MEECH Custom Bicycles

Branton's 'Cross Build

2012-03-03T15:40:00.001-08:00

Branton had his cross frame built up within a couple of days after I delivered it and has steadily been putting some time in on it. He told me that each time he rides it he discovers something new that he likes about it. Gotta love that.

He's getting it dialed in for a gravel road race coming up next week so we should have the definite low-down on it soon.

Here we are in front of the Highroller Cyclery in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Cool shop run by cool people. Thanks for the opportunity guys. Hope to see you soon.

Spring Is In the Air

2012-03-02T14:26:00.002-08:00

Here are a couple of pics of a little 53.5 cm road frame I was working on last week. Gonna throw a carbon fork on this one to keep the weight down and make it a little more race worthy. This frame in the raw is 3.4 lbs.

Spring classics are coming soon. Get your "friteries" while they're hot.

Que Curviosa!

2012-03-01T13:33:00.001-08:00

Check out this swanky head tube from Dedacciai that Bringheli sent me. Its made to run a tapered fork and while thats been going on for a couple of years now this is gonna be the first one that I've used. She's a little heavy (ella es un poco pesada) but I'm probably gonna cut about 7 centimeters off the top so that will shave a little weight off. I may go full disc-brakes on this frame just for the fun of it. Looks like things are headed that direction. Shimano's got disc-brakes for the road coming out pretty soon. Things change so fast. I try not to get too caught up in it but when people start asking for it I guess you gotta jump in. This should be an interesting build. Chao.

What Is That?

2012-02-25T05:06:00.020-08:00

Is that a snake skin chain stay protector? Nope, its jenuwhine imported imitation Syberian tortise skin. There were only two left in the world, I guess now the other one is single-to-mingle. I shot it from over 100 yards away with my Red Ryder. They say that the imitation Syberian Tortise is not aggressive toward anything or anybody but I wasn't about to take any chances. The last thing I saw through the scope before I pulled the trigger on ol'Daisy was that turtle trying to wipe that red dot off his face. I have to admit, the first shot didn't kill it, I had to shoot it twenty-seven more times at close range before it went down for good. If you look close at the chain stay protector you can see some of the pellet holes. I believe it may have froze to death somewhere around shot #17 but like I said, you can't take any chances. Whoohooo,big game hunting. Ok, its actually a carbon fiber/kevlar chain stay protector that I made for Larry's race bike. At the moment the carbon supply is a little low and this was all I had. Before being coated with resin the material was yellow and black just like the frame but when it was finished it had a bit of a green tint to it. So anyway, its still bullet proof so don't even think about shooting one of my frames in the chain stay.

They'll never see you coming. "Predator."

I broke the vacuum pump out. It hasn't gotten a lot of attention since I bought it because I've been busy with steel frames however I have some carbon on the way so i thought I'd let it get loosened up, stretch the legs a bit. The next carbon frame I build is gonna be a cross frame so I'm excited to get started, I just have to finish up a road frame and build one more steel cross frame,which should be pretty interesting, and then its carbon recess for me.

I have a website in the works. I know I've needed one for a while but I kept putting it off because I have stayed pretty busy and I preferred spending money on frame building components rather than other things, so anyway, hopefully in a month or so it will be up and running. Luckily I'm not the one doing it so it is more likely to get done on time. I know some of my extra-curricular activites sometimes take me a little longer than I plan but I will always eventually get them done, my customers always comes first. Normally I'm not a person who's late, actually quite the opposite, especially when it comes to riding, I'm usually early. Nothing like showing up 5 minutes late for a group ride and chasing for 45 minutes when you can see'em a quarter mile up the road, even worse yet, never catching them, although it does make for some good training. Feels good when you catch'em doesn't it?

All jokes aside. I take building quality bicycle frames very serious. Whether its an everyday ride or a race I want good equipment and I know that you do to. I put more care and love into building my frames than I put into my cheesecakes or Raspberry Baklava. Wanting people to love my product is the key ingredient in anything that I make because if you're not happy then I'm not happy.

Check out Louis the Cat, aka ScrewUs Louis, making an appearance. Louis enjoys the outdoors and playing with birds and wood chucks, unfortunately he plays with them till they're dead. I've tried to tell him that what goes around shall come around. What can you do when they don't listen? Smokey is out there somewhere but he's a little harder to see. Ever tried to find a Dalmation in a snowstorm? Good luck with that.

MOTO-BICI is one of those projects that I'm running a little behind on. Don't give up on me yet.

Cool thing about the web designer is she is also a professional photographer. "WHAT... No more amateur, woodsy, backyard photos?" Don't worry, there will still be plenty more of those. Those are the only style of photos I have to start the website with, but I plan on getting her to shoot some occasional professional shots when I can. Thanks for checking stuff out. Road race season is here, take no quarter. Chao.

Branton's Handmade 'Cross Machine

2012-02-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

Fresh outta Ace's paint booth.

"Loaded like a freight train, flying like an aeroplane,

feeling like a spacebrain one more time tonight....." Remember that?

"...well its a lean machine,

don't need no gasoline,

you got some legs for a motor,

now go make it scream."

Ok, I made that part up. Axl's version is probably a little better than mine.

This is the first time I have used the Ritchey seat topper. We measured Branton's preferred saddle height to the millimeter so the cap sits all the way down on the seat tube, however spacers could be made to raise the saddle and if you need to lower it theres plenty of seat tube to trim.

Custom front brake cable stop brazed into the fork. Brake chatter be gone. Check out the down tube shifter stops for speed dialing purposes.

Who doesn't like a sexy rear end?

What goes in.....

...must come out.

The forks can also act as a crane to move random logs that clutter the trail.

A little extra chain ring clearance was needed so we added that. The grass is actually reflecting off the paint like a mirror. Whats that decal say? You know it, "Handmade in Arkansas"

You want to know whats under this little orange circle don't you? Its driving you crazy isn't it? Only one person knows whats behind this and they're not gonna tell you. Hahaha! Its killing you isn't it? You just have to know don't you? Your not gonna be able to sleep until you know whats behind this secret orange circle. You're going crazy because of this aren't you? You could end up in asylum all because of this little orange circle. Good luck in there. Because of this orange circle you didn't even notice the custom rear brake cable stop did you? You wanna know don't you? Nope, I'm still not gonna tell you.

After all the work that goes into making these fillets smooth it would be a shame not to show 'em off a little. Mucho filing and sanding.

Paul liked the color choices that Branton chose. When its sunny the metallic charcoal looks more like a silver and when its cloudy its got more of a smokey look to it.

I love this.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Handmade Machines

from

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Fixie Acabado Sin la Pintura

2012-02-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is the single-speed frame I've been playing with in between other projects. It started out as just gonna be a simple fixed gear frame and one thing led to another and then everything had to be custom. When I began I was gonna have a forward sloping top tube running into some drop bars only to imagine having 2 sets of bars for it, the other of course aero style. I didn't even know I could make aero bars until they were finished. The blades on the handlebars were actually gonna be fork blades but then i thought that they might ride a little rough so things got all shuffled around again.

