Introduction Thread

[DEVLINCC]

It is. I had machined that silver one up but neglect to check the interference at full squish when I fabbed the stays. $600 down the drain with two bent rockers. I found the Trek one was 1mm off what I had designed so swapped that in. I now have my own designed that a local mate is CNC
ing for me. Also had the tube style one in between interations. I might do a seperate thread about teh bikes and detail the design decisions and philosophy in there.

[terraformbicycles]

Please do. I think a lot of us are really eyeing making full squish bikes!

[Mikesbikester]

Very cool! It’s a little hard to tell in the pictures, is the red bike using a flexy chainstay or seatstay? Couldn’t tell if there’s a pivot by the dropouts or not. Great looking bike!

[DEVLINCC]

Thanks. No it has a horst link on bushes.

[Fuzzmuffin]

If you want some BMX frame inspiration, check out the specs and detail on Sunday frames. Formed main tubes, butted, beautiful welds.

I’d love to get my hands on some of their tubing…

Their parent company Odyssey are one of the few BMX brands that design their own stuff with an in-house engineer, rather than the usual parts catalogue brands. Big fan.

I have a Soundwave and it’s been very hardy.

[HomageFrameworks]

I’m finally getting around to an intro post. I’m just getting started building, not much to share on that front. In short, this is my therapy for losing a friend. I’ve pasted the story from my unpublished website below if you feel like spending some time reading. I don’t really need a website, but again, it’s therapy.

Outside of bikes, i’m in the business world and spent a good chunk of may career managing the business side of creative companies. The other part of my career was with manufacturing companies. When taken as a whole i’m strangely qualified to offer advice on managing a frame building business. Not that I have experience in the industry, but perhaps a useful perspective from an outsider.

Thanks to everyone who shares something.

The Homage
Find Go
There are some people in your life that have a great impact. Knowing them leaves a tangible change on your life. For me, that person was Broderick Adé Hogue. I didn’t realize it at the time we were living together, or in the years after when we kept in touch from a distance, only seeing each other a couple times a year. But in reflecting on our time together and observing the impact he had on the world, I realize now how influential he was in my life and many others.
Stay Hungry
Stay Foolish
Adriana and I would watch Adé’s exploits after we moved away from Chicago and routinely found ourselves saying “how is he so good at everything he does?” When he first got into cycling I remember him coming home with holes in his jeans from going over the handlebars on Chicago’s pothole filled road. A couple years later he was a pillar of the Chicago cycling community cranking out weekly centuries. I remember riding with him to pick up his race packet for his first half marathon. He went on to run marathons around the world. And then learned to swim so he could do a triathlon. I remember him drawing letters on anything he could get his hands on including my helmet, my notebook covers, and REAMS of paper that ended up scattered on our living room floor. From that he changed the lettering game and become a world renowned designer. How was he always so good at everything?
A Story:
I was fortunate to get to see him a couple weeks before his passing at the World Cup cyclocross race at Trek. I was pretty excited, this was probably going to be the only time we would line up in the same field at a race. It was the intersection of me being older and slow and him just getting started and having to move up through the categories. For this race we were both Cat 4. The field was well over 100 riders, and he got called up something like 7 or 8 rows in front of me. I didn’t think I’d be seeing much of him during the race (but still pumped to at least be on the course at the same time). But then half way through the first lap I see him in front of me. He’s pedaling his guts out, slipping and sliding all over on the muddy course. As I pass him, after a heckle or two, I yell “green is grip, stay on the edges”. We ride close to each other for awhile, and when I glanced over my shoulder I could tell he was riding different. He went from full power mode to learning mode. He was watching the racers around him instead of trying to overpower them. Through all his passions he always loved learning. As we crossed the finish line at the end of the first lap he easily passed me and continued on to finish a couple minutes ahead of me. He studied, learned, adapted, and succeed. I saw him do it during that race the same as I saw him do it with art, running, cycling, teaching and all his other passions. Quest for knowledge + full effort = success. You go the fastest when you slow down to learn.
​
Homage Frameworks isn’t for him, it’s because of him. Trying something hard, knowing there will be challenges, and having the confidence to know I can overcome them. Building bikes is a dumb ass idea, but I’m going for it.
​
My imagined conversation with him:
Me: I have the best dumb idea, and I think you’ll want to do it too.
Him: Intrigued, go on…
Me: Let’s start a bike company. Like, let’s build bikes.
Him: DUUUUUDDDEEEE!!! (and calls to keep talking)

Keep On Keepin’ On

https://www.adehoguefoundation.org/

[Mark]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Mark. I’m one of the owners and lead Framebuilder at Chumba Bicycles in Austin, Tx.

