@Mark You’re spot on. This was in Long Beach.
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Hi
Butch Boucher - Steamboat Springs
Retired builder/ many things
Cofounded Co-Motion Cycles 1988, brazed, welded, finish work, moved on in 1995
Worked at Moots 1996-2017 (18,000 frames) - welder, production manager, all material sourcing, tool purchasing and implementation, cnc programming, product design,(testing, bringing to production and to market), QC manager, president
Ride - MTB and gravel - skiing powder these days
In my last few years at Moots I was at a desk in front of a computer and managing a company with 23 employees. I missed making nice Ti frames very very much. Hopefully I can add something here
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I’m sure you have something to add! Your resume is missing the time you spent in that little Bay Area machine shop…
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Hi guys, Flav from good ol’ France!
I live and breathe bmx since I was 10. I ended up a 12 years '“career” in the messenger game last august, life was not that fun anymore…but that time helped know more about bike and slowly built my little workshop. I brazed dozens and dozens of custom porteur rack for the local as a starter and built my first frame in 2019. 3 years forward and now I started a “business” for custom frames, I make bmx and MTB mostly, my process for bmx building is pretty dialed in, inspired by FBM and all the small production out there. I’m not going to revolutionize things bmxwise but I know that I can offer something not readily available around here…
For now you can check some of my work here flav_ccw if you feel like it
I think the mix of seasoned builder and hobbyist will make things really interesting on this forum!I’m looking forward to share and reply but bear in mind, english is not my first language so it always take more time to post…
My girlfriend is now located in Park City, Utah and will be for a while so maybe I’ll visit the US and meet some of you later this year!
Here is me doing what I love the most ( trails are covered in snow right now 
)
Have a good one
Flav
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Yea I’m a huge fan of the Sunday frames. I’ve come across some but I’d love to play with some formed chromoly tubing eventually. Odyssey is one of those brands I try and default to, much in the same way of S&M, Profile, Standard, NoWear, etc… Those rider owned brands that are actually for the sport need our support!
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Hey Everyone! I’m Nick Hiti (he/him)
I’m an industrial design/product design student, currently living in Cincinnati. I’m lucky that my school has a mandatory co-op program, so I’ve had experience working in a lot of different industries- RV’s, furniture, medical tech, generators, and most recently at a consulting company doing aesthetic and mechanical design for a wide range of products. I’ll be relocating to Pittsburgh this summer for full-time work!
I began mountain biking in the spring of 2020, and very quickly was bitten by the bug. I have a certain sickness- if I enjoy something I get a bit obsessed with building whatever that thing is. So naturally, I’m an amateur frame builder. This time last year I wanted to upgrade from my hardtail, so I set about designing and building a full-suspension bike. I had no experience, so it was a hell of a learning process. I’m pretty stoked with how it turned out! Eventually, I’ll detail it in a build thread, but for now the process documentation lives here.
I’m currently working on my design capstone project. This includes designing and building a frame fixture, as well as 3 bikes. My original full sus will get a redesign, and I’ll be building a hardtail and tracklo-cross bike. The goal is that the fixture will be parametrically integrated with Fusion 360- type in geo numbers and a frame will automatically generate. I’ll be posting progress on that as I go- I’d love to have some community critique. Hopefully it’s something I can open source for all you fine people to use.
I look forward to chatting with all of you! This has proven to be an awesome community, and I’m forever grateful to @liberationfab for telling me about it, and to @Daniel_Y for setting it up!
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Hello! I am Calvin, son of Mark and Donna Norstad. I am currently located in Richmond, CA, and I’m working at Paragon full time.
I went to Northeastern University and got my degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics. My role at Paragon includes doing design work and running machines. I enjoy building parts that have never been made before as it tends to teach me the most (but at what cost)!
I ride an Independent Fabrication gravel bike just about everywhere. Looking forward to becoming a more active member in the forum!
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Woo Woop! Space Force is in the house!
(says the 20 year USAF weenie)
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Hi, I’m Gene Simonalle (he/him/heyyou!)