I like this view. If you're racing this is what you want everyone else to see, your arse-end.

Campy fork dropouts were laying around for a while.

These are just some plain track dropouts with some stainless faces brazed on and polished a bit. They still need a little more work.

All the caps that you see were hand turned by my good friend Bob Davis. Caps on the fork, caps on the bar ends, custom caps for everyone.

Mark from Mainline Awards, who does all the engraving on the bottom bracket shells, knocked this little beauty out for me,.... twice actually. The first one got JB welded in upside down, and after heating it up and knocking it out it was a bit deformed. These freakin bars look the same whether they're upside down or right side up, ahhh, except for those little brazing vent holes, thats how you know. I've made my fair share of mistakes, fortunately I've been able to correct them all.

The seat post is actually integrated into the seat tube. Same diameters equal smooth transition. I left it long so that it can be turned down to fit the riders desires. Actually you can just put any aftermarket 27.2 seatpost in it and the pinch-bolt will secure it, but it won't look this good. Options are nice.

Haven't decided how I'm gonna paint it. I might just do it like I did my bedroom wall when I was eight years old and just hang pictures of Farrah Fawcett skateboarding in a bikini all over it. You think I won't? You don't know me that well do you?

Thanks for ckecking it out. Chao amigos.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Handcrafted in

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Going to Paint School

2012-02-15T06:55:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pics of Branton's cross frame after the primer has been laid. This is the first frame that I have actually taken a part in painting. Actually I won't be doing any of the painting, Paul just let me shoot a coat of the epoxy primer and I'm doing the prep work before the paint goes down. I mentioned a while back that I was interested in learning to paint so Paul and Wayne said they would show me a few things. I looked into some auto-body shop courses at first but I would have wasted a lot of time learning things that didn't pertain to painting bicycles, so this way I'm learning from a professional who knows the ins and outs of solely painting the bike frame.

The black primer is the epoxy primer, super-tough and seals the frame. If you're ever going to strip the paint off a frame and it has this stuff on it, your in for a lot of work.

The grey primer is the filler primer and its a bit thicker and fills in any small voids. But don't think that this stuff is gonna do magic. It amazes me how a small imperfection is magnified by paint. I used to think that paint would just fill in any little spot and smooth it out, nope, all wrong Cochise. I spend hours filing, rounding, and smoothing out fillets until I think that it is perfectly smooth and then paint will make you feel like a total failure.I'm all sure that by practicing this painting prep work that its also gonna help me in cleaning up my fillet-brazing. I've never used any Bondo products on my frames and I never will.

This area still needs some work so thats what I'm fixing to go to work on this morning.

This is the goal I'm shooting for in time. Its a long way down the road but if I get to where I can paint a frame this good then it will be mission accomplished. On the last post I forgot to say thanks to Paul and Wayne for the excellent paint job and all the help they have been willing to show me. Thats the sign of a true professional, someone who is open and unafraid to show you what they know and how to do it is extremely confident in what they do, for the most part they are always a step ahead of the rest and I'm glad I have these guys painting my frames. Thanks guys!

Ace's Wild Custom

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Yancey's Race Frame

2012-02-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

Just picked Larry's 'cross racing frame up from Ace's Wild. As you know, cyclocross season is over now however we're always thinking about it here at MEECH and we are already getting prepped for the next season. We decided to use the paint scheme that I intend to use for MOTO-BICI, which is another one of my ideas that is crawling along at a snails pace. Anyway, it just looks so racey that I can't get enough of it, I want some more of it. I can't believe I just used some lyrics out of a country song. I was taught never to hate anything, .... except country music. Speed metal baby! Ok, Rockabilly is where its at but when you're into racing steel you have to mention speed-metal, I mean come on.

Theres that signature hot pink "MOTO" swank you're gonna be seeing at the races. If you're gonna go off-road you hafta go MOTO. I think I'm gonna name my first born Moto. With a name like Moto Harris what else could one do except be a racer? However, if they happened to become a doctor it wouldn't be a bad thing but I'm not sure if any of my offspring will make it to med-school, I just hope they stay outta reform school.

Calling Dr. Moto, calling Dr. Moto.

I actually got the idea for this paint scheme off of the old Yamaha YZs. I was always a Suzuki man myself but the Yamaha YZ had an unmistakable look, and let us not forget the MOTO-BIKE.

Check out the inside of those sexy fork legs. Wow, I just had another idea. No, I'm not tellin, you'll just have to wait and see it when its on the starting line. Maybe it'll be yours.

This is actually a front shot of the first frame we painted like this but since I am out of head badges at the moment I wanted to give you a brief look into the future of this frame.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Handcrafted

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Carbon Frame Update

2012-02-11T06:35:00.006-08:00

Its been a little over a month now since I finished my first carbon frame and while I haven't been wearing out the roads here lately I have been getting out 3-4 times a week for an hour or so and I've probably put 400-500 miles on it without any issues. The frame rides extremely comfortable, perhaps a little too comfortable as I mentioned it had a little flex to it, but I've gotten used to it and its not bad. I wish that I had my S3 steel frame built up so that I could compare them at the same time. You would think a frame builder would have plenty of bikes laying around however I've only one and you're looking at it. These days all my money goes into frame building supplies instead of bike components. There was a day when I had five frames laying around, three of them were built up, there were a dozen wheels laying around, and I was riding 3-4 hrs a day regardless of the weather. Times have changed a bit but its all educational. I believe thats a Pixies song isn't it. I will build the next one with some larger diameter tubes and maybe a couple more layers of laminate around the bottom bracket area but other than that and maybe tightening up the main triangle a bit I will just be focusing on a cleaner finish and learning more about the vacuum bagging process. Even though I haven't put many miles on it I have ridden as hard as I've ridden any other bike. Stomping a big gear uphill, descending around 50 mph, even riding off a few curbs and its soaked everything up with no problems and so my confidence in building carbon frames has grown. I'm itching bad to start my second one but I have a couple of steel frames to finish up first. I'm going to pick one frame up from paint today so hopefully I'll have some pictures later today and with any luck I'll have another back next week. We'll see.

