Budd Bike Works World Word

So, the mid atlantic’s ears and for the daring, stomach’s, are about to be in for a treat.  A massive protein source is about to fly briefly, god willing fuck, and then slowly die after 17 years residing beneath everyone’s feet.http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/pdf/cicada%20recipes.PDF,http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/2306599217

http://video.wfyi.org/video/2306599217/,

http://www.cicadamania.com/where.html

Wild to think where the world was when this year’s hatchs’ parents saw the sun.  That’s enough media for me today, time to do the breakfast dishes and get down to the next bit of business.  Got to get a bike ready for the bolt bars in time for the crit,  do the dishes first

These bars are exemplary of ergonomics before efficient construction, so much cutting, so much welding, so comfortable to hammer on.

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This here bright garden flower is now residing in the concrete jungle of NYC, current set up is street utility but will make a fine disc brake cross monster when the time comes, will run single speed or fixed gear as well.

One more revision on the rack design before this one says it’s last goodbye.

Ever walk around an older city and come across the kind of architectural detail that you know could have only been executed with a near unfathomable investment of time by some one immensely skilled with their hands? I frequently work in homes built during America’s Guilded age, and have seen ceiling panels that in my lowest estimate would have taken 1,000 hours to carve. How much would it cost to do something like that today, assuming you could find a single artisan still in possession of a skill set that can only be the product of a life’s dedication from the time of an early apprenticeship to a master of your particular craft, be it stone, glass, metal, or woodworking? Maybe a dollar meant something so much different in the days of the gold standard that the same figure arrived at to account for a man’s livable wage is an apples to oranges comparison, maybe there were other factors at work that could keep someone to a task without consideration for wages, or perhaps the motivation for the craftsmen was an overwhelming desire to give his imagining form and the rest kind of took care of itself.  While I don’t proclaim to have achieved status as a master craftsmen in the tradition of work that brightens the corners of our harsh, made environment.  I do have reason to ruminate on this question on a thursday morning.  Another one off is on the way out the door and repeat customer is asking for a machine in the same vein and I need to consider what the heck to charge for it.   Introducing a design element that changes the familiar pattern I’ve learned over the years made for some special challenges with this last build,  and there are definitely some things I’d like to improve upon the design to make it a little less finicky to construct, question is whether it is better enough to be worth it and not whether or not it’ll provide me a roof.

Have some sleuth work to do. Moved the Newton Historical Society out of Storage and into their nicely re-vamped site on Waverly St. last week and got a second chance to photograph a really early, full on (as in I doubt there was an off the shelf part available at the dawn of cycling) hand built bike with some really familiar “innovations” that have only reappeared on high end bikes in the last 15 years. Wild to imagine what the state of cycling technology would be had the wave of innovation applied to the construction of the most efficient machine man has ever adapted not been stifled by the dual combustibles of world wars and engines that burned up the bright promise of true transportation freedom. The US patent office had its own department to process the wave of inventive solutions people had to take the nearly perfect form of transportation that much closer. Ball bearings, pneumatic tires, macadam roadways, assembly lines, and successful human flight there was nothing auto about the mobiles that inspired their creation.
Pics forthcoming, need a bite to eat than a bit more sun to process some much needed spring time vitamin D before I can stand another minute at the computer. The head badge is missing, but this bike is sporting straight pull spoked wheels, fat red cyclo cross treaded tubulars(destroyed, on wood rims) out board bearing cranksets, seamless gas welded frame and you wouldn’t believe how little this sweet fixie weighs, I’d estimate it at about 20lbs.
Wondering if anyone out there in the ether will be able to help me identify the make and origin of this bike? The ladies gently cracking the whip at us movers today were pretty excited when I professed knowledge of what was going on with it and are interested in finding out as much about it as it had just sat in the attic for decades. Not sure it is the best course but they also expressed interest in getting a working set of tires on it, the more I think about it I think it might be impossibe to find anything to fit the rims I measured at about 25 & 1/4″ (only a crude english measure tape at the job site). Thought I’d put it out there and ask if anyone knew a resource for period correct parts for this kind of bike? they want the bike displayed as they are pretty sure it’ll make a fascinating demonstration of this region’s history of technology and innovation, I say right on.

Lean back geometry is the only feature not since regurgitated.

Outboard bearing bottom bracket with oil port in the shell.