I’m in Ohio, near Dayton (home of Huffy bikes!, and some framebuilders who got into aeronautics), and I grew up in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Placerville, CA.
Okay, this is a wondering path I have been on.
I got my first bike, a Schwinn 10 speed deathtrap, when I was a freshmen in high school. I crashed it straight into a wall and bent the downtube and toptube, but it still rode okay. My sister gave me a Nishiki road bike and away I went.
My fist job was working in a bike shop in the early 80s, and I gobbled up everything I could learn. When I attempted college, I got a job at the REI in Sacramento, and did a lot better at REI than college.
I migrated to Pacific Bikes in San Francisco, then back to Sacramento, and loved working in bike shops, but I noticed that I wasn’t making enough to live on, or enough that my girlfriend and I could get married.
So I joined the good ole US Air Force. We spent 20 years bebopping around Europe and the USA and had a blast. Most of my bikes got left behind, but we still enjoyed riding in Germany and England.
I retired from the military a while back, and settled in Ohio. Got our kids through high school and college, and they are now flying on their own. Three years ago I wanted to learn how to weld and I had GI Bill education benefits leftover, and I found the United Bicycle Institute took VA students, so I signed up for the beginner brazing frame class.
Halfway through the class, I told my wife, “Hey, I found my tribe of people again!” All the students in the class were dressed in cargo shorts, tee shirts and just loved to sit around and talk bikes, riding, life and more. It was like coming home to my people.
I went back for the TIG welded steel frame class, and was scheduled for the Ti class but had to drop it as my daughter was getting married. So, since UBI closed the framebuilding classes, I only got two frames built.
The reason I wanted to learn to weld was to build a cargo trike for my wife, who can’t drive due to MS. She isn’t comfortable on our tandem, as her balance is a little shaky, but hey, a trike could be just the thing.
So I want to build cargo bikes, and a trike, especially for veterans who have mobility issues. I am still trying to figure it all out, and get my stuff together, but I named my ‘brand’ DOGTAG bikes.
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Hi everyone!
I’m Vincent Savary (he/him), originally form Montreal I now live further east in New-Brunswick, Canada.
I’m not a framebuilder, but definitely aspire to. I started working as a bike mechanic about 5 years ago, and framebulding and frame design specifically quickly became an obsession. Since then my focus has been toward acquiring the knowledge, skills and equipment to build my own frames and components (stems, handlebars, racks).
In pre-covid time I took a few introduction classes to brazing and Tig-welding at a local community workshop. Obviously that wasn’t enough, so I started a 13-month professional welding program that I completed about a year ago, pretty much only to learn Tig-welding properly.
And just now I came back from a framebuilding class with Dave Bohm in Tucson, something I have been wanting to do for many years. I got to learn fillet-brazing and lug-brazing for real, and I’m happy to say I now have one frame under my belt! It was an incredible learning experience for me, I come back from there with a renewed motivation and a better understanding of the work and its implications, and where to put my head to.
I want to thank @Daniel_Y and everybody contributing to this forum. Ever since I started reading on framebuilding, I found it hard to find reliable information or proper guidance from professionals. It is a rather niche scene, with a very specific set of knowledge and skills. I’m very glad that such a forum now exists, it is absolutely invaluable to be able to have direct feedback from established pro’s, instead of having the average Anonymous Arm-Chair Framebuilder you find on other platforms.
Cheers!
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Hey folks,
I’ve already been around the forum for a while now, first as a quiet bystander/reader and later also as a contributor with an actual account. But the existence of this thread has somehow gone unnoticed. So now, let’s catch up and settle with this disgrace!
I’m a German framebuilding hobbyist at best, living in Graz, Austria, and a mechanical engineer by trade so I know how everything works - theoretically 
About four years ago I quit my full time engineering gig to stop engineering useless redundant crap like leafblowers and kitchen appliances and do some thinking. Bought an old camper van, stuffed it full to the brim with bikes and spares and went traveling for a while, basically for almost 3 years. Then did an internship at a frame builder in Germany which turned into a full time position building, engineering, process-managing and doing all sorts of things.