This is a photo of the late Harvey Pekar, a famous comic from the 70's and I just finished watching a documentary about him this morning. Why might I be putting a photo of him here on a frame building blog? Funny you asked. I'm trying a little experiment that I saw in the documentary. For the past 6-7 months I have had a little fight going on with epididymitis. If you don't know what that is you probably haven't had it and thats a good thing. Its basically swelling an inflammation of the epididymis which is located down there.....well, lets just say in a man's groin area. There are varying degrees of it and I'm fortunate that mine is not too extreme because I know some guys go through hell, major swelling and pain that keeps you on the couch. My particular case just feels kinda like the after-effects of being kicked in the jewels. Thats not unbearable once or twice but when you wake up every morning and deal with it all day long it can really wear you down. This is actually the second time I have had it. The first episode was back when I was racing, roughly 14 or so years ago, and that also lasted for 6 months. If your a cyclist its a real pain in the ... well you know. Oddly enough, when I get on my bike the pain usually goes away for the hour or two that I ride but then after I get off the bike and the blood starts to flow again down there it starts hurting. Theres not much you can do other than take antibiotics and anti-inflammatories to keep it at bay and just hope it passes. I've read a couple of cases of guys who have lived with it for over a couple of years and all I can say for that is that it must be a nightmare. "So why are you telling us, and whats this experiment you were talking about?" Well, in the documentary about the life of Harvey Pekar he developes testicular cancer and his wife suggests writing everything he goes through in a comic book. She tells him that by bringing it out into the open and facing it head-on this will keep his mind off of it and the cancer will eventually just go away, and apparently it did. Not sure if it came back later and killed him, I didn't see the end because I went outside to get some firewood, its like 15 degrees here. Anyway this is probably really stupid but I'm really wanting this epididymis thing to go away and so I'm sharing it with the world, just hoping. It would be really nice to feel enthusiastic again about getting on a bicycle and being able to ride without taking a handful of ibuprofen to get through it. Does this mean that I'm gonna be talking about this everyday and posting photos? Nope, I wouldn't do that to you. Now if I knew it would go away I would be writing and posting photos all day long. The doctor said I need to get one of those saddles with the cutout in the center. I tried one of those when they first came out and I wasn't that fond of it. It wreaked havoc on my hemorrhoid. Thats another story that nobody cares about. All I'm gonna say about that is that I was 24 years old and it was very, very hard pulling down your pants and bending over a table to let someone look up your bum. At that moment I didn't think life could get any worse, and then I realized, I could be the doctor. ;)

Now Its Complete

2012-02-01T09:25:00.000-08:00

There we go, no more brake chatter.

Branton's Custom Crosser

2012-01-31T18:40:00.000-08:00

Just finished building the fork and cleaning up Branton's cross frame this afternoon so I wanted to get some pics up before it goes over to Ace's for some color. This was a unique build for me for a couple of reasons. Its the first time I have used internal rear brake routing and its also the first time I have used the custom cutout in the right chain stay in place of the usual indentation.

I like the way it looks, clean and custom.

Branton wanted some down tube shifter bosses brazed on instead of the top tube mounted triple cable stops. When racing cross he prefers to suitcase the bike instead of shouldering it. I have only done 6 or 7 cross races myself but it always seems like I end up suitcasing the bike as well, seems quicker but its just a natural reaction for me. Whats really a natural reaction for me is riding the bicycle versus carrying it. One of these days I'll get my MEECHcross racing track built and the only reason for carrying your bike then will be if you break it by casing a double-jump. My dreams are bigger than my pocketbook. I'm starting to get a little frustrated because over the last year I have tried at least a half-dozen times to win the lottery in order to start MEECHcross racing, all to no avail mind you. I didn't think anything was more difficult than cyclocross racing but winning the lottery is proving to be much harder than I expected. Becoming an astronaut is a joke, besides, when I win the lottery I'll buy my own rocket, just like Richard Branson. I'll race him for pink slips then I'll have two rockets, maybe, you never know when it comes to rocket racing, thats a dangerous bit. Speaking of NASA, they better hope I don't become president, which is gonna be way easier than winning the lottery or some rocket race, because I'm gonna slash their budget by half and use the other half to buy bicycle stuff. It'll be better than just blowing it on the moon and Mars. I say give that to the Russians, let'em go some place warmer and get'em off our coat tail for a change. If by chance they make anything of it we can just blow it up from down here and not mess up the Earth, give Russia to the polar bears. More money & bicycle stuff for the U.S., no Russians, a thriving polar bear population, and a beautiful custom cyclocross bike all in one blog post. I'm surprising myself now. I think I've been watching too many Tosh.O marathons. I just realized that I forgot to add the anti-brake chatter cable stop on the fork that Branton was wanting so the frame isn't actually finished, but all that other stuff is taken care of. If there are any Russians out there that can read, I'm just messing with you. I like the Russians, they are fun to party with. They can drink a couple of liters of vodka, beat you at chess, then go out dancing. How do they get anything done? They don't, thats why it failed. It's a shame that the United States can barely keep up with them. As for all you clowns at NASA, you can consider yourself unemployed when I'm elected.

You won't see another serial number like this ever, guaranteed. I'm burning the mold as we speak.

You route the cable housing in from the back and out the front. In through the out door. Isn't that a Zeppelin album?

Can't wait to see how Branton decides to paint this dude. Check back for the finished product.

These Go To 11... | This Is Spinal Tap | Classic Clips

2012-01-28T04:52:00.000-08:00

When Campy came out with 11-speed this is what always came to my mind.

2012-01-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

Couple of shots of the pre-cleanup fillet brazing. I was in my hometown for a couple of days and just got back to work on Branton's frame. This frame is coming together nicely and the alignment was spot on after I pulled it out of the jig. Actually I only tack it in the jig and then do the brazing in my stand, but I always put them back in the jig after finishing the bottom bracket area. The heat will usually always pull something a couple of millimeters one way or another but I won't have to touch this one. Call it a bonus.

We are gonna run the rear brake housing through the top tube and straight out the back. I thought it would be difficult to feed it through since we decided not to braze in a brass tube, but by feeding it through the seat tube first it almost fell out of the top tube on its on, couldn't believe it. One night I spent hours trying to feed a cable through my old Orbea time trial frame. I finally went over to my friend's house, Jeff Hudson, who built my alignment table for me, and we worked another couple of hours before emerging victorious, but I was bruised up pretty badly and a couple of days after not achieving the time I wanted at the state tt championship that frame was on Ebay. It wasn't the bikes fault, it was just that I knew my time trialing days were over. If I get the urge to suffer again I'll just go to a cross race and do a couple of laps. A few braze-ons and some clean-up work and this thing should be done, oh yeah, and a fork. Check back in a couple of days.

Branton's New Build

2012-01-18T15:33:00.000-08:00

Here is the upstart of a new cross frame for Branton over at the Highroller Cyclery in Fayetteville here in Arkansas. If you're familiar with the Joe Martin Stage Race, Hell's Kitchen, and a couple other spring classics you know the area, its some pretty sweet terrain.

Basically just have a few miter shots to to look at. I always try to show some of each build here on the blog. A lot of customers like to see their frames progress from a drawing to a finished product. Videos would be nice on occasion but I never have anyone around to shoot 'em. You can see where I always clean off the coating on the inside lip of each tube. It helps to have a good clean surface all the way around for the little internal fillet to stick to. Yamaguchi is the one that taught me how to do that so I always try to pull a little extra brass inside the tubes for a little better bond. I imagine its a little stronger however from what I've seen a good solid fillet on the outside is sufficient. I've practiced and played and tried to rip brazed joints apart and all I've ever come up with is wadded up tubes that eventually tear apart behind the fillet or where the butting starts to taper. When I first started building my main concern was a frame breaking apart at the fillet and after roughly 100 frames its yet to happen. If you start out with some good clean surfaces and scuff the ends of the tube inside and out the only thing left is to flow a little concave of brass (keep the heat down but make it flow), and you're gonna be hard pressed to break that.

