Got a few pics of Sandy's frameset with paint right before shipping it out. This was one of, if not the most complex paint scheme that I've pulled off since I started painting less than two years ago. There isn't much more here than I normally do except for the accentuated MEECH logo but that was enough. The price on this scheme just went up. Lots of ins and outs on this stencil to tape up and/or off and my eyes were starting to get a little sore after checking and rechecking to make sure it would all come out right. In the end, I had looked at it so many times that I just said to myself, "Cross your fingers, shoot it, and see." I did one of those little Hail Mary things that Catholics do where they make a little cross on their chest with their fingers, although I've never really known where to start on my chest so for all I knew I invited Satan for a dinner party. "Lets see. Is it left, right, up, and down, or right, down, left, and up? WTFreak, who cares!" "Jesus, please make this paint job turn out right so that I can get my customer his frame." I mean come on, the Spring Classics are already over and the Giro is fixing to start in a couple of weeks. Why do you think this thing had couplers on it? Travel. So anyway, after checking the final coat of paint to make sure nothing got overlooked I started peeling off tape. I normally work pretty fast at taking it off, however with this one I just got my little stool and sat down and slowly starting taking piece by piece off. I started with the easiest sections first in order to get a little confidence and momentum building. I took everything off with no issues all the way down to the logo. "Alright. Here we go." After all the hard work and worrying about getting it right the tape and stencil practically fell off the logos, and when I looked at it all complete and in tack I couldn't even remember peeling the tape off. "Thank you Jesus!" I've been hanging out with Jesus alot here lately. It comes and goes. Its seems that he's always there for me but I'm not so sure I'm holding up my end of the deal. Just for the records, I don't have dinner parties, and I don't really believe in Satan. "So D, if you don't believe in Satan, how do you believe in God?" Well, I haven't exactly worked that one out yet. "What is this, the Gospel Hour?" I'm actually thinking about writing a training book called, Drafting Behind Jesus. Its for guys like me that have to ride by themselves all the time. The idea came to me the other day when I went out for a short ride. The wind was brutal and as usual I was having to take it on the chin all by myself. I was thinking how nice it would be to have someone to draft off of. Then I started imagining that Jesus was in front doing a pull and that I was on his wheel. He had long brown hair and some bright, white, loosely fitting cycling apparel, but he was wearing spandex. I don't recall if his legs were shaved but I know he wasn't wearing a helmet. I mean come on, if you had been through everything that he's been through would you. He was knocking the wind off of me pretty good but I was still having trouble holding his wheel. Jesus holds a pretty swift pace and I was getting a bit frustrated with him riding me off his wheel and then coming back for me. I hate when people do that, but since it was Jesus I bit my tongue and sucked it up. One thing I hate about drafting behind Jesus is that white, flowy, sheet-like jersey keeps blowing back in my face. A couple of times I slipped up and said, "Dammit Jesus, tuck it in, you're killing me back here." Whenever I talked like that he seemed to lift the pace a bit and so I decided to shut my mouth and not suffer any more than I had to. About that time Jesus looked back at me and said, "Suffering! Wuss!" A couple of times I tried to roll up beside Jesus and see what kind of bike he rides but it always seemed like he could see me coming up on him and he would speed up and put me back in my place. He does run Campy components though, I saw his rear brake calipers a couple of times. Don't even think about attacking Jesus, he rides at such a high wattage that you're maxed out just trying to hold his wheel. Just accept the fact that you're gonna finish 2nd. But hey, at least you get to stand on the podium with the girls. Ok, ok, nice frame huh? I'm expecting a call from Peyton Manning here anytime now. Did you think I was joking about breathing in too many paint fumes in that last post?
First S & S Coupled frame. I never paid much attention to them until Sandy asked me to build this frame, but now I think they're pretty cool and I'll build more. We decided to turn the lugs sideways for a little added stiffness, this is a race bike you know.
I like this photo because it captures a little of almost everything in this frame. You can look at this one section of the frame and know you're looking at a MEECH.
A new style of carbon chainstay protector. This is 3 layers of Car-Bone. Starting with a couple layers of uni-directional, then a 12k checker-board cosmetic layer on top. "Bullet-proof?" Don't even think about shooting this chainstay with a bullet, it'll ricochet and shoot your eye out kid.
"Keep your distance boys, security is in force." Check out Smokey keeping all the crazy folks back away from it. He's in charge of security here at the headquarters.
This is a different style of photo. Yeah, it was another one of my angled photographs so I just cropped it down until you couldn't tell. Turns out the frame was straight, its the world thats lop-sided. I've got to go walk Dancin Dizzy and so I'll be back in a little while. Hang loose, not high. Check out that stainless steel head badge to match the couplers. Its in the details I hear.
With the frame having white on it I wanted to try and tie the fork into as well. The Wound-Up style fork blades didn't give me any sort of line to work off of and so I just added a few stars around the bottom of the fork legs. I thought it worked out nicely. Of course now I had to tie some stars into the frame as well and so I added a couple around the rear drops. You can see them in the photo above.
As I was boxing this thing up for shipment I was really wishing I could've ridden it. It is one of the more interesting frames that I've built. I pour heart and soul into each and every frame that I build, but because this is a larger frame, has couplers, and a Wound-Up fork, I would've really liked to see what it rolls like. I haven't ridden a 60cm frame in a long time. Thats ok, Sandy is gonna give us the lowdown. He's a pretty avid racer I gathered from talking to him. I think this thing would look great on the top step of a podium. "Podium, podium girls?" I may have to start racing again. Let's see I probably should start training and get a good coach. I hear Chris Carmichael's prices have dropped considerably. To live and die with LA.
While this frame may appear to be for a Denver Broncos fan the paint scheme actually came from this soft drink called Moxie that is very popular in the Northeast. Originally Sandy was wanting the logo to be painted like this but I was having trouble getting the white to cover the blue completely and so we went the opposite direction. I think the blue letters with white outline match the frame better however I'm now in need of the education in order to paint light colored letters with dark outlines. Is there something simple that I'm overlooking? If anyone can offer some sound advice I would truly appreciate it. Sandy is a Massachusetts man and so I thought I would throw in my favorite Pixies song just for fun, afterall, this build was very educational. Thanks Sandy!
MEECH Custom Bicycles
Handmade Machines
from
Mountain Home, Arkansas
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