After a year, I hit the road again to do some more traveling and thinking, and came to the conclusion that I want to have a workshop in which I can build bikes and therefore I shall be looking for a part time engineering job which is not completely stupid. Found one in Graz, Austria doing measurement instrumentation in the railway sector.
While I’m still busy equipping my workshop, in the future I’d like to be able to build steel full suspension bike frames and have a look into turning this into a commercial operation. But that’s an “if the stars align” kinda goal, not a necessity.
I have a few frame building projects form that former position under my belt but only one frame I built myself start to finish, and that’s not even a full frame because I bolted on the swingarm from another bike. But it’s the result that counts, right?
Looking forward to even more fruitful conversations and thanks @Daniel_Y for setting it all up!
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Hello! My name is Eli (he/him).
I’m based in Niagara Falls, Ontario. I love bikes and camping.
During covid I had some time to learn how to maintain/restore some old bikes and followed the rabbit-hole to buying a vice, files and a tig welder.
No frames yet but I’m going to Danielle’s class in 3 weeks.
I am super interested in Fusion, 3d printing and laser cutting for fixturing and the accessibility they allow for jumping into this thing.
This forum has been so encouraging and useful to collect and organize so many different perspectives. I’m excited to learn more!
Thanks everybody!
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- Who you are and where you’re located
Hey all, just stumbled across this forum last night oddly enough searching for old true temper tube specs. Anyway, my name is Aaron and I am in Sacramento, CA. I’ve been excited by bikes since my early tween years trying to jump poorly crafted plywood ramps. That lead to about 10 years of seriously riding freestyle BMX. BMX was something I truly never thought I’d give up but once I was in my early-mid 20’s my mind was telling me my body couldn’t do this forever and the responsibilities of life took a front seat. I still have my bmx bike and occasionally mess around in my driveway. Next I began gravitating towards fixed gears as all my buddies jumped on that bandwagon. I was really interested in the old track bikes from Italy, they were so stripped down and being without a car I really enjoyed how fast I could ride compared to the 20" wheeled lifestyle. I became friends with an older bike mechanic who also made knives and one day he suggested to me that we should try and build a bike. I didn’t know if he was serious because it hadn’t really occurred to me that an actual person could/did build a bike frame from start to finish. It was that same year, 2012, the NAHBS show came to Sacramento so my buddy and I went and came back invigorated and ready to fail. Neither of us had any brazing tools or idea of what the hell to do so I looked into framebuilding classes. I came across a 3-day course in Palo Alto from Tim Sanner which fit my budget so I spent a whirlwind weekend putting together my first frame. This served as a great demystifier to these dark arts for me and it let me believe I could maybe make more. With no real skill I just started collecting tubes, found an oxy/acyt kit on craigslist on started trying to create something. Of course the first many weren’t great but over time I started to feel like I knew what I was trying to accomplish and got proficient at the many tasks required for this type of work.
Initially I thought I’d try and make a go of this as a full time job but I have never been much of a sales person so I abandoned that pretty quickly. I maintained building as a hobby mostly and began selling a very small number of frames. I work as a full-time teacher in the public school system and began thinking it might be fun to teach others how to build frames. So I added a page to my website without really advertising anywhere and had many people ask. Once I did the first class word of mouth has helped keep that part of the business as steady as I want it to be. I honestly enjoy teaching classes more than I do making someone a custom frame, not that the latter isn’t enjoyable I just enjoy helping others through the inevitable mistakes and seeing when things begin the “click” for students (this always happens near the last session). Additionally, I do all my own paint work. I absolutely love getting into the booth and experimenting with colors. It’s also very satisfying controlling every part of the process from start to finish.