Decided to put a little custom chain ring clearance on this frame. It looks so much better than an indentation. Its a little more work but well worth it. I meant to take some pics of the actual process but forgot. For the most part you just file a groove where the inner chain ring would touch, find a piece of tubing that is the correct diameter (preferably a meaty piece of tubing, I use head tube material), then braze it in. I cut off the excess with a Dremel and then start cleaning it up with a file or anything else that works for you. Pretty easy and its a clean, custom look.

I included a couple of random shots for fun. This tripped out looking photo was supposed to try and show where the butting in the tube starts but I didn't do a real good job. It basically looks like I'm spying on my neighbor. In the summer time sometimes my neighbor will walk around the yard in a little skimpy yellow swimsuit, but before you get too excited let me warn you, my neighbor is a hairy, fat dude. Which reminds me, the other night I got an earfull. My wife likes to watch that show the Biggest Loser. I had never even watched one episode because its not my kinda thing. When she's watching her shows I'm usually in here on the computer playing chess or messin with the blog, ebay, etc. So I decided to go join her to watch TV because she's always telling me I don't ever watch TV with her. Its not true but anyway I went in there with good intentions and said, "Hey baby, who's winning on the Fattest Loser?" Whoops. I botched the name a little bit. So she set me straight on how those people are suffering and don't deserve to be made fun of. It was an honest mistake. I mean why do overweight people deserve all the sympathy? Why can't skinny people get a TV show? We suffer too. We're not getting enough food to eat while these people are being locked in a room with $20,000 worth of Godiva chocolate. I say chow down wide load, forget your team, when is this opportunity ever gonna come around again, you can start dieting again tomorrow. The way i see it, they have an obligation to stuff their face, thats what the audience wants to see. Do you think everybody wants to stand around the water cooler the next day and talk about how Fat Albert didn't eat the candy. No way! They want to see him on the security camera stuffing a $1000 worth of Godiva truffels in his pie hole until he falls on the floor vomiting chocolate with a complete look of failure on his face. Don't be fooled by his teamates, they want him to eat it too, that way they are assured a place down on the farm for some more TV time. Fat people, skinny people, drug addicts, workaholics, we're all the same, but I would like my shot in that Godiva room. I always wanted to take my dalmation Mickey into a grocery store just once and just let him run wild. I always would park, leave him in the truck (the inside with the window down), then I would dissappear for a while and come back with bags full of food. He'd look at me like, "Man, why don't you take me with you, I like food too." I can just see him walking through those automatic doors like the Gates of Heaven, with a million different smells filling the air, his nose would be pointing straight up, he wouldn't know which way to go. I'm pretty sure he would go straight back to the meat department, or perhaps the deli because that food is already cooked. Who could pass up baked chicken and ribs with donuts just down the aisle? Moto Mickey kept me on my toes at all times. Man, that construction worker was pissed when Mickey stole his box of Captain D's fish and chips. Only thing left was a torn up box and the cole slaw. Not even a dog will eat that crap.

This is my favorite piece of framebuilding clothing. Its a vest that my wife got for me a couple of Christmases ago. Its warm and leaves your arms free to move. My favorite piece of cycling clothing is a vest as well. That and a cycling cap are worth their weight in gold. If you look closely at the vest you can see feathers coming out of about 5 different spots where I occasionally stuck it with a hot brazing rod. I've actually got a brazing rod sitting on my bench out there now with a feather melted to the end of it. So if anyone out there ever gets a frame with a hairy fillet you'll know what happened. Maybe next year I'll get a new one, kevlar. Chao amigos.

World Championship Pain Party

2012-01-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos from the 2012 Masters World Cyclocross Championships that were held in Louisville, KY this past weekend. Factory MEECH racer Larry Yancey had a solid performance and finished 7th overall. Starting from the back of the pack the gun went off and Yancey immediately started passing riders and was in mid-pack when they came to a slick, fast downhill. Larry had been checking out a secret line on the outside in the races before his and as soon as he got to it, hit the gas, kamikazied the downhill, and railed into the lead before anybody knew what happened. He held it down for quite a while before the national champ (I should know his name but I don't) got by. It was pretty knarly conditions even by cross standards. The riders were carrying an extra 10-15 lbs. of mud on their bikes while navigating snotty downhills with nasty frozen ruts. Crashes were abundent as well as some excellent competition. Check out that last photo of Yancey on the final lap, think it was tough? Larry came home stoked and I believe he has already started training for next year's worlds which just happens to be here again in 2013. It feels great to have had one of my frames at such a prestigious event. So thanks Larry for riding a MEECH and next year I'll have you another frame ready to go so that you can have a clean pit bike every lap. Ride on everybody!

MEECH Custom Bicycles

handmade in

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Venice Beach Custom Bicycles

2012-01-14T04:55:00.000-08:00

Wood, bone, skulls, danger, blood, springer front-ends, pneumatics, fully twisted, laser-cut, mirrors, scissor racks, rattlesnake tails, and custom stereo. And you thought NAHBS was cool. If you said custom chain ring clearance around these guys they would look at you like you were crazy and then probably assume that you just had some sort of learning dissability. Thats alright. Try riding it up Alp d'Huez. Different Strokes, different folks.

Masters World Cyclocross Championships

2012-01-13T05:11:00.000-08:00

World Championship racing going on in Louisville, KY now and the rest of this weekend. Yancey is locked and loaded and will be heading to the start line on Sunday. Go thrash'em Larry.

Stay cool, fast, and on the gas!

Cleanup complete

2012-01-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

In the Yamaguchi frame building book he says how he enjoys finishing the frames, sanding and polishing and making the joints beautifully smooth. As I mentioned in the previous post, the cleanup work is not my favorite part of the build however it is a very important part of the process and I always try to remember Yamaguchi's words before I start and all the way up till I'm finished. I think trying to make the perfect fillet is one of those things that you can work on a lifetime, just like trying to build the perfect bicycle, luckily neither the fillet nor the bicycle has to be perfect to be enjoyed but you strive to get as close as you can. Ever onward.

Fun is over, and the work begins.

2012-01-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

Drawing the frame up on paper is relaxing, getting a proper fit on the tubes is interesting, brazing is enjoyable business, then comes the clean-up. Filing, sanding, more filing and sanding. I don't particularly like the cleanup work but its how its gonna shine when I'm done that gets me through it. I don't consider it a bicycle frame until its finished. Check out Braze-On Man. He was the center for the Redskins but since they didn't get into the playoffs he's got a little free time to lend a hand. The old Bringheli jig has served me well on many frames. I quit counting frames after #10 but I imagine I'm getting close to #100. The last couple of years I've tried to get away from giving any attention to unimportant numbers, like age, etc., and just focus on the tasks of the day. One time I actually forgot that it was my birthday. I was filling out an entry form for a motocross race and asked the girl behind the table what the date was and she said..., and I said, "No lie?", and she said, "If I'm lying, I'm dying, and there's gonna be a lot of boys crying." As I was walking back to the pits I started thinking that since it was my birthday that I might have a really special race. It was if you consider bent bars, a smashed pipe, and a trashed radiator special.