Sweet Minimalist dropouts with chain tensioner.

“Messenger” brand leather saddle with woven relief cut out for the pudendal artery

The machine shop that made these hubs to receive straight pull spokes may precede electric distribution, take that CNC.

100 years before viagra.

 

 

You’ll be able to see it for yourself here soon, at the Durant-Kenrick house and grounds. http://www.historicnewton.org/ Would love to help these guys make an engaging display for what amounts to so much more than just a bicycle. Even more interesting about the place than the bicycle is that it was the site of the orchard that first fostered most of the fruit grown in New England.

Waylay ed from my ideal day by relocation engineering SNAFU caused by lack of due diligence of a sales associate, no respect, so bummed I missed the swap.

In the deluge of information from the globally consequential to the utterly inane, a bit of news that may have escaped some folks daily feed was that Budd Bike Works intends to take a hiatus and close it’s doors.  It’s hard to know where that kind of line is drawn though, when the door to your business is turned with the same key as your home,  so while divesting myself from the pursuit of new orders until I can arrive at a more tenable pricing structure and production schedule, I still have to make good on the designs I took deposits for delivery of before having resolved to move on.   I must have been counting on the Mayan prophecy intervening and saving me from having to construct it when I proposed elevated chain stays for this belt drive do all bike currently in the works.   There is so much extra effort hidden in the execution of something you’ve never tried before,  it makes it difficult to put an appropriate price on the compensation for your labor with out it coming off as absurd until it is compared to what is paid for art done for arts sake, this bike is no shark in formaldahyde, but it will definitely be unique.  Can’t wait to get it wrapped up and start on the next one off in the cue.  Thanks go out to the Tiny Russian for the photos.

That time of year again folks, can’t wait to see what everyone has up their sleeves.   Sounds like conditions are less than ideal for skiing in the rockies this year, the theory I heard that fat bikes’ll be the only way for what were once winter resorts to stay afloat in warmer weather is shaping up to be spot on, I bet they’d even handle well in ashes, your local craft builder will be ready.

Say hey to Denver  from Budd Bike Works if you are out that way, I’ll be in the basement.

Wildest I’ve seen yet from the show here from an outfit called Ogre.  http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/02/24/nahbs-2013-ogre-gets-their-weld-onand-on-and-on-and-on/. Thinking outside the tube, love it or hate it you’ve got to give props to their commitment not to compromise form to convenience.  I wonder what they charge, but,  as they say, if you have to ask…..

Proof.

That time of year again folks, can’t wait to see what everyone has up their sleeves.

Say hey to the Rockies from Budd Bike Works, I’ll be in the basement.

Would there still be a bike race in Philly this Summer if Bart Bowen won?  Probably about the most inconsequential “what if’s” to ponder on inauguration day 2013,  still, I’ve got to wonder if had Lance not won a million dollars in 1993 at the National Championships, what would cycling look like today?  All the people that came to the sport inspired by Armstrongs triumphs, versus the disillusionment over how deeply tainted it turned out to’ve been, what will be the net effect?

Growing up in the Philly area as a bicycle obsessed kid the now cancelled  race has been an annual touchstone for me for as long as I can remember.  This is Eric Heiden winning the race  in 1985 with a physique that begs the question of whether competitive cycling has ever been absent performance enhancing supplements, the spectator in the bottom right corner of the Photo with an arm raised  is my Uncle Pat, my dad’s twin brother. So I guess I was 6 when the event started marking my years.  I’d later find the MTB trails in Fairmount Park at the top of the Manayunk Wall and trials hop up the Museum Steps where the course went through the roundabout,  my brother lived on the Fall from the Wall for a few years when I was in my early twenties and had the best weekend long parties that I can mostly remember, the City of Brotherly Love always put it’s best face on for the cyclists that descended upon it once a year.

