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When I make a bicycle frame, the real action - the making part - doesn’t start until I’m a good four hours into the commission. Until then it’s an intellectual process. I revisit the emails and paperwork that have lived in a folder or on a clipboard, sometimes for years. A mental image of what I plan for the client forms. I grab materials, cut some tubes to length, and verify that my fixtures mirror the very plan I have in mind. All these small tasks are second nature. No formulas. No apps. No molds. Nothing conveniently falls from a tree and becomes the frame or any subassembly of it. Before anything happens, I go through the mental exercises that will, along with my experience, intuition, and some luck, yield a metal structure that components will attach to and become a bicycle.

To be continued.

All This By Hand