I arrived in Niles, Michigan yesterday around 4pm, unpacked and spent much of Superbowl Sunday getting groceries & cleaning up my living space. I’m staying in Doug’s parent’s house, a curiously antiquated Grey Gardens sort of estate that adjoins the property on which he currently lives.
My official Framebuilding Morning Mug, courtesy the cupboard. I don't know much about Danish ethnic stereotypes, but it seems somehow apropos given the bicycle theme of this adventure.
The shop is an appropriately mad-scientist small castle in the back. Two other people arrived later on in the day to join in the class — Daniel from Portland, Oregon; and Josh from St Paul, Minnesota. Good folks, and, so far as I can tell, we’re all on about the same level with regards to bikes: lots of geekery in the areas with which we’ve had experience (mechanics, fixin’ stuff, reading blogs, etc), and zero ability in the area we’re about to take on. A perfect learning opportunity!
Those blue Hetchins frames are virtually historical artifacts!
We started this morning in the shop with a short history lesson of US framebuilding: why things are the way the are/have been, and who is responsible for the state of affairs. Doug is well-situated as a teacher with one of the longest histories of framebuilding in the US, having apprenticed under legendary UK builders in the early 70s and being currently connected with a wide range of builders today. There is also Tons of Cool Stuff in his shop, namely snazzy frames from all sorts of historic builders, and a number of his own builds that are knock-your-socks-off stunning. Seeing the skill in a handmade bike is really (really and truly) only something you can appreciate in person. I’ve understood the principles, qualities and arguments to be made for handmade for a long time, but geeze — when you actually see them, they have this genius subtle quality that emotes form, skill and care.
A bilaminate head tube lug built by Doug. I can't begint to imagine how many hours of work went into this.
This fixture allows every possible contact point to be fine-tuned to the rider's body on the fly
After the introduction, we started designing our frames. First, Josh was fitted. We took measurements from a bike he’s looking to emulate (in some respects), and recreated those conditions on the bike fitting fixture.
From left to right: Herbie (Doug's assistant), Doug, Daniel, and Josh
Certain elements were monkeyed around with to create a ideal fit conditions (the tenuous balance between biomechanical efficiency, aerodynamic efficiency, and comfort), and he was off to the races to start inputting those measurements into a fixture.
I’m building a fairly run of the mill sport touring frame: not a “go fast” bike per se, and not a loaded touring bike either. Something squarely in the “meh, let’s just play around” category. With this in mind, the above mentioned triad of “fit” concerns is more heavily weighted to comfort than to, say, aerodynamics. After we replicated my Marinoni’s setup on the fitting fixture, it turned out that I’ve been riding with significantly too long reach (the distance from your saddle to your bars). We made some other adjustments to dial in the fit just so, and I’m ending up with a bike that is definitely custom (bike geekery alert): a 71 degree seat tube, 72.5 degree head tube, 56cm top tube and 59cm seat tube. If this means nothing to you, just keep in mind that many off the shelf bikes today have 73 degree seat tube and head tube, and identical top tube and seat tube lengths. If you want to know more about the significance of these measurements, just ask in the comments!
To any of those "Well, you just stick pieces of metal together, how hard can it be?" people, every piece of metal on this fixture moves, and many things move in relation to one another. Tire size, saddle type, seatpost style, bars, brakes, fork crown etc all factor heavily into this operation. But this is my bike to be!
The day wrapped up with Daniel getting his fit and design figured out, and the three of us staring and fiddling ponderously with the fabulously complicated (and subtly brilliant) frame fixtures that we input the fit measurements into. The only concern right now is that my lugs have not arrived (or have been misplaced), so there may be some expedited ordering taking place tomorrow to get the parts necessary to put this crazy machine together.