Richie, just saw your Instagram post…
Correction: Hopefully, she’s settling in nicely and recognizing she’s one lucky pup.
The pitter-patter of the heart is still applicable.
Printable View
Ooooh a bass boat Sachs. What a good idea!
-
when i make a frame (and fork) nothing is finished until the paint dries. and when it does, the work i put into everything will look different depending on the color. there are colors that require more passes which means some visuals can appear heavier than others. opaques, particularly lighter ones, tend to look the heaviest. the thickest. lotta metal edges and curves and pointy points need to be buried. and, in turn, my metalwork can get lost.
there are moments when i unwrap a freshly painted frame (and fork) and wonder where all the labor went. these (moments) are few and far between. but they do come. they still come. after five decades of fussing and fitting and brazing and sculpting. i still look at a few of these, look at myself in the mirror (metaphorically) and think my skills are dropping off. that’s a different mindset than the one i have before i ship a frame (and fork) to the paint shop.
for me, the ideal is a moving target. if there’s a slight alignment gaffe i hope that the bicycle fits perfectly. if i err on a length measurement i hope that a millimeter is a dimension we can laugh about. if the design is a mirror image of my original plan but the workmanship raises an eyebrow i’ll use the term wabi-sabi in a sentence. the only time i don’t worry about my frames (and forks) is when i think of the ones i haven’t made yet.
All This By Hand
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5c850766_c.jpg
Slight Digression: 17 or 18 years ago @lenj posted a pic of his white-with-red-accents Richard Sachs bike (he referred to that color combination as "reverse Richie") and I was instantly smitten. It is by far my favorite colorway [sic] for a Sachs frame. The only reason I didn't order mine that color is because I know how bad I am about keeping white stuff clean!
But shee-it ^^^that pic is gorgeous!
To my untrained eye, the transition from head tube to lug looks sharper on mine. Can't help wondering whether that's because of actual paint thickness or color contrast.
Richie's discerning eye is much better than mine. Thankfully.
Also appreciate the little splooge of RichieLube on both fork crowns.
Regardless, once one is on board, that all disappears beneath.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a13766b4_b.jpgFork headtube closeup SACHS 22 by Doc Mertes, on Flickr
rccardr, are you building it with downtube shifters?
Yep, got it in February '23 and have been riding equipped thusly ever since:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...37a49d57_b.jpgIMG_7306 by Doc Mertes, on Flickr
It's an excellent example of handmade bicycle craftsmanship.
Ah, yes. I knew about that bike. Glad I forgot long enough to require another picture of it.
golden ticket
Attachment 125198
-
Yeah. Out there in the other world I was known as an experienced maker who’d been delivering the goods for decades. In here (uses forefinger and points to temple) I was still some guy trying to find that last percentage point needed to feel as if I’d reached a level of mastery. That Imperfection Is Perfection song I’d been humming since the 1980s? It wasn’t more than a dry hand towel used to wipe the sweat from my brow. The perspiration and the doubting went hand in hand.
It wasn’t like it just happened, my arrival at middle ground. Like so many things, it’s a process. I’m not in this alone. I looked at the metal, the files, the torch, the coiled-up brazing rod – all of it – as having a heartbeat just like me. So. Many. Heartbeats. We’re there together to make a sound. On my bench, that sound is a bicycle frame after some four days of trying.
Picking up the materials and getting each one to make the sound I want is the goal. The goal, after so many years, included me letting the parts improvise a bit. Or maybe more than a bit. I could either force my way into getting the metal to do what I want OR I could work with it and hope the collaboration lifts all of us. That’s when I realized what this making thing is all about.
Framebuilding (for me) became a relationship I entered once a week. My partner was scattered around my bench and on various surfaces in the workshop. I wanted to woo everything so we’d all be in that happy place. Where everything on the bicycle frame is where it should be.
All This By Hand
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2ab622bf_c.jpg
-
in venus paradise
All This By Hand
@Ciclipucci
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8cfe82f8_c.jpg
Some images from last week.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ecb6481b_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9a224fb5_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...053b2b17_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8a9d5f3d_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d56c6fb1_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8af95428_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...94cdf2dc_c.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...31456c0a_c.jpg