All us framebuilders get along great. I know just about every professional builder out there and go out of my way to meet any I don’t. We are a small community and just about all of us share a lot of  the same interests and of course our profession. We almost always like each other and always have plenty to talk about.

It’s kind of a strange arrangement when compared to most other professions. We compete against each other on one hand and share information on the other. I also spend a lot of time working with new builders (future competition) giving them advice on everything from building frames and TIG welding to running their business. I do a seminar each year at NHABS on the mechanics of running a framebuilding business. I also have taught framebuildng to a hand full of apprentices over the years.

Today Ron Andrews from King Cage will be in town and is stopping by to introduce himself. He’s worked at a handful of frame shops over his career and I’m looking forward to meeting him. Curtis Inglis of Inglis/Retrotec and his wife Mitzi will also be in town for a day and Loretta and I will put them up in our Airstream “guest house” and show them around town. Others who have stopped by are Jeremy and Jerome Sycip of Sycip Bikes ,Jeremy’s wife has family in Bozeman. John Caletti of Caletti Cycles will be spending a week here later in the Summer.

I feel fortunate to work in a boutique craft industry where all us competitors can have open sharing relationships. We all came from somewhere an since there is no formal avenue for training we have to teach each other to keep the craft alive and strong (no pun intended).  I’m frequently ask if it worries me to teach others who will eventually compete against me or give information to competitors. Frankly, I don’t really worry at all. I was given what I have from someone and owe it to the craft to pay it forward. Besides, the way I see it the better off the custom framebuilding industry is, the better off I’ll be.

I’m moving along pretty good now. I finished Andreas’s frame and it will go to paint. I started Scott H’s frame which is a titanium road frame that will be getting Ultegra SL. Bill has also completed assembly of Brian B’s frame and Sam M’s frame is back fro paint and will ship today.

The fourth of July is now behind us and it’s time to get back to work. Being self employed is great because you have a lot of freedom. The hard part is maintaining the discipline to go to work when it’s beautiful outside and you want to ride. It doesn’t help when you have a constant parade of visitors stopping by the shop who also want you to go ride. I’ve been a little soft lately and given into the temptation but now it’s time for me to buck it up and start sticking to my schedule.

I shipped Harold V’s bike out last week. It really came out nicely. We also go back Scott H’s frame from Spectrum and man does the powder coat look good. Scott really nailed the paint scheme. The frame is going out with a fork and headset so hopefully he’ll send pictures of the completed bike once it’s put together. Checkout the images in the gallery. Harold’s is Ti with a painted front and custom bent chainstays and seatstays. Scott’s is a semi Extralite steel frame. Work for this week is finishing up Andreas XCr frame, and starting Scott H’s titanium frame. That should keep me busy for the rest of the week.

Here is work from yesterday. It’s going great and I should have all the welding done today. More pictures tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for your kind words and good advice about my back. Luckily this time it seems to be improving quickly and I hope to be riding by the weekend. Sometimes it can take months before I feel good again but this time it appears it will be a lot less.

I’m starting a Columbus XCr frame today for Andreas M of San Francisco. I’ve built with both the Reynolds 953 and XCr over the past couple of years since both tubesets reached the market. I prefer the XCr for a couple of reasons,  I can get it when I need it and the tubeset, although limited to a single specification makes a lighter frame than 953 of the same basic spec’s. One big advantage to the 953 is that it is a range of tubes so you can select the tube specs you need to tune the frame to the rider. In cases when the XCr spec’s do not meet the needs of the rider I do use 953.

I’ll be spending the rest of the week building this frame so there will be more pictures added tomorrow and Friday of it’s progress.