for a professional.
Anyone that follows this blog may have noticed I’ve been posting a lot of builds lately. That’s because it’s spring and I want to get my customers their frames as soon as I can so they can start enjoying them. Normally I build between one and two frames a week, but this time of year I’ll build three or four. I don’t rush to do so, I never rush. What I do is limit my interruptions and avoid distractions. I could actually build more but I really prefer to keep my pace very slow and leisurely and I prefer not to work more than about 40 hours a week. So that brings me to may main point; Framebuilding should be easy.
As a Framebuilder I’ll never build the perfect frame, there is no such thing. My goal is to get better with every frame and continue the never ending journey toward the perfect frame. As you might expect the improvement from one frame to the next is infinitesimal and nothing the owner would or could ever know or recognize. Typically it’s the very little things and more often than not they translate into process rather than product. If you were to compare one of my first couple hundred frames to the frames I build now you may notice a small improvement but most of my gains were in how I built them, how long it took and how much finish work was involved. As I continue to improve (I’m now in the area of 3500 plus frames) I’m sure they are better than the first couple hundred but the main difference is that now it’s very easy for me to build them and I always get consistent results.
So I don’t know if there is much of a point here other than if you are getting a frame you don’t have to worry about whether the build went well or if I had a good day. The build always goes well and I always have a good day. It’s second nature for me… easy, and that’s the way it should be. I sure wouldn’t want to go to a doctor for a surgery and hope he has a good day and pulls it off. Professionalism is about predictable consistent results.
Below is a gallery of Terry A’s steel Extralite road. I’m finishing up Neil’s frame today and will be starting Andy H’s MTB which will be going to Ireland.
is it just us custom first timers or does everyone get a little excited at the first mention of their build being in the line up? it’s like being an 8 year old at xmas all over again
Anyway, enough of that, just in case any of you guys out there are not already aware of Mark Beaumonts “Cycle the Americas” tour (which is being shown on BBC over here in Ireland and the UK), it’s a fairly good show and can be found on youtube, all be it in 10 minute segments – he even passes through Montana and man, I had no idea just how beautiful parts of that state are! – Episode 1 is already on there and expect episode 2 (of 3) to be on there fairly soon. The overall trip is from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina, Climbing (on foot) Denali/Mount McKinley and Aconcagua en route!
Just when you think you’re getting good at something you see picture 6…but this puts it into perspective: “(I’m now in the area of 3500 plus frames)”…then I don’t feel too bad…I’m on 45.
That sounds familiar. When I first started grad school in materials, I was told it would take at least 10,000-20,000 hours to become an expert, and then another 10k-20k hours to become fast, efficient, and professional, and in retrospect that seems about right (although there’s still plenty of room to improve). Sounds like you went through something similar with framebuilding!
ref. picture #6: Carl you’re not a man, you’re a robot!
Thanks for the pics Carl. It looks fantastic! I wish I had it next weekend’s race! Terry
Well said, Carl.