About Me

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Back in my hometown of Jonesboro., Arkansas, United States
My name is Dimitri Harris and I have been building frames for over 9 years now. I learned the basics after spending two weeks with Koichi Yamaguchi. He is one of the most interesting people I have ever met and I am thankful to have worked with him. Since then I have just been building one frame after another and learning as much as possible along the way. I build steel fillet-brazed frames that go by the name of MEECH, which is an old nickname that I have had since I was a kid. I build mostly cyclocross frames because I love their versatility however I also do road,single-speed, and mountain bikes as well. Custom frames start around $1400. All the frames are handmade by me here in Jonesboro, Arkansas. I am insured and guarantee all of my work so if you are in the market for a custom steel frame I would be glad to build it for you. I am also building frames from carbon fiber so if you would like to ride a prototype frame give me a shout. Thanks for stopping by. You can email me at meech151@hotmail.com or call (870)897-6703 or visit www.meechcustombicycles.com Thanks.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

First Carbon Build



I finally got caught up on the orders I had and was happy to have some time to experiment so I started on my first all carbon frame that I have been planning to build.  If things had gone as planned it would already be done but you know how that goes.  Anyway, I haven't done enough to get excited about anything yet although I clearly am.  Whenever you're doing something you are unfamiliar with it always seems more interesting.  All I have done so far is set the dropouts and miter and glue the rear chain stay to the bb shell. This rear end is the Dedacciai Firebox that I bought from Nova.  It was one of the cheaper rear ends and I thought it would be good for the first attempt, who knows how this thing is gonna end up. I haven't decided if I am gonna overbuild this frame for security reasons or see what I can get away with, probably gonna shoot for the middle of the road on this one since I'm the guinea pig. (How do you spell guinea pig?) There are better ways of doing the bb but with this frame I wanted to start at ground zero so I just took an old steel shell that had various cuts in it and wrapped it with a couple layers of carbon.  It seemed pretty solid and with a little sanding was close to perfectly round.  I think most of the big hitters in custom carbon frames use a titanium bb shell and epoxy it inside of a carbon tube of the correct diameter.  It looked a little cleaner than mine however after looking into it it looks as though the ti shell is as heavy or heavier than the steel, not sure why, maybe thicker walls are needed with ti.  I never jumped on the titanium bandwagon because I never saw any advantages to it.  I know there are some beautiful titanium frames and many people say the ride is unbelievable but it never seemed to me that titanium was the best at anything.  It tries to mimick the ride of steel but from what I gather its not near as stiff.  Its lightweight but not near as light as carbon, then when you throw in the cost factor it leaves me wondering if it can be the best choice.  Finally, you don't see it in the pro peloton, it came and went pretty quick.  These are merely my opinions and I have very little knowledge of titanium so I am open to being schooled.  With that said, it just doesn't interest me.   Back to carbon, who cares about titanium.  I haven't ridden a carbon bicycle since I started building frames.  I used to love LOOK frames and my last carbon frame was the Scott CR1 but after I built my first frame I had to support the MEECH brand, afterall its me.  I always wanted to ride the LOOK 595 but never got a chance to, and now there are a handful of other frames I would like to test ride as well like a TIME, Cannondale, and Cyfac and then I would also like to ride a custom Nick Crumpton frame just to see how a custom handmade carbon frame feels compared to a factory frame.  My buddy Yancey has an Orbea Orca that is a couple of years old an although I have only ridden it for less than a mile it seems to have some pretty advanced steering, it would be nice to test ride one of those in my size as well.  But anyway it looks like the next carbon frame I will be riding will be the one I am working on.  I don't believe anything will  ride quite as nice as a steel frame with a steel fork but I just wanted to build a carbon frame to see, go for the sub 16 pounder you know.  Building just one won't be sufficient but it will be a start.  I just got another order for a steel touring frame so I guess the carbon build is going back to the back burner for a while longer.  I have a couple of frames that should be coming back from the painter shortly so keep a look out.  Chao.

2 comments:

  1. Dimitri,

    Here you go. Keep us up to date on this build and don't keep up waiting too long with "work" I am very intrigued on your approach. I will be watching.

    Wil

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  2. Thanks for checking it out. I still don't have my vac pump yet but should be getting it shortly. I'll post it as I work on it.

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