I grew up in Long Beach, Ca and worked in the Aerospace industry for 23 years. I went to Yamaguchi in 2010 and have been building frames ever since. I worked at Alchemy Bicycles in Austin as lead fabricator until they moved to Colorado. I started working at Chumba in late 2014 as the Framebuilder. My partner Vince and I took over ownership of Chumba in 2018 and we have ran it together since then.

[Tony_Hunt]

I’m so glad to see you here, Alex. I’m just getting ready to give my first frame a shot this year and your blog gave me tons of info on rack building, and also solidified my intent as a hobbyist to use an oxy/propane set-up.

And don’t sell your Gifford short! If I recall correctly it allowed Jan to try out the Rat Trap Passes for the first time. Cheers

[Tony_Hunt]

I use your trail calculator all the time! Thanks for putting it out there.

[jimg]

You are very welcome! I originally built it because I was doing 650B conversions on bikes and I wanted to easily see the effects of switching wheel sizes on steering geometry. I am super glad that so many others have found this tool useful as well!

[Austin86ed]

Hi all!

I’m Austin, the production assistant at Chumba Bicycles in Austin TX. I’ve been doing this for 1.5 years after a 22 year career in land surveying. Enjoying my introduction to frame building and looking forward to learning all I can.

[maxwellkeegan]

Hello everyone!

My name is Max, I currently reside in Bend, OR. I’ve enjoyed riding bikes since my first pedal. Riding background is in bmx and in 2016/17 I bought a surly krampus and started riding off road. Im not a numbers person, I am a feeling person. The bike gives me the feels.

I have a background in metal fabrication that was first formed in high school. I worked/lived in a remote location in Alaska operating heavy equipment and fixing said equipment when it broke down, some production MIG welding, and currently make sculptural fountains. In 2020 I found myself with a solid enough living situation to build my first frame.

Happy to have found the forum. Riding bikes is the best, building bikes is cool too.

[jeremy]

Howdy - my name is Jeremy and I’m not really a framebuilder.

I’m an engineering school dropout who stubbornly continued to work in that field for a few years before finding bikes and realizing I could be less miserable. I’ve also worked in machine shops for much of my life, from part-time work in grade school through a position as the in-house machinist for a prosthetics research group. Building things has always made the world feel malleable and less confining; it’s a skill I cherish and love to share when I have the opportunity. I’ve spent the last seven years as an itinerant bike mechanic and racer, and the way things have worked out I’m now framebuilding-adjacent as one of the mechanics for Nice Bikes (we’re a UCI professional cyclocross team racing on hand-built steel frames).

As someone who’s really short (160cm with disproportionally short legs), I’ve always struggled to find bikes that both fit me and perform well. Trying to design better performance bikes for small riders has been a back-burner project for a long time, and I’m finally in a position to actually do something with it other than sketching. I’m happy to have found this forum, there’s a huge wealth of knowledge here that I’m beyond excited to be able to draw from and hopefully contribute a little back into some day.

I’m very excited to dig in - thanks for having me!

[La_Marche]

Hey all, I’m Tom La Marche. I’m based in Philadelphia and have a brand called La Marche Bike Co. I’ve been around bikes for all of my life. Starting out with BMX and then falling heavily into the fixed gear scene, mountain bikes and all other types of cycling. I’ve had the opportunity to ride for a handful of companies, visit lots of framebuilding workshops, and work on some movie jobs all because of bikes. Now I work in TV/Film in NYC as a stuntman part time and also run my brand.

