.

* I’ve never owned contact lenses before. Seriously.

My Aspirations Dwarf My Infrastructure

Recently, while tinkering with a fork for the 29′er frame I’m working on, Paul said, “That’s awesome!  Now you’re thinking like a builder instead of a mechanic!”  I think I might have felt pride in something for the first time in awhile, and I started thinking that, “Hey, I’ve got a future in this.”

Since that moment, I’ve been keeping a large Moleskine notebook full of sketches and ideas for future bikes, and I’ve got some winners in here.  The steel stuff, I can get started on soon, but it’s going to be slow going, as I’ll be relying on Paul’s infrastructure until I can afford to get my own space set up and running.  The titanium stuff is going to have to wait until I can afford a good quality jig with a back purge system and a TIG welder.

The anticipation of getting started is killing me.  I need to figure out how to raise about $50K to do this up awesome.^*

…

So, the solutions I have are boot-strapping or finding a small business loan (in a shitty economy where credit is tight, for a business that won’t generate a lot of money initially, if ever). Or by some small miracle, finding an angel investor of some sort that’s willing to grant money in exchange for some custom frames.

If you’ve got ideas on the best way to do this, let me know in the comments for this post.

* I can probably get everything set up for less than half of that, provided that I’m willing to forego things like the expensive jig and the TIG welder and other infrastructure for the titanium.  I’ll also be buying a lot of old/used equipment in order to make this more economical.