Signal Cycles

[cardinal]

Thanks to Mike and Craig for getting the ball rolling with this, and to Richard for scheming up new ways to entertain. My name is Matt Cardinal, I am one of two owners of Signal Cycles the other is Nate Meschke. Nate is in Columbia hanging out in a hammock right now, so I’m going to start the conversation and let him join in when he gets back (or gets good internet service).

Before I started Signal, I had done some dropout replacements and basic braze-ons in my (at that time) 15 year career as a bike mechanic, but never really considered putting a bike together. During the summer of 2005 I got an opportunity to work for Sacha White assembling bikes, and was blown away and inspired by the experience of sharing shop time with him. I guess that is what pushed me over that little ledge of deciding, “I want to build a bike.” I built my first bike in my garage in the fall of 2005 it was hideous. I made Nate buy a tube set and the two of us helped each other build a few more bikes for ourselves. It was a lot of fun, and I started having friends asking about me building them a bike. I mosly said no, I wasn’t planning on starting a bike company at that point. The enjoyment I had building was all that I needed.

This is where I tell you that we have no formal training as bike builders, and you all pick up your jaws and shake your heads in disbelief. As Craig mentioned in his thread “I’m and internet framebuilder.” I had a Paterek manual that I found almost useful, and help from a few friends that had built bikes, most notable is Brett Flemming the owner of Efficient Velo Tools. Brett helped us set up the shop with a jig and better hand tools. But the most exciting and diverse source of knowledge came from documenting that other builders had posted online. The online research helped clear up some of the gray areas from the Paterek manual.

After Nate and I had been building for about two years, we found out that NAHBS was going to be in Portland in 2008. The fact that NAHBS was going to be in our back yard was too good an opportunity to pass up. I got funding from the shop we work at, the Bike Gallery and convinced Nate to be my partner in it. Looking back I suppose it was brash thinking I could pull this thing together. Somehow we were in the right place at the right time and were included in the book “Handmade Bicycles a passionate Pursuit” along with many heroes of ours. We made 20 bikes our first year.

Last year after the Bike Gallery still wasn’t seeing a way to make money selling our bikes, they decided to offer the company to Nate and I. So Nate and I have owned Signal since June of 2009.

I guess that’s as good a place to start as any. I know that a lot of successful builders started by just building a bike, whereas others got started by sitting at a bench and brazing hundreds of dropouts, then hundreds of brazeons. We’ve had insurance since day zero, none of our bikes have broken, and we’ve made a lot of people bikes that they love and are proud of. There have been growing pains and learning moments, but I feel that we are making good progress. I hope that the quality of the work we are doing can speak for itself. I know that Nate and I still have a long road ahead of us, and that makes me very excited. I really feel fortunate to be involved in this conversation. Thanks for reading.

[Jonathan]

Matt and Nate,

btw, great website.

why build together and not alone? Do each of you perform all of the same tasks? Are you in the shop together? Please share how your partnership works.

Jonathan

[cardinal]

Jonathan,
I suppose strength in numbers is why we work together. We've taught each other a lot, and feel like we keep each other in check. I think we're pretty fortunate that we have two of us, over the last 8-9 months Nate has been driving a lot of the building and I've been learning how to be a dad and run a small business, and taking torch time when I can find it. But I feel we do the best work when it's both of us working on the same project, usually until it gets to finish work and then one will take over and the other will get to planning and starting the next one. Nate and I have been through a lot and it is possible for him to tell me I'm doing something stupid without my ego getting bruised. From the beginning I wanted Signal to just be Signal, not Nate, not Matt.

[e-RICHIE]

matt - does a certain type of frame beckon you two, or will you build any style (within reason) atmo?
iow, road, mtb, fixie, 'cross, rando (stop me...), city bike, tricycle, etc.
is there a focus at signal, and/or would you like there to be one?

[cardinal]

matt - does a certain type of frame beckon you two, or will you build any style (within reason) atmo?
iow, road, mtb, fixie, 'cross, rando (stop me...), city bike, tricycle, etc.
is there a focus at signal, and/or would you like there to be one?

So far, we've built mostly cyclocross bikes and light rando/ long reach/ fender road bikes. We haven't built a track bike yet. How insane is that?! It's pretty true that people expect to see you do what they've seen, that is why we decided to show a range of bikes at NAHBS 2008 (road, mountain, cross, and a twin-tubed city bike) this was our introduction, and we wanted to show bikes that represented our favorite kinds of riding. I never want to build a tandem, I've said no to that twice so far. It's not because I'm a tandem hater, it's more like I don't feel I have anything to add to that conversation.

Wade, thanks for that. I'm really looking forward to the day that we are no longer the new guys. One day at a time.

[e-RICHIE]

... it's more like I don't feel I have anything to add to that conversation.

rawesome atmo.
that has been my mantra since day one.

[WadePatton]

wow. always thought your (signal) stuff was great, but never suspected the nouveau of it all. congrats and keep the metal hot.

[edoz]

I try to buy domestic as much as I can, especially when it's local or handcrafted/small company.

[moran]

Matt,

I enjoyed reading your post, and I agree with you.

One of the phrases I have seen used on this forum from time to time is the phrase he/she "get's it". Usually it seems to be geared towards riding or using the bike for it's intended purpose, vs getting hung up on details like paint color, component choices, etc. On the one hand, I understand what they mean. On the other hand...I would submit that bigger picture, the consumers who are willing to pay for quality, for knowing the individual(s) who made what you are purchasing, for something made locally......in my opinion, those are the consumers who really "get it".

Great post. And keep making those great bikes.

[anthonymaietta]

Hysterical answers in your NAHBS interview. Thanks for the laugh.