In regards to building, I used to be very much into the vintage aesthetic and still love well crafted lugged frames. I am a roadie at heart and almost solely ride road bikes. With that said, I am more interested today playing with various tubing diameters and wall thickness to balance ride characteristics and weight while testing my own theories about what makes a great bike. One of my good friends works as an engineer at one the of large bike companies located in the Bay Area and I really love to pick his brain in terms of how they go about designing bikes (of course theirs are carbon). These conversations drive me to want to try new ideas. Okay, that was a lot. Thanks for reading.
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Hello Everyone,
My name is Will and I’m from Western Massachusetts (seems to be a relatively large contingent from this area). I’m getting ready to build my first frame, pulling together tools, tubes and working on a fixture. I got really into cycling in/after college when I was in the greater Philadelphia area and had a good group of folks I rode with. I was riding a lot then and did a couple We moved back to Massachusetts about 10 years ago and at that point other things kind of took over and I didn’t do a whole lot of riding. I’m working on getting myself back into shape and building some frames has been a goal for a long time. I’ve always been the type to want to make things myself and have generally found that I can as long as I stick with it. I took a welding class about 5 years ago and have been brushing up on my TIG skills. I also have a tendency to hoard tools so I have a real old Bridgeport and a lathe.
Historically most of my riding has been “road” riding, I remember hearing about D2R2 years ago and riding that has been one of my goals I’m working towards. I also live right near the Holyoke range where there are a couple networks of MTB trails so I’m been exploring that as well. Currently I’m planning for a gravel type build but I’m considering a MTB in the future as well.
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Framebuilding is a great hobby, and all your pals will be asking for a frame. From my personal experience: Don’t wait to build a bike before you start getting back into riding shape! Get ANY bike and ride! The more you ride, the more inspired you’ll be to build. And, it’s really satisfying to ride your own frame.
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Welcome! You already have a solid foundation, I am jealous! Excited to see your progress
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Thanks Mark, I am getting out with my current bikes, I definitely need to be doing that.
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I should have done this quite a while ago.
I am Guillaume, french-canadian living in Quebec City. I’ve been building bikes under Cycles Golem since 2002.
Before that I worked at Procycle (now Rocky Mountain group) designing and QC bikes. Procycle was the biggest bike manufacturer in Canada at this time. I also had worked a a couples of bike shops and with Symbiosis which was a bike builder back in the 90 in my home town. I am mechanical engineering
technician by trade.
I am not doing this full time as the market is quite small locally and I need a decent income to feed the kids. So I am selling between 2 to 5 frames a year and work for the government full time.
I use to be a MTB and CX racer (finished 4th at the CX Canadian championship in 2002 on the bike I welded at UBI that same year), now I ride for fun and I rather ride in the woods than on the road, although I find cargo bikes really interresting.
I work in a small shed (12’X16’) so I can not have big machines and make the most out of humble tooling that are mostly home made.
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Hey all,
Corey “KRUCH” Kruchkowski here, I build steel bicycle frames under the name of KRUCH High Performance Steel Bicycles here in sunny Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
I started out building all kinds of bikes but lately it is all mountain bikes - the only orders I get anymore are MTB so I suppose that is what I build! I currently have 3 models, with a gravel bike in the works. I do some custom work, but less and less of it each year.
In 2023 I am building 8 of my full suspension frames (Shrimpalicious), 5 of my hardtail frames (Gnartail), and 25-30 examples of the “Tauntaun”, my progressive all mountain Fatbike which uses a lot of tech (SLM 316L yokes, custom dropouts, custom skewers, locally made head tubes) - which has really been popular.
Pics Below: Me trying to look cool and failing, my personal full suspension bike, the new KRUCH 44/56ZS head tubes that are being made locally for my Fatbike, and finally local KRUCH Rider Doug Baron showing where some folks like to ride my hardtail bikes.
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Name’s Ian or friends also call me Relic (Beachcombers reference). I build bikes in Peterborough, Ontario Canada. My brand is Good Dog Cycles. Self taught and always learning. I’m 100% steel and a brazer. (Lugs and fillets). Love the frame building community, so many fantastic talented people.
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