I started apprenticing under @Lance from Squarebuilt in 2015 while living in Brooklyn. After that, I worked for Horse Cycles, Stinner Frameworks, and eventually found my way back to Philly. I took up machining courses at community college and took a fillet brazing class at the Bicycle Academy in England. After all of that I finally set up my own workshop and registered my biz in 2020.

Looking forward to reading/responding more when I have the time.

Thanks for getting this going @Daniel_Y .

-Tom La Marche

LA MARCHE BIKE CO.

[Matt]

I know the Chumba of yesteryear is not the one that is today but wanted to say that one of my first serious 29er was a Chumba HX2 that I had painstakingly found used and built with a Maverick DUC32 fork. Sadly it was stolen.
Love what you guys are doing with Chumba today, your is one of the few brands that I follow.
Welcome!

[Backyard]

I’ll join in.

I’m Andrew, currently residing southeast of the Seattle area but originally from northern UT. I grew up competing in mogul skiing and DH mountain biking - raced Pro a few years after doing well as a JrX but didn’t take it further than that. These days I prefer a fun downhill trail, but on the tail end of a decent climb - but in reality I spend most of my riding with a tow strap and small child behind.

I build for myself only (and wife, probably kids too when they get a bit older I assume). No intention to turn this into a business, I have a full time job and try to spend as much free time as possible out with the kids. I currently only get around to about 1 frame per year.

The last few years I’ve only built FS bikes. My first one failed about 6 mo. of abuse in near the rear dropouts but was a great lesson for me and (hopefully) has been translating into better builds since then. The latter 3 have been more successful (though the most recent is only a few rides old at this point).

I am far from an expert builder but happy to read what’s going on here and contribute if/when I can. I learn quite a bit from these communities too which is always a good thing.

Here are my FS endeavors - the first one below (blue) is the original one that failed. Purple was a revision of that blue one, my wife has been riding it for about 2 years now. The black mono pivot was just recently retired in favor of the latest green one.

[Mark]

Thanks Matt!

I really appreciate it.

Where was that sick photo you posted shot at? Looks like my old hometown of Long Beach, ca.

[project12]

Michiel from project12 here. So far I have just been lurking here, but kudos for this amazing forum! I worked as an architect for 15 years, but when I was fired after I burnt out I built my first frame as a kind of therapy. The name project12 came from that time, while I had a list of 10 shitty things to do (get unemployment benefits, go to the shrink, etc etc) my wife suggested I also make a list of positive posibilities. project11 was riding the lenght of the Netherlands on an mtb (aka the TNNZ) and project12 was to build the frame I had in CAD.
I built a couple of frames for friends and decided to enlist as a business summer of 2017. From there I actually mostly worked in bikeshops and made a couple of frames. I was still working from my tiny shed, but when demand increased the neighbours started to complain and I moved into a workshop in Schiedam end of 2020. Up to that point I was still very much questioning if I should keep building, or just get a regular job and make some money. But then I got my first returning customer, so I figured I should just try it one more year. Before the end of the 2021 I was already kicked out of that workshop and had to find something else (or quit…) A friend of mine who is making rims at RAD15 just moved into a new building together with a bunch of other bike related companies and they figured I would be a good match. So I moved my workshop to the BicycleHub in Wijchen end of 2021. This building houses among others the Dutch Rohloff importer, 2 bikeshops, RAD15 rims, 11ants titanium bikes and an amazing shared workshop with a lot of machines, including a Haas CNC.
We are currently working hard on reviving a classic Dutch bikebrand that we plan to fabricate in small series in house, and under the name UNpaved I want to build some of my project12 bikes in standard sizes, both in steel and titanium, mostly welded. For project12 I intend to build just a couple of frames a year, to keep it fun. I also joined the 11Ants team last year to set up frames and do the socials etc.
I very much prefer the unpaved over the paved for riding, and I am mostly building mountainbikes (HT and fullies) and gravelbikes. I am currently only taking orders for the Victor short travel full suspension and the Vegur gravelbike, which make me very happy, both in the design and in the process of building. (And how they ride ofcourse!)

[Matt]

You meant the pic that @La_Marche posted?

I had the Chumba when I lived in Italy, believe it or not, now I am in Norcal.

[Mark]

Ha!

Yeah wrong one