First Build of 2012

2012-01-05T18:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I started a new build. Its a 59 cm road frame with a sloping top tube that tightens it up quite a bit. The majority of the frame is OX Platinum with a 31.6 mm down tube so it should be pretty light and with tighter triangles it should eliminate most of the flex that is common with larger frames. This is where I think fillet-brazing is an advantage because you can build up a good concave around the bb shell and I think it produces a stiffer bb area than say tig welding. You would think that a lugged bb shell would produce the stiffest steel frame but all the lugged frames that I had seemed a bit sluggish. I'm not an expert on lugged frames at all. I've never built one basically because I chose fillet-brazing as the technique I wanted to use and I've stuck with it. There are plenty of good builders out there who produce some beautifully crafted lugged frames and my hats off to them. Maybe one day I'll build one but at the time I'm not interested. I still start every frame build with a hand made drawing at 1/2 scale. This is the way Yamaguchi taught me and its the only way i know so I've stuck to it. I've never used Bike Cadd and its embarrassing that I don't know how. Its supposedly super-easy but I've just never got around to messing with it, besides, starting each new frame by sitting down and drawing all the details by hand is a great way to start out, it pulls you in sync with the frame, and its kinda like running through your notes before you take a test, its relaxing and one of my favorite parts of the build. After the drawing I start the build with a perfectly level junction between the bb shell and the seat tube, its much easier than filing the seat tube, putting it back in the jig to check it, and then pulling it out again to make corrections. Just level the seat tube in the vise, and file the miter until the bottom bracket shell is level and you should be good to go. Once you do a good tight miter you won't settle for anything less on the ones that follow. The 59 mark on the seat tube shows where the top tube would intersect if it was horizontal and then when you throw in the slope, this one is 5 degrees, it actually intersects the seat tube at roughly the 54 cm point. This is probably boring you to sleep so I'll shut up now. The weather here in Mountain Home has been beautiful these last few days. Today it was 65 degrees and sunny. It felt like a spring day and i was moving pretty quick in the shop. If this is global warming then I'm all for it. Just kidding. I do not like cold weather at all but I'm a big fan of polar bears. Bottom line is its outta my hands, if they need me to adopt a polar bear some day I will. Pit bulls, hah! Imagine riding up to the base of a hill when you know that the 3rd house on the right has a polar bear. Can you say cardiac arrest? "Boy, you know where you are, you in the jungle baby, you gonna diiiiiiieeeyyyyyyeeye." That was an Axl Rose reference, I do those from time to time. One time Yancey and I hit this little kicker outside of Jonesboro that is about a 15 percent grade for about 50 meters and there was a pit bull loose in the yard. Man we were dancing on the pedals like Marco Pantani and Jose Maria Jimenez while that dog was singing "Your ass is mine." I'm just glad it was Yancey's chain that was slipping and not mine. This frame was cut and fit by 2:00 so I put the files up and got a cup of coffee and went for a ride. I have about 4 or five rides on the carbon frame without issues so I'm gaining confidence in it. It is amazingly comfortable on the road and rides great when you're in the saddle but when you stand up and kick it has a little flex. To tell the truth it doesn't ride much differently from the carbon bikes I used to ride, like the Look KG 171, 281,381, etc. I think the flex is not really coming from my carbon layup but from the smaller diameter carbon tubes that I used. The head tube area feels rock solid, its just the bb area that seems to soak up some of your out of the saddle kicks. No worries. On the next one I'm going with a little larger diameter tubes and maybe a couple more layers of carbon and we'll see how it changes things. I really want to figure out how to build carbon lugs. Thats what I want Virginia. I'm gonna tack this frame in the morning so maybe this weekend I'll have some more pics. Thanks for checking it out. Hasta luego.

Taking a lemon and making lemonade, and then adding Vodka

2012-01-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

A while back I got one of my earlier frames that had been laying around a bike shop for a couple of years. When I first started building I was eager ( probably too eager) to get my frames out there and try to start rounding up some business, and while the frames were ok/rideable they weren't ready to be sold off the showroom floor. So anyway, I always like to kinda clean up the shop and start with a clean slate for the new year, get rid of anything that I don't use, and make use of anything that I can. This particular frame didn't have enough chain ring clearance for some of these newer cranks, actually it did have enough, I had just put a big indentation in the stay, and it kinda flattened it out and made it look unappealing and like the wheel wasn't centered. Since the rest of the frame was fine and was made with some good tubing I decided to cut the rear triangle off and spruce it up a little, a little practice exercise never hurts anyone. I was just gonna put your typical chain stay indentation in it and be done with it but since it was the holiday season I guess I felt festive and decided to do a little custom work. Plenty of chain ring clearance now, huh? There is a little more than needed because I started filing to far back and had to come more toward the bb shell and that led to creeping deeper. I filled it in with a thick piece of head tube material so I think its pretty solid. You could ride a skateboard in it now. Another reason why I decided to fix this frame is because I want to start painting some of my own frames. I've always had the desire to paint one of these things so I'm gonna start practicing and see if its something I want to pursue. I don't really have a painting facility so I'm hoping maybe I can rent some booth time from someone. Ace's Wild Custom does such an excellent job I want them to continue painting the customer's frames, but if i can learn a little about painting maybe I will offer a little discount to those who are willing to let me have my way with their frame. Who knows what you'll get? But like every frame I've ever sold, if you aren't happy with it I'll gladly take it back. Lets get this new year rolling! Chao amigos.

Last Ride of 2011

2011-12-31T15:06:00.000-08:00

My last ride for this year was a bit unique, nothing stellar but different none the less. I woke up this morning and started building up the carbon frame. Everything went pretty smooth but I hadn't considered having to route the front derailleur cable any differently and I quickly learned that those little plastic cable guides that I normally use on steel frames wouldn't quite fit the setup that I had. For one, with all the carbon plies the bb shell has a larger diameter and then when you consider the chain stay setup has a big block of carbon there is nowhere to run the cable. For the quick fix I just opted to drill a hole in the bottom of the chain stay the same size as a piece of cable housing and on the top I drilled a smaller hole