Still haven’t been able to watch this, but things like the cancellation of a long running and all in all successful event like the old CoreStates Classic makes you wonder what the future of this sport is in the fallout of the Lance Armstrong Effect.  Can something as quaint as a circuit race really be relevant anymore in the era of adrenaline overloaded sport anyway? The fact that berms and jumps will have to be incorporated into a road racing to turn out the crowds again is one of the many reasons I won’t build bikes that don’t accept fat tires, but still, sad to see the race I grew up with go.  With more people riding bikes again in this country for all the right reasons it just doesn’t make sense that racing will just evaporate from the collective conscious of folks that love cycling and sport in equal measure, but it might be a while before corporate sponsors will see things that way.  Races will keep happening though, even thinking of putting one on myself, and racers will continue to make HONEST sacrifices to excel at them.  Budd Bike Works is a proud sponsor of one such young striver, I’m interested in seeing how Sean Pantellere’s crowd sourced season goes this year, sounds like he is on the right track, just need to talk some sense into him about the carbon fiber road bike he is considering.

I used to swoon over those made-in-China bikes with the fancy paint jobs, carbon, BB30s, and “lateral stiffness.” And then I met Matt Budd; who convinced me that a bike really is a tool, and not a jewel (but can still look damn sexy). Budd is a mad scientist in every sense of the phrase. I may be the owner of a bike dubbed the “Crux-Slayer” but Budd is creator, and the one who put his heart and soul into a bike that I believe is the best I’ve ever ridden.
In July, I gave the scientist a deposit and instructions to “do as you see fit.” I really had no other bits of advice for what I wanted. I just wanted the bike to represent its creator. As the only rider he had in the races, I wanted to best represent the man himself. In August, I laid eyes on the Pepto-pink machine. Much like a wild stallion, I had to corral it rather than force it to turn how I wanted it. This bike wasn’t going to learn me, I was going to learn it’s ways. As a duo, the bike and I fought a bit in the beginning but then during a muddy Gloucester, we came to an understanding; let the bike do as it does, and drive by feel. From then on, it was peaches and cream. to domination in the Cat3 fields of New England cyclocross
As I close out the 2012 cyclocross season, Budd Bike Works closes its doors. I’m honored to have ridden the bike in 33 races, to 3 wins, and my upgrade to a Category 2 racer. I couldn’t of asked for a better bike, better season, and better friend. So, if and when Budd opens his doors for business again, I’ll hopefully be ready to get my road bike.

Hanging a shingle as a framebuilder in a place with as rich a tradition of manufacturing these blessed conveyances as the Boston area almost seemed like something of a foregone conclusion for me.   Spending any amount of time immersed in the cycling culture of this town you are sure to meet a number of people with a hand in fabricating bicycles, something about the nexus that exists between the study in the institutions, the connectedness to the roads and trails of the beautiful New England country side, and the tradition of industriousness unique to here just makes the manufacture of the most efficient means of transportation ever invented logical in a line reaching all the way back to Pope Manufacturing.  So many of my neighbors I count among my friends have plied the trade in some way, either working for Seven or Independent Fabrications lately or Fat Chance and Merlin a generation ago or having started a brand of their own like Geekhouse, Cantabrigian, Royal H, Firefly….. The list goes on and continues to grow.  This saturation is  a double edged sword, there is something of an allegiance among those that take on the quixotic task of doing themselves what an Asian factory could do for less that makes procuring an OX platinum top tube at a moments notice no more of a hassle than asking the next door neighbor for a cup of sugar and there is sure to be someone at hand that understands completely the conundrum of metal joinery you are gesticulating and grunting about,  at the same time the local clientele is so awash in choices of friends to support with a sale that there doesn’t always seem to be enough to go around.  Standing out in this kind of crowd sometimes feels like a contest of who can make the most noise, whether it be a write up in the taste makers press or a paint job that’ll turn all the heads, to be in this I’ve felt I have to generate a certain level of volume to get noticed.  Failing in the pretty picture category I’ve been haranguing here as one part P.T. Barnum & two parts Lenny Bruce for years with limited success.

Among those that I’ve met among the fraternity of craftsmen and marketeers that comprise the bike industry here the one that is in my thoughts the most the last few days is the one that I’ve always known as the quietest. Without ever seeking the limelight Brian Kelly was satisfied to let his actions do all the speaking for him. Whether it be boosting out of a backyard quarter pipe, machining and tacking a handful of impeccable frames a day for Independent Fabrications, or making the best BMX bikes never to be badged as anything but Humble there is little he leaves unsaid and in his presence I’ve always enjoyed the comfort of words not being necessary.  An errant footstep and fall has lately stopped Brian Kelly in his tracks with a Traumatic Brain Injury, it is in his honor and in the hope that he can recover that I will be doing my best to emulate him by shutting the fuck up and making something.