Thanks for the opportunity to be Smoked Out. I love Velocipede Salon. Here is my story:
Thanks to Richard for smoking me out. I am Michael Crum of Magnolia Cycles in Memphis, TN. I am a bit of a "lurker" here but please forgive me as I feel those regulars contributing to the conversation do an amazing job and I've always been a bit of a wallflower.
As many of us did, I fell in love with bicycles as a kid and got my first bike shop quality mountain bike in junior high. Soon I was repairing my own bike with the help of a neighbor and being a shop rat at the l.b.s. By the end of high school, I had decided all I wanted to do was ride trials, be a bike mechanic, and build custom bikes. I attended UBI in 1997 and after bouncing around for about twelve years, I was presented the opportunity to start Magnolia Cycles.
I've never been much of a racer, though I gave xc a shot in high school and competed in the few trials events in Arkansas where I grew up. We actually had a pretty strong group of riders in the mid-nineties with a few junior national champs and one UCI junior team member. In 2000 I had a surgery which, along with a herniated disc, pretty much ended my trials riding. In 2003 I moved to Memphis and discovered I actually enjoyed road cycling.
I moved to Memphis to attend art school and while there discovered metalsmithing. I learned a lot about brazing and enjoyed it and realized I was pretty good at working with metal. For reasons I'll never know, it didn't occur to me to build a bike while in metals class; I guess I was too focused on building outlandish tea pots I would never finish, and in some cases, never start.
As a builder I strive for quality, of course, and want to build bikes that are functional, practical and lightweight. To me a great road bike, for example, is one that can be ridden on the weekend group rides but is also able to handle a dirt road epic or daily commutes. Although I love the process of building a classic lugged bike, I also would like to build bikes with a more modern feel.
I'm sure I could elaborate more but I'd rather hear what everyone else wants to know than to bore with uninteresting details.
Thanks for reading.
Michael Crum
Magnolia Cycles
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