just big enough to run the cable through. Kinda looks like a Di2 setup. I probably should have just drilled both holes the same size and epoxied in a piece of housing and be through with it. Now that I think about it, I didn't even glue the piece of housing that I used and if it somehow gets pushed up in there it will just be floating around in the chain stay, but I guess as long as the cable is through it I'm safe. Ok, now for the test ride. As soon as I got it all together I just jumped on it for a second in my jeans to take a quick spin around the block. Thought I would at least make sure it wasn't gonna just fall apart. I was extremely surprised how smooth it felt. "Did I build this?" This was the first time I've been on a carbon frame since I started building frames with steel, roughly 4 years, and it was feeling pretty good, and the roads around the neighborhood here are a bit rough, all chip and seal. So after a short loop I came home and parked it, got some lunch, put on my riding gear, and hit the streets. It wasn't the greatest of days to be product testing. The wind was wailing on me about 25 mph and I didn't feel real good to start with. The bike felt a bit awkward as a new bike always does, plus my levers weren't tight and were slipping because I didn't bother putting any bar tape on, not to mention I cut my rear brake housing too short and it was pulling my bars to the left and I couldn't turn to sharp to the right or the brakes would drag the rim. But none of this was gonna stop me from testing this frame so i rode on. The bike rides really smooth when your in the saddle, way smoother than i expected. When i stood up and torqued on it a bit I thought I could see the rear end swaying just a bit so I immediately thought that I didn't wrap enough carbon around the bb area and I got a bit worried that I might crack it, but I kept riding trying to get out of the wind so that i could maybe get a good feel of what was happening. It didn't happen. Good news is that it held up, and on the way home I actually stood up on a couple of hills and put a little leg into it (which is all i have these days) and I couldn't tell if it was flexing or not, it definitely wasn't making any cracking noises, not that I could hear anyway. I'm not so sure that its the actual bb area layup and not just the carbon stays flexing. Anyway a couple extra layers of laminate can only make it stronger. So its back in the shop leaning against the wall waiting for the new year and I'm gonna go give it another test ride in the morning before the wind wakes up. It tipped the scales at 16.5 lbs and I can still shave it down a bit more, no weight worries here. Check out those pedals, think they don't have some miles on them. I've got 2 pair, one pair is more than 10 yrs. old and the other set is over 12 yrs. They are just as good as they were when I bought them and i've never touched 'em. How could you even consider buying new ones? Its been a good year here at MEECH and I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has helped me out. Customers, riders, racers, family, etc. I wish you all well in the year to come. Gonna be more frame building, experimenting, testing, etc. here at the shop. Larry Yancey is fixin to go to the Masters Cyclocross World Championships here in a couple of weeks. He's been putting in miles, drinking fruit-punch flavored gasoline, and slapping tigers for this one. He said he wants to get MEECH some rainbow stripes and I'm all for it. Happy New Year! By the way, that elf has had way too much egg nog.

famous words by Larry Yancey

Be cool,

be fast,

and stand on the gas!

Prime Real Estate for a Pain Party

2011-12-30T05:21:00.000-08:00

Looks mystic now doesn't it? When the gun goes off in Louisville, Kentucky on January 12 its gonna change quick. Factory MEECH rider Larry Yancey is gonna be there serving up carnage. Its gonna be a pretty big pain party. Bloody knuckles, frozen toes, and maybe a broken nose, who knows, anything goes in the big shows. Some of those Speedvagen brass knuckles might actually come in handy at the Worlds. I'm gonna try to get Larry a pair before the start. Got get'em Yancey

Tommy Lee does sport

2011-12-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

Mickey vs Gorgeous George - Snatch First Fight Scene

2011-12-25T06:39:00.000-08:00

welcome back kotter- the barbarino song

2011-12-23T06:09:00.000-08:00

Virginia, up your nose with a rubber hose.

Carbon Work

2011-12-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

This first carbon frame is done for the most part and its gonna either get ridden or broken this winter. I decided to put one last layer of carbon around the BB shell just in case I was wrong about what I might get away with. I only sanded it down and I'm not gonna worry with trying to pretty it up until the ride part is dialed in. I laid down a couple of nice wraps with the carbon but when I hand-wrapped it for compression I squeezed some wrinkles into it and had to sand it pretty heavily to even it out, you can see where I went into the uni on part of it. I also may have used too much resin. The temp was in the 30's in my garage and the carbon wouldn't wet out very well so I think i may have put it on a little too thick. I'm actually pretty tired of looking at that rear carbon stay, I hope to find some nicer stuff to work with in the future, however it was cheap and not knowing how this thing may turn out I didn't want to waste one of the sweet ones. If it rides good then I'll have to eat crow. Can I have some green salsa with it? Red might look a little gross. I was naive in thinking that I was just gonna epoxy on a cylinder bolt in order to tighten down the seat post. As strong as some of this epoxy is it snapped off before it even got snug. Luckily I had this Easton seat post clamp that just happened to fit so we're good to go as soon as I get a headset in it. I also just epoxied on a hanger for the front derailleur and while it seems secure it may snap off under some stress, we'll see. But that small stuff will be easily fixed, the ride of the frame is my main concern. I started on this thing around the first part of this year and I remember saying that by the spring I would be test riding it. Guess I meant spring of 2012. I did manage to stay pretty busy this year with orders and I hope that the year ahead will be more of the same. Thanks for checking it out. Catch ya later.

Cross-Up Racing

2011-12-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo I found on Jess parker's facebook page. Its a photo by Jason Perry taken I believe at San Fran's Golden Gate Park. Hope I got that right. Anyway, I say forget running over barriers, freakin litter the courses with this stuff and just jump 'em. Check out jasonperryphoto.net to find some more good stuff. Thanks for the cool pics now how do I get it to blow up.

Fixie Progress

2011-12-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

I made a little progress on the fixed-gear frame this weekend. This has been a slow build because its not for anyone in particular and what started out as "just gonna build a simple fixie frame because I had some track dropouts laying around", has turned into a one-off-fest. I was just gonna throw some drop bars on this thing but then I decided to try my luck with some handmade aero bars. With a little steel stock that was laying around and some airplane strut tubing from the Spruce I brazed up my first set and they're not so bad. Let me change that, they're bad, they're "jam beef-mondo bad." I built them fairly quickly and on Saturday morning I was cleaning up the brazing when I decided to test the strength. I mounted them in the BB shell fixture on my alignment table and grabbed them on the ends and put a little body weight on them. I felt a little bend in them before I got the entire $1.60 that I weigh on them. Where the aero tubes were brazed onto the stem tube was folding inward, stem was too light. What do you expect, I'm an ex-racer, I want my bike to weigh nothing. Damn, not good, screwed-up, wasted time, yeah I was pissed. Pffff, garbage can. Wait just a second there hotshot, you can fix these. So I ripped the bars of the stem, cut the stem tube off about one inch in front of the steerer clamp and used that as an inside lug and slid a larger beefier tube over it, and then re-brazed it with a mondo fillet. The stem is the "beef", the fillet is "mondo", and the "jam" is just something that sounds sweet, "jam beef-mondo bars." Now you can do tricep dips on 'em. If you hit a car with these something is gonna get scratched. I included a couple of pics of the fork. I still haven't brazed the crown race ring on yet. I'm out of silver and i can't order any until my new credit card shows up. Apparently someone got the number off the old one so its best just to change. You can see the cut-outs I put on the inside of the fork blades so you can get an average sized tire in there. I've made a couple of mistakes during this build but they were easily fixed and educational so no big deal. Got a few more fine details before its completed but it will be done before long. I cannot for the life of me figure out how I want to paint this thing. Racey. Chao.