[cardinal]

Hysterical answers in your NAHBS interview. Thanks for the laugh.

Thanks Anthony,
It feels like we've had a pretty good media presence in the past month. It's weird how these things seem to pop up and then disappear without any real pattern. I thought about making some kind of graph that would track when we get interview requests, emails from people who want to apprentice, and bike inquiries and lay it over our web analytics to see if there is any correlation. It all seems so random.

[grscha]

How influenced are you, if at all, by Vanilla? I could be imagining it, because of the pdx connection, but I see a visual kinship when I look at Vanilla's bikes and at yours. A good thing, IMO...

Thanks.

[cardinal]

How influenced are you, if at all, by Vanilla? I could be imagining it, because of the pdx connection, but I see a visual kinship when I look at Vanilla's bikes and at yours. A good thing, IMO...

Thanks.

Thanks for the question. I would say that the biggest influence I got from Sacha was inspiration. Watching him work on his company and seeing his passion and quiet intensity left a mark on me. I look up to him as a builder, but it isn't because I want my company to be like his. For most of my life I thought that bikes were what I was doing while I decided what I was really going to do. Realizing that I could combine all of my passions into this business was a real eye opener.

I don't make design decisions by looking at what Sacha does, but he is one hell of an amazing designer. I think that our pallets are very similar, I am attracted to green, gold, brown, offwhite, colors with accents of cool blues and reds, but that is just what my eyes tell me to paint a bike. Of course another similarity is that we have our bikes painted by Coat, Sacha's paint shop.

[cardinal]

Re posted from our blog, I thought this board would be a good place to share this new bike concept.

Another cool project that is in the works is a production bike that will be available this spring. I was planning on keeping it secret until they are available, but where is the fun in that?
The bike is a fillet brazed Columbus steel frame and fork with s-bend stays built around Shimano long reach brakes. These calipers will allow for larger tires and fenders. We will be building all of the bikes in house, and making them available in 5 sizes to start (52-60 in 2cm increments). These bikes will also be built with Richard Sachs dropouts, basically a copy of the old semi-horizontal Campagnolo dropouts that used to come on every Italian steel bike. One added perk to these is that if you want to make the bike single speed, there is enough room in the dropout to do so. The geometry will be fairly sporty. We'll be making the chainstays long enough to work with fenders and bigger tires, but not so long that it rides like a touring bike. It is going to be a great all around steel road bike. These are complete bikes only, available with 105 for $3200. The group is 100% Shimano with wheels that feature 105 hubs, DT rims and spokes, and are built by us. Every bike will also come with a Chris King headset, because we like Chris King. The order process is still being decided on, but essentially we are planning on having frames available at any time. Make a deposit and we will braze on the custom serial number with the customer name and send the bike to the painters. Turn around at paint is 4-5 weeks. We are still trying to come up with a name for this bike. When Nate and I talk about it, we call it a "west hills bike." Any suggestions?

We'll start selling the bikes at NAHBS in February.

[Archibald]

Matt - I did a bad thing and posted in the FNL about your stay treatment on the MTB you posted, but I'll repeat it here: it rocks! Very tidy and it really flows well together. Good job!

[cardinal]

Matt - I did a bad thing and posted in the FNL about your stay treatment on the MTB you posted, but I'll repeat it here: it rocks! Very tidy and it really flows well together. Good job!

Thank you very much for that. I've been trying to nail that curve for a while. We use two different sized benders, one a little tighter for the top, and a bigger one for the bottom. There are some oldish aluminum Specialized road bikes that I have always thought were just right, and Sean at Vertigo made himself an s bend road bike that i think has perfect bends. I think the one radius s-bends end up looking a bit kinked in the lower bend.

Thanks for noticing.

[grscha]

Matt -

I was looking at your Flickr pics yesterday...I really like the way you guys use color. I'm curious about something: with a painted-on logo, what's the process? I assume it's not freehand, for ease of consistent replication; and it can't be old-fashioned stencils with bridges...so how's it done?

Thanks!

[cardinal]

Matt -

I was looking at your Flickr pics yesterday...I really like the way you guys use color. I'm curious about something: with a painted-on logo, what's the process? I assume it's not freehand, for ease of consistent replication; and it can't be old-fashioned stencils with bridges...so how's it done?

Thanks!

Greg,
Yeah we work with the guys at Coat paint shop here in Portland and they use paint masks to put our logo on the bikes. It is a stencil, but there is no need for a bridge because the masks are cut from adhesive vinyl. after the paint is dry the logo is lightly sanded and covered with a clear to keep the finish nice and smooth. I'm not a bike painter, maybe one of the more experienced painters on the site could give more details. One thing I've wondered with masks, is how dry the base paint needs to be before sticking the mask on...

[cardinal]

I was about to go off the bottom of the page, so I guess it's time to post some more self promotion here. We are super excited to be working with Ziba as a collaboration for the Oregon Manifest. The design chronicles will be updated on Core77 so you can follow our progress as we find out how ID firms solve problems. It's going to be a lot of fun.

[e-RICHIE]

I was about to go off the bottom of the page, so I guess it's time to post some more self promotion here. We are super excited to be working with Ziba as a collaboration for the Oregon Manifest. The design chronicles will be updated on Core77 so you can follow our progress as we find out how ID firms solve problems. It's going to be a lot of fun.

hey matt - can you put a finger on what the Smoked Out Vexperience has meant to, or done for, you, nate, and the brand.
what with sites, and blogs, and flickrs all being used, how has this thread lifted the signal tide? would you change anything
and/or would you recommend others stick a toe in the V pool? thanks atmo.