My current shop is in a 6800 square foot building I built about seven years ago. When I built the building Strong Frames was a much larger company and I included a store front that I intended to use for a bike shop which I ran for two years called Stark Raven Cycles. You can get the whole story by following the tour of my history here: History. At any rate, to make a long story short, I have since split the space into four separate commercial units of which I occupy one and the three others are rented.

Last October my big tenant moved out leaving a lot of my space vacant. Since then I’ve had one tenant move in and bail, and three others make verbal commitments but none completed the transaction. Well finally last week I had a tenant come along for the store front who signed a lease and was ready to move it. The catch was she wanted to open for business today. She has a 10 year old business downtown and due to circumstances beyond her control needed to move her business and move it fast. I’ve been in her shoes before and I know how expensive down time can be.  There were a few modifications that needed to be done to the space before she moved in but no contractors could get here in time so I did it myself. Fortunately it’s a skill set I have.

So last week I spent Wed-Fri building, and finishing some partition walls. Obviously since I was next door building walls (Strong Custom Walls?) I wasnt’ building frames. I’ll be back on track this week and for those of you waiting to see your frames on the blog keep your eyes open, they’ll be  coming soon.

Cyclocross is my favorite bike racing discipline. I like it for a lot of reasons but now that I’m 45 I like it most because the races are short. You don’t have to train 20 hours a week to feel like you can go race and do OK. You don’t have to worry about getting dropped and languishing on the road in solitude and you don’t have to worry about the tent being folded up and gone when you finally make it back to the start/finish. Cross is also very tough.

Your typical cross race is a one hour pain contest. You get dressed in freezing weather (at least in MT you do) or you may race in rain, mud or snow. When you race cross you have to execute run-ups and hurdles which require a dismount and remount onto the bike. These are skills that can really give a person and advantage if they practice their technique. I was never very fast so when I was racing a lot I always tried to make up for my lack of speed and talent with any advantages I could. In road racing it was strategy and decision  making, in cross it was technique and in MTB…well, in MTB I always just sucked.

In Bozeman when I was heavily involved in racing, the cross community was lucky enough to have Geoff Proctor. I’ve known Geoff for nearly 20 years now. He has represented the US at the Cross Worlds, coached the US Jr. Cross team, and been at the center of the US cross community in one form or another ever since I’ve known him. He used to, and maybe still does put on cross clinics. I went to one before I did my fist cross race and man did I learn a lot.

So I don’t really know what the point of this post is other than I love cross. If you’ve considered trying it, I’d highly encourage you to do so. Just don’t overlook the benefit of good technique, it really goes a long way.

As many of you know, I’m working on a new site (screen grab below). Todd Heckeler of www.consumedesign.com has been doing my sites for over 10 years now. He also does sites for other noted Framebuilders like Ibis, Curt Goodrich and Steve Hampsten. Todd and I have become good friends over the years. He’s even come  to Bozeman to visit and we see each other at industry shows around the country. We’re now working on version eight of my site and it’s come a long way since we first started. Not only does the design and technology continue to evolve but so to does the content. I think I’ve tried just about everything. One thing I have noticed is that simpler is better. In this new design we’re focusing on better navigation, better images and gallery and a little more content. Come to think of it, it might be fun to feature screen grabs of the past versions as well. At any rate we’ll be launching soon and I’m looking forward to getting your feedback. I’ve always considered my site one of the best custom frame sites on the  net. Lots of new builders have been coming on strong lately and to remain one of the best site takes lots of work and creativity. Hopefully the design along with some of my new features will help my site remain among the best custom frame sites on the net.

Here are some of the past site designs. I did one of them, can you guess which one?

Most of my customer know this by now but if you have tried to reach me in the afternoon you’ve probably found I not in the shop. My hours are from 6am to 1pm, although from time to time I do stay later. The reason I keep these hours are because I have fewer interruptions in the mornings before 9:00. I also don’t have to take a lunch break, I just eat when I get home. For both those reasons I can get more done in seven hours of work than I would working eight or more hours with the interruptions of people, phone and lunch. If you need to talk and my hours make it difficult to find the time, please let me know. I’m always happy to schedule phone calls to help accommodate your schedule.

Here are some shots of my current work. It’s for Mark E. out of Georgia. It’s a Custom Blend Steel frame and fork. It will be getting  Keith Anderson liquid paint job. It’s a very classic and clean design using all of the modern steel technology. It’s going to be a really nice bike.

My cousin Michael is in town this week. We grew up together in Seattle. He’s one year younger but lots smarter. When we were kids we got into  all kinds of trouble together. As I recall I was always the bad influence. Before we got to high schools we spent all out time together riding our BMX bikes all over town. Once we got a little older we saw less of each other but strangely followed similar paths.

I was motorcycle crazy in my early 20’s and did a little road racing out of the Seattle area. Michael started racing several years after I moved to Montana. He was smarter about it and didn’t fall off as much so he actually finished all of his races. When I moved to Montana in 1989 I shifted all my focus to racing Road, Cross and MTB bikes,mainly road. I was a pretty good expert MTB racer but I could win road races so I enjoyed them more. After Michael quit racing motorcycles (read, when he got married) he switched to bicycles too. He’s now an avid MTB rider and does some road riding.

So now are paths have converged again and we can revert to those days when we were 12 years old riding our BMX bikes from one side of Seattle to the other. It really points out the liberating feeling you get when you ride a bike. I think kids love bicycles so much because they provide a freedom that is new and they can begin to explore their world. If you’re lucky it’s a feeling that never wears off.