Black Cherry on Honey Gold

2011-12-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

Few shots of Phil's 650B before I pack it up and ship it. This frame has a couple of custom features that I haven't used before. The rear brake cable hanger along with the seat stay bridge are new as well as the hand-crafted seat stays. The paint scheme is definitely one-of-a-kind. Phil matched up the Black Cherry Pearl with some Honey Gold and its making me hungry just writing this. Waitress bring me some dessert. Paul and Wayne did a super job on this thing. Check out that barber's pole that you can ride on, style points here. Even painted the water-bottle cages to match. A finely painted seat lug is becoming a signature touch on all MEECH and MOTO-BICI frames, its so simple yet so cool. Love it! Plenty of braze-ons on this horse. Besides the usual we added some for a pump, racks, a chain-hanger, as well as a third pair of water-bottle bosses. Is that a threaded steerer? You know it, as good as ever. This is the second frame that Phil has bought from me. He was one the earliest customers of MEECH Custom and its always nice to have repeat business. Thanks Phil. And when you get this beauty built up please send us some pics. Its going in the mail asap and will be there in plenty of time to put under the tree.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Finely Crafted Handmade Bicycle Frames

Experimenting, Playing, or Just Screwin Up?

2011-12-10T04:53:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pics of the fork I'm working on for the fixed gear frame. Super simple design that I got from a friend's old Raleigh from the early 70's with a couple modifications. The crossbar part is gonna be cut down a little so that its not so swanky (I think I'm gonna name my first-born Swanky. Wonder what he'll grow up to be?). Although, the more I sit here looking at this picture its kinda growing on me as is, it just doesn't quite fit the style of the frame I'm building. Maybe on another frame, something a little more James Bondesque. FACT: I've never watched an entire James Bond film. I've seen bits and pieces of just about all of them but basically couldn't sit through more than 15 minutes before changing the channel. They just don't do anything for me. So anyway this frame is kinda leaning toward a time-trialy sort of direction and I wanted the tire to fit really tight in the fork. Guess what chief? You measured once and brazed it up twice now the only rubber that will fit is a 20c, hence the cutouts in the side of each fork blade. Now you can get a 23 maybe 25c in there but its as snug as love. "You just gonna leave it like that?" No Virginia, I already brazed in a couple of patches but I forgot to shoot photos. Its coming around and its even more custom. Right now its at the machinist (he's the guy with the Raleigh) and he's cutting a crown race ring for it and making me a couple of custom...., well thats a secret for now but you'll see it soon. Check out those custom dropouts. I was gonna braze some stainless face plates on them but I didn't have the cutting blades I needed so while not wanting to go get them I noticed some spare change sitting on the alignment table and thought, "...those nickels are about the right size, wonder if those are brazeable?" Who knows what type of garbage they use to make money these days. I heard they put ground up chicken lips in the center of quarters, who knows what's in nickels. Not sure if thats true or not but they are brazeable and make for a pretty sweet, fat pair of custom fork dropouts. Trying to clean them up after brazing is a bit difficult and they got a little filed down. Apparently chicken lips turn brownish-red after heating them up to 1250 degrees, but you can tell that they're jen-u-whine authentic nickels because if you look real hard you can see Jimmy Carter's head. Jimmy wasn't that great of a president but he is doing some pretty noble stuff these days. I heard the Jews and Palestinians are gonna spend Christmas together and give each other presents. Boxes wrapped up real pretty with bows that make neat sounds when you shake them. It'll be one to remember. Unfortunately, after all that work I realized I brazed the nickels on the same side of the dropouts and therefore they're useless. Unlike you Virginia. Dude, when its 35 degrees in my shop, my brain flows like molasses. FACT: I'm thinking of the south of Spain right now. Oh well. I just got Phil's 650B tourer back from Ace's and it looks sweet. Gonna post some pics of that later today. Hasta luego.

Finished? No, but close.

2011-12-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

I did some work on the carbon frame this weekend and while I was gonna put one more layer around the BB shell, the itch to test ride this thing got the best of me and i said, "Screw it, I'm gonna ride this thing and if it breaks, pffff." I think its strong enough but what do I know? I know we're gonna find out. Last night I put a coat of epoxy over all the joints just to see how it would clean up with some clear coat. It wasn't bad but the clear showed the imperfections and unevenness in the layers, kinda like paint will do, so today I decided to sand it down and try to even it out a bit before putting any clear on it. Honestly I'm not to concerned with how this first one looks. Its gonna take some practice to make the lay-ups look professional for sure and I'm gonna start just as soon as I know the frame is structurally sound. This frame has 2-3 layers of carbon around all the joints and I used two, actually three different types of carbon. I used some uni-directional tape first, mainly because everyone acts like that is the best for strength in bicycle frames, and then on the head tube and BB shell i covered them with some braided sleeve carbon. It was mainly for aesthetic purposes but it also stretches in different directions very easily and drapes around the curves much better. On the seat tube/seat stay juncture I tried a little different technique just to experiment. After putting a couple of layers of uni, I took some carbon tow and wrapped everything really tight and pulled the layers into the corners. I built this frame using wet layup and hand wrapping it. I bought a vacuum pump a while back but haven't mastered the vac. bagging process yet. My plan was to put one final layer of carbon over all the joints and then vacuum bag the whole thing but I ran out of some of the bagging supplies needed and I just can't wait any longer to test ride this thing. The only section I'm really concerned with is the BB shell. I don't know if 2 layers is sufficient but I'm gonna find out before long. I just need to get a couple of thin sleeves machined to house the headset cups and come up with some sort of seatpost clamp and then I'm building this dude up. I know your supposed to test the first one by finding the breaking point of the frame but I can't bring myself to break this thing just yet. Breaking it with a steel bar seems a bit lame to me anyway, that has nothing to do with bike riding at all. I'm gonna put this thing on a 10% grade and slam it into the big ring and sprint like its the finish of a race. If that doesn't break it then I'm gonna descend the hill and lay into the front brakes as hard as I can without going over the bars and if that doesn't break it then I'm gonna ride it off a curb. If it passes all this then I'm good, cause thats the way I ride everyday. After putting the braze-ons on (if you want to call them that) and the derailleur hanger the weight creeped up over 2.5 lbs. I wasn't real pleased about that but it is a 58cm and I didn't slope the top tube too much either so I'm hoping that I have some room to shave weight off the next one. Some of the weight may be in the Dedacciai rear stay setup, not sure. Anyway, its all educational.

Montagna Ridiculoso

2011-12-03T05:10:00.000-08:00

Damn! This is a photo from cyclocross back in the 30's. Next time your dad or your grandpa says, "....back then men were tougher than they are today.", maybe now you'll believe 'em. Remember, back then the bikes weren't made with True Temper Superlite tubes, probably weighed about 40 lbs. See that wooden fence down there at the bottom of the hill, they were bunny-hopping it. Now who's the cowboy?

Fixie

2011-12-03T05:09:00.000-08:00

I got the fixed-gear frame I was working on tacked the other day and now that I have Yancey's frame repaired I can get back on it. The repair took priority over this since everything was already in the jig I wanted to stick it first. This frame has a 4 degree forward sloping top tube just for kicks and to get the front end a little lower. Might want to trim a couple of feet off the top of that head tube D. I will. I still haven't decided what style of fork I'm gonna build for this thing. I have two ideas floating around in my head and I may not use either. One was an aero-bladed steel fork. It would be strictly for looks, but the ride could be a bit harsh so I may go with something a little more comfortable, but its gonna be a straight-blade for sure and its prolly gonna have curb-feelers. Not sure that will go with the rattlesnake down tube. We'll see.

How Cyclocross Should Start

2011-12-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

This is how you start a race. Line everyone up side by side. Having 5 riders across with 15 rows deep is lame. Its basically just giving a few riders a head start while the guys stuck in mid-pack use everything they have, not to mention take crazy chances just to get in contention. Its not a fair start to a race. I don't care about tradition and all that bs, line everyone up side by side and wave the flag, if the field is too large for that maybe go a couple deep but when the guys on the first row are going full throttle and have 50 meters with clear vision on someone who is just clipping in, it just sucks. Not only is this way more fair, but way more exciting. And they need to have women in a bikini carrying a 30 second board around also. Ok, thats just me being me but a race should be two things, a competition and a show. If its more enjoyable it will make more money, and that seems to be what everyone wants.

MEECHcross

Round Two

2011-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Couple of shots of the down tube replacement on Yancey's race bike. This was the first time I had to replace a down tube but it went smoother than expected, not much to talk about. It does feel good to repair one of my earlier frames and put it back out on the starting line. A couple of years ago I probably would've just started over with a whole new frame but with a little careful attention this frame is as good as new, soon as it gets some fresh paint of course. The worst part of the whole deal was stripping the paint. I have stripped 3 or 4 completely and thats for the birds. You just can't drop off an S3 frame at your local sand blaster unless you want holes all shot in it, and the last time I did take one to a sand blaster he was so careful that he couldn't get any paint to come off. When Paul and Wayne paint a frame its not gonna come off easy. Starting on a new frame is actually a lot easier and I can probably have a frame built in about as much time. I threw a couple of extra photos in for fun. One is of the dropout alignment tools. I seldom use these and am not an expert with them at all, but anyway, Yancey's dropouts needed a little tweaking so with both tools still in the dropouts I put a good grip on the handle with one hand and the other hand I wrapped around the black adjusting dial between the dropouts and put a good push on it. So I pushed it in about a quarter inch past the other because its clearly gonna spring back and when it did come back it grabbed that big web of skin between your thumb and index finger squeezing it between both tools. "Don't panic, breathe!" I was so busy thinking about how to get my hand out I forgot to scream. I only had one hand to solve a problem that it took both of them to get into. Ever zipped your wanger up in your corduroys? You're just not quite sure which way to move. It was a similar feeling just not as embarrassing, or scary. The other picture was lunch. Angus burger, carmelized onions, cheddar cheese, with a fried egg on top. It looked so good and the camera was sitting right there so I had to shoot it. Perfect sandwich for a frame builder in the winter time. No shortage of calories here. As soon as I get Phil's 650B tourer back from paint Yancey's will be going. Chow. Chao.

Down tube replacement.

2011-11-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

Doing a little down tube repair on factory racer Larry Yancey's 'cross machine. A couple of weeks ago Yancey had a pretty knarly crash and jacked up the down tube on his S3 race frame, not to mention ripping apart one of those sweet Campy Record shifters, and a couple of other small parts. But in true Yancey race-style, he remounted the mangled mess and rode the last half of the race to finish, mind you, only one place out of the money. This frame started out as our experiment to see if S3 superlite tubing would stand up to the rigors of cyclocross and after more than 2 years of beating the molasses out of this thing I would say the S3 is capable but if you plan on racing it hard you may want just a little more meat, or if you don't mind replacing an occasional tube, roll with it. Any tube can get dented up when it takes the right hit so I'm not sure it matters what tube you choose, this is what carbon frame racers live with everyday and it doesn't stop them. Anyway, this is my first down tube replacement and I'm gonna replace the S3 tube with an OX Platinum tube. The S3 butting is 6/4/6 whereas the OX Platinum is a 7/4/7. Not really any heavier, actually the OX Plat. tube is a hair lighter just because its not as large a diameter, after all, this is a factory race bike, not gonna use water pipes on it, besides I love the lightweight stuff. In the meantime Yancey is riding his backup machine that I built for him a while back. I actually saw this day coming, only I figured it would've happened a lot sooner, you just have to ride with Yancey to understand. After getting the frame back to the shop, while cutting out the down tube, filing down the brazing, sanding everything as it sits, I found myself saying to myself on numerous occasions, "Man, he has just ridden the hell outta this thing." And thats all there is to say about that. Check back for the finished repair.

11/21/11

2011-11-21T18:13:00.000-08:00

A while back when I was caught up I started on a fixed gear frame, basically just because I've had these track dropouts laying in the toolbox forever. I've only built a couple of fixed gear frames since I started building frames. They've never really interested me that much and I don't get any calls for them. Around here, Mountain Home, with all these little punchy hills, you're gonna need some gears, they never stop. I do like the simple idea of just jumping on a single-speed bike and going, don't worry about what gear you're in, its the only one you got. So anyway, I got busy with orders and put everything in a box and forgot about it till the other day. The straight track dropouts are basically made out of steel stock and the paint will get knocked off first time you throw a wheel in, and then rust starts to form on them. No big deal really, its only an eyesore, its not like a 1/4" thick piece of steel is gonna rust out in the next fifty years and most of the fixie riders I've seen like to beat the hell out of their bike anyway, more like free-stylers. But, if you want your bike to have a little extra flare then some of these little stainless track end dropout things are nice to have. I'm not sure what the real name for them is but I've seen these for sell, I believe at BikeLugs.com, and was gonna buy some but by the time I find them, order them, and receive them, I can have them made. I don't have any machining equipment in my shop so I cut these out with a Dremel and cleaned 'em up with a file. A machinist could've cut them a little cleaner but they turned out alright for the first set and they only cost me a little time. That silver brazing ribbon that my buddy gave me came in handy, first time I've tried that stuff. I shined them up a little bit and will do a better job after the frame is finished. Still not sure exactly what the frame is gonna look like but I think I'm gonna make one of those 80's looking time trial frames with a down sloping top tube, maybe some bull-horn bars with fuzzy dice and a rattle snake's hide on the down tube, we'll see. After I finished brazing the dropouts it was getting a little late so I spent about 10 minutes on a little fillet-brazing experiment. I was wondering how small of a fillet you can use and still have a structurally safe frame so I laid this one down for a little test. Its about half the size of my normal fillets and not even a good one at that. After bending the tube down and back and wadding that tube up like a piece of paper a small crack finally showed through, but its actually the tube, the fillet was plenty strong. Tomorrow I may go a little smaller. Thanksgiving is closing in so its time for a couple of days of eating and maybe get a couple of rides in. Hope everyone has a good one. Hasta luego muchachos.

More MOTO-Swank

2011-11-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of the first MOTO-BICI paint scheme we've been working on. Its really really close to what I wanted but we're gonna make a couple of small changes on the next attempt. The bands around the chain stay and fork legs were meant to be much larger and to have a little angle on them for a little added flare, and the "handmade machine" logo is going to be on the other seat stay but for the most part I'm happy with the way this one turned out. Its the first one and will always be unique. This frame here is all True Temper steel front to rear. