Quote Originally Posted by Archibald View Post
Steve - You have a brother other than Martin? First I head of that. What's he do?

Mad love to you & what you do, mang!
Brother David lives in Portland, rides when he can, works when work is available. Not sure why he's not a framebuilder yet.

I guess there is one more brother, Andy, but no one asks about him... he's still doing Cinghiale Cycling Tours, loves riding his bike and "fixing" his house, same dead VW parked in the front yard as has been for the last 15 years.

Quote Originally Posted by grscha View Post
Thanks for getting smoked out -- I've been looking forward to it!

2 questions:

1. What's your favorite part of the business...and your least favorite?

2. What's the general product mix going out the door? The Strada Bianca enjoys a great reputation...is it your best seller? Do you sell more Ti or steel, etc.?
1 - Easy: talking with new customers. I love that part of my day, hands down. Least favorite is all the business stuff Carl Strong talks about: taxes, reports, filing forms - stuff where there's no person at the other end.

2 - Looks like this: titanium - 50%, steel - 50%, stainless - 10%. (hmmm...) Strada Bianca (both materials) is probably our best seller, followed by Gran Paradiso, then S & S coupled bikes, then Something With Lugs.

Quote Originally Posted by Boedie View Post
Steve,
It's great seeing you smoked out. I haven't had the guts (or eloquent writing style) to enter this forum, yet. Besides being a great guy to work for, I have to say that meeting you, Martin, and Max was a highlight to my long, wet three and a half years in Seattle. And yes you are right, you do have a rather smooth way talking to customers. I had to think long and hard of a few questions, so here they are: What do you attribute to such a good year for bicycle sales in 2010 when most builders saw a decline in sales? Any plans on expansion or just keep doing what your doing? And one last question: Who has been your favorite mechanic/rack and wheel builder at Hamco?

I think you should definitely bring a Strada Bianca out for next year's Cino Heroica ride here in Montana. Sounds right up your alley. Although, you may have to make some "retro" mods to qualify you for the ride.

Tell the kids hi for me.

CTB
Chris - we've been consistent for 2009 and 2010 and I think gross sales were almost identical. Maybe we're down a little from the two years preceding but it's not huge. I think what's helped us ride out the financial downturn is that I see our bikes as being somewhere in the middle of the custom spectrum: neither the most expensive nor the least expensive - we build quality and we give reasonable value. Our focus is on steel and titanium which aren't the most expensive materials to work with, and the bikes we sell tend to be on the practical side ("No, really honey, with this new bike I can replace all but two of my other bikes - think how much money we'll save!"), either in terms of go-anywhere/do-anything or that we build many of them with couplers - so we sell a lot of versatility. Or, as with Crema, it's a great steel bike that takes fenders and bigger tires at a good price - we all need a good fender bike, right?

No plans for expansion but maybe get the business out of my house some day - as soon as I get tired of working in my pajamas, of course. We recently completely redid the shop so now there are two distinct work spaces, one for wrenching and one for framebuilding; now Max wants a horizontal mill...

Favorite mechanic/wheelwhore/rackster? Oooh, that's a tough one, so many, so many... you, of course. I think it's that Montana work ethic. Shoot me a note on this Cino Heroica, wouldja? I'm interested.

The cats and dog continue to age gracefully, Riley just had his 13th. Alle ist gut.