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.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

What the Funk!

I've been experimenting with the idea of painting a frame in black velvet.  "Really?"  Ok, not really.  This is what happened when I was getting ready to tack the chain stays in place.  Everything was fluxed up and in place and I was waving my torch flame around the bottom bracket like a magic wand, you know, heating everything up to temp while pretending to be some frame building wizard or something of sort when I bumped the oxygen knob on one of the stays.  It pretty much shut the O2 off completely and pure acetylene leaves this neat little black powder finish.  "WHAT THE $@#%!"  Yeah, thats what I said.  I don't mince words when I screw up.  Oh well, it wasn't that bad.  Take it apart and wash everything in a little soapy water and reflux everything and put it back into place.  I've done this before but its been a while and not quite to this extent. It happens quicker than you might think.  Minor inconvenience right when I was starting to find my groove.  My frame building has been slow here lately for various reasons.  Work at the bistro, cold weather, less daylight, and mainly just me not being able to get everything done as efficiently as I normally do, or imagine I do.  For some reason this winter I've been dragging a little more than normal.  It hasn't been that cold but the short days are really annoying me this year for some reason.  I can't seem to get anything done after its dark.  Anyway, the last couple of days I've been out in the shop trying to get some things done and I'm starting to feel like a frame builder again.  I think that is what has been bothering me more than anything.  I haven't been building as much lately and I don't feel like myself.  "You know how to fix that D?"  How Virginey?  "Suck up the cold and get out in the shop and build some frames."  Thanks Virginia.  I can always count on you to give it to me straight.

Well, here we are back with everything cleaned up and back in place.  Well, almost.  That right stay looks to be about a half millimeter further over than the left one.  Yamaguchi always told us, "You have to have a good eye to be a frame builder, so eat lots of carrots." Ok, I added the 'carrots' part.  I bet I haven't eaten one whole carrot in my lifetime.  I never liked them.  I never ate cabbage, broccoli, or about a hundred other vegetables either.  Don't like turnips, don't like greens, don't like turnip-greens.  I do like spinach though and especially hot dogs.  Whoops.  Whoa that was really close.  I accidently typed an "N" in hot dog.  Glad I caught that mistake.  You might never have looked at me the same way again.  That coulda hurt business.  So who eats all those carrots?  I think horses like carrots.  No, thats apples.  Nothing likes carrots.  Oh yeah, Bugs Bunny does.  Elmer Fudd makes me think of Ted Nugent.  Always running his mouth while carrying a gun.  Give it a rest man. Nobody wants your guns so stop waving 'em around.  And if I hear anybody play Cat Scratch Fever one more time will somebody please shoot me in the face.

I think I officially drifted off the subject of framebuilding so let me try to get back on track, track dropouts that is.  These are going on Matt's BMX frame and I have no idea why I spent all that time cleaning them all up when I'm fixing to flux them all up again when I braze the seat stays on.  I was just gonna mess around and try something and then i couldn't stop with just one side, so then I had to do the other side.  And then I couldn't just stop with one stay could I, so I had to do the other stay.  Who cares, I would've had to do it eventually, now its done, besides I'm not rushing anything with this frame.  Actually I don't rush with any frame, its just that I've been going really slow with this one because its a bit different than what I'm used to.  This is kind of a prototype build but I still want everything to be right the first time around so I'm taking extra caution.  I have to be back at work tomorrow so I may not get the rest of the rear end built until this weekend.  I'm on it though so feel free to check back when you like.  Thanks.

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