About Me

My photo
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.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Taylor Made Frame

Just got done with the finish work on Scott Taylor's frameset.  Everything was pretty straight-forward on this build and went about as smooth as possible. A short trip to my hometown and a family visit delayed things a little bit but life is short and you gotta make time for family and friends.  I always have an idea of when I would like to have a frame done however you never know what may come up and so sometimes you have to reassess the situation. I'm super-fortunate that every customer I've had has been really patient and understanding and I do my best not to drag them along too badly.  I've been feeling like I was behind for the last couple of weeks so to get this one finished up and ready to paint I'm starting to feel like I'm getting back on track.  The days are longer and its getting warmer so I've been able to get a lot more done.  I immediately start to feel better once cold weather moves on out.  We have a little cold spell coming through right now but its only gonna last a couple of days and then we should be finished with the cold for good. Amen.

Let's go check this frame out,  but first I had an idea.

I've been thinking.  "Uh oh." I believe now would be a good time to bring back The Lance Chronicles.  Remember that show? You know, back when Lance Armstrong was basically an American super-hero and he was trying to save America from being destroyed by the Hitleresque Jan Ullrich. I could envision families, who had just discovered cycling, gathering around the tube with lowfat popcorn, while dad explained the entire scenario to his kids.

"Now kids, that is Lance Armstrong.  He is an american who loves everything pure and white.  He's trying to save us from that evil guy in the pink jersey named Jan Ullrich who I hear worships the devil."

Umm, sorry dad.  You got it all wrong.

Oh geez! I can remember sitting through one episode where Lance was showing us his newly remodeled condo in Spain, where apparently they had a code as to how big you could build.  Anyway, poor Lance just didn't have enough space for all his precious stuff and so he proceeded to tell the world how he basically bought off the mayor and turned two condos into one. 

I hated that show back then but now I think it would make for some interesting TV.  The show would open with LA laying on his sofa down in his basement with a week old beard and a gut poking out from under his torn Livestrong t-shirt.  He'd be watching old videos of himself giving Jan Ullrich "the look" while holding a beer and eating jelly beans, that he stole from a Team Jelly Belly Christmas party that he crashed a couple of years earlier, out of one of the Tour de France trophies that now sits on his coffee table.  Keep in mind that this is a purely fictional scenario, as I don't know if Lance has ever stolen any jelly beans or not.  In the background there would be cases of unopened Michelob Ultra (crap) stacked up in the corner with  lopsided yellow jerseys hanging on the wall. The old Trek that he won #7 on would be sitting on a trainer with a old, sweaty bib-short hanging from the bars. Am I being unfair? Not at all.  Uncreative?  Maybe. I'm just trying to think up a good pilot for all those retired neo-pro cyclists, that continually complain about how they got cheated out of victories and the chance to win a Tour "only if", to spend their evenings watching. Which is more than I should do.  What have they done for me? What about me? I only made it to Cat 2. Have they forgotten what that was like?  Let me remind them.  How about a more or less 8 hour car ride  in the Kansas City direction by yourself.  You're in the middle of Nowhereville and the only thing on the radio is a bunch of locals playing banjos and blowing in jugs.  You get to town and find a $100 hotel room around 10:30 p.m.  Now you're hungry and the only thing open within a small trek is Lucky's Lounge.  You wake in the morning and bust hump to get some breakfast in you, sign up, and pin a freakin number on by 8:00.  They say, "GO", and for two hours you grit your teeth like the tail of a kite only to get dropped 5 miles into the second 55-mile loop and ride the remainder of the 90 degree race into the wind by yourself. When you arrive, everybody is gone and the finish line has already been taken down. The only way you even know you finished is because you see your truck sitting in the middle of a field by itself with some wheels leaning on it that the wheeltruck guys left. I didn't get to raise my hands either cowboy, just my finger. Was it the dozen oysters on the half-shell and pecan pie that I had at Lucky's last night?  Who knows?  I just loaded up my stuff and drove down the field and turned out onto the road home anticipating 2 more hours of banjo and jug funk.  One last look over to where the finish line was and in the distance I can see another lone rider coming home. A little voice comes into your head as you're pulling away and says, "At least I kicked his ass!" And my celebration was stopping at Lucky's again on the way out for some more oysters.  They were out of pie.  Did Velonews call me up 15 years later and want to hear my story.  I don't think so.  I was telling everyone Lance Armstrong was a cunt in 1996, but nobody believed me.  They thought he was Jesus on a bicycle. Lowfat Popcorn Daddy stood in line all day with his kids waiting to get his copy of "It's Not About the Bike" signed, or whatever the title was. Who cares? I read it.  It was nothing. I used to be bitter toward Lance, but after Contador took his notebook from him mid-race, and proceeded to ride away with it up that mountain, my wounds immediately healed.  I've made my peace with Lance Armstrong, although its probably hard to tell while reading this. Wonder where Johan Bruyneel has been? Church of Scientology maybe?  If anyone sees him tell him his pot pie is burning.  

Supposedly Lance is going to do a charity ride during the Tour de France this year.  Geez!  Is he really that stupid?  Where's his mother at?  She needs to step in and just pull him aside and say, "Please son, don't do it. Take your kids camping in Yellowstone or something."

Ok.  I'm done.  C'mon y'all. Let's go check out some backyard pics.  Actually these were taken in my sideyard.  Didn't see all that coming did ya? I'm pushing for fortune and fame here.  One day I want to sell duffle bags with my name and a catchy phrase on them. 



Words...

words...

words...


words...

...hey there's a dog! Yeah, but check out those beefy chain stays. You couldn't flex those with your granny's 6-shooter.

True story.  I have a 6-shooter that my granny, Gran-Burt, God rest her soul, gave me.  The barrel has a bulge about half way down it, and the story goes something like this. 

 The gun had been sitting in the drawer (hopefully not the panty drawer) for dozens of years when she got it out to show some friends.  Well they started talking, and unfortunately thinking, and before you know it one of 'em said, "Let's shoot it!"  So my Gran Burt goes and gets a couple of bullets out of a different drawer, and one of the old-timers takes the pistol, loads it, and fires it at a tree about 15 feet away.  All the other old-timers start laughing and say,
 "You missed it.

 And he said,

 "There's no way! I can shoot a flea off a dog's arse at 50 paces after a fifth of whiskey."
So they started looking at the pistol and the bullet had gotten stuck half way down the barrel. And then they all looked at each other and said, "So now what do we do?"  And then, the smartest one of them (had the most teeth) actually took the pistol and shot it again to knock the bullet out. 

That's the story my granny told me.  All I know is that I've got an old 6-shooter with a bulge in the barrel.

My other grandmother, YaYa, lived in North Memphis and just kept a huge pipe by the door. My dad used to tell me, "YaYa can't speak English but she can sure swing that pipe."




This pic is actually from the last post but it's such a great photo I had to repost.  I'm probably gonna have to scuff it up just to get the primer to stick. To be perfectly honest, after seeing this picture there was a little jealous voice in my head that said, "You should keep this fork for yourself."  Don't worry Scoot.  This one is your's brother. 

Got a special paint job in store for this one.

Thanks for stopping by.






Thursday, March 26, 2015

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Strade Bianche 2015

http://www.steephill.tv/players/youtube3/?title=Last 10 Km&dashboard=strade-bianche&id=I7s-9S1g6V0&start=3&yr=2015

Here is the last 10k of Strade Bianche which took place today.  I've never paid much attention to this race in the past but after watching the final hour this morning it has become one of my new favorite races to watch.  Got plenty of italian rolling countryside, with short punchy hills, and a few gravel/dirt sections that make for an interesting race.

The weather finally broke here yesterday and the snow is just about melted.  Its in the low 60's here today and I'm itching to ride.  I've managed somehow to steer clear of the junk food and I'm ready to start reaping the benefits.  I couldn't help but to notice that most of these riders in Strade Bianche are in quite a bit better shape than I am at the moment.  I'm thinking that they may have put in some secret miles this winter without telling me. Hope you're getting to ride some miles this weekend.  Ciao.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Look What the Cat Dragged In-Good Kitty

Just thought I would share a pic or two of this new Campy Chorus build kit that Scoot's gonna be rollin on his new frameset.  I get really excited when a new Campagnolo grouppo arrives at the shop, even if its not for me.  I love Campy for two main reasons.  One, it just looks so freakin cool.  All the carbon fiber laid out with such a fine italian style, I just love the way it looks on a bike.  Secondly, I've honestly never had a problem with any of it.  I've never had a broken shift lever, problematic derailleur, or anything.  I've had some Campy shifter levers for 10 years that were flawless.  I've also mentioned my Campy Pro-Fit pedals that I've been rolling on for over 13 years.  Totally flawless.  Its just been solid componentry for me for the 15 years that I've been using it.  I spent the majority of my road racing days on Shimano Dura-Ace and I never had any problems with that either, however, back then I was getting new components every couple of years. So long as you're out riding it doesn't matter what you roll, but if you want to get lots of looks, roll with Campy.

WARNING!  Massive amounts of carbon on the road ahead.

Carbon cranks, carbon shifters, carbon derailleurs, carbon fiber chain. 

"Whoa.  Back up there chief.  What'd you say."

Ok. I might've gotten a little carried away with that one, but this spring I am gonna install a carbon fiber piston in my lawn mower.


Crisp, new Mavic Ksyrium wheelset.

What the ....?  

I've recently embarked on a new journey.  About 3 weeks ago I gave up one of my favorite bad habits.  The Little Debbie Swiss Roll was my favorite junk food of all-time.  I'm really bad about eating junk food and have been most of my life.  I've just always had a sweet tooth. A few of the years that I raced I actually had a pretty decent diet and I didn't crave all this stuff, but once the racing days ended there was no reason not to endulge in all those things I felt I was missing out on.  Little Debbies, Milky Ways, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Winston, I didn't hold back. I managed to stop smoking about 5-6 years ago but the junk food habit got worse.  I wasn't just buying a box and eating a couple after dinner every night either. I was buying a box, opening it in the car, and eating them before I was ever out of the parking lot.  I would eat half the box on the drive home, which was only 3 miles, and then eat the remaining ones within a couple of hours.  I was doing this every other day.  Whenever I stopped to get gas I would always get a package of Reeses or Twix, not the little two pack but the bigger 4-pack.  I would enhale them before the light turned green.  I used to be able to get away with this type of living, however the other day I think I hit rock bottom.


I haven't been riding much at all.  In fact, I'm probably in the worst shape that I've been in since I had a motorcycle accident 14 yrs. ago and didn't stand up for 3 months. After healing from that I managed to get some legs back under me even though I was smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.  So anyway, I've been on my bike about 3 times in the last 3 weeks.  With the bad weather, short days, and looking after Jack, I just haven't been able to get on it. You can't tell it by looking at me though cause I'm only a couple of pounds over my old race weight. I almost made peace with not riding after about 2 weeks, which was strange, but I was craving a ride bad. I'm really craving a group ride as riding by myself is another problem all together. When Anne went back to work in November I bought a cheap trainer.  I thought that while Jack was sleeping I would get on it for 30 minutes or so every day just to keep my legs loose.  I should've known better.  I hate trainers and always have.  Its not riding to me and I actually prefer not riding to getting on a trainer.  Since buying it 4 months ago I've gotten on it twice.  The second time on it I got a flat. 

 "Huh? How do you get a flat on a trainer?"

Don't know, but I did.  It was on the front too.  That was a first. So the other day I got on my bike and started riding. Within about 15 minutes I was feeling terrible.  I was dizzy and light-headed and barely made it through my hour-long loop around town.  I felt as though I was at the end of a 100 mile ride when in fact it was more like 17 miles. I knew I had to start eating better.  I didn't think my diet was that bad, I just thought I was eating alot of junk food along with my normal food.  So now I'm trading in my cakes and candy for things like fruit cups and granola bars.  I'm trying to get back to eating the types of snacks I did when I raced. I'm also trying to eat a few more vegetables as well.  I've never cared much for fruit because you have to peel it or cut it up.  I do like bananas though because I can open a banana about as fast as a package of Little Debbies.  Not really.  I'm pretty fast at opening Little Debbies.  I can easily do it while driving.  I just take both hands off the wheel for a few seconds. 

I went out for a short ride yesterday hoping to feel some of the results that I'm hoping for but really didn't feel any better.  Every ride I've been on here lately I come back and say the same thing, "That was the worst I've ever ridden in my life."  Luckily spring is almost here and daylight savings is this coming weekend I believe so I'm hopeful to get going again.  We'll see. If I can just feel some sunshine on my skin I'll feel much better.

INGREDIENTS

Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water, Enriched Bleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil with TBHQ to Preserve Flavor (Contributes a Trivial Amount of Trans Fat), Dextrose, Palm and Palm Kernel Oil, Cocoa, Soybean Oil, Eggs, Whey (Milk), Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate), Emulsifiers (Sorbitan Monostearate, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Mono- and Diglycerides, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids), Salt, Corn Starch, Colors (Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1), Sorbic Acid (to Retain Freshness), Egg Whites, Natural and Artificial Flavors.

Here is a list of the ingredients in a Little Debbie Swiss Roll.  Whenever you have an ingredient called "Reduced Iron" you know it can't be too good for you.  According to this they have some Yellow 5, Red 40, and Blue 1 colors in them.  Where's the brown and white come from.  If they ever come out with rainbow colored Swiss Rolls I'll probably fall off the wagon. Or is it on the wagon?

This is a different brand of Swiss Roll made by Drake's.  I've never tried these, and in the back of my mind I'm dreaming that these might possibly be made with some better ingredients and would make a healthy substitute.  Hey, what can I say, I'm an optimist.

Now let me get back to building Scoot's frame.
Thanks for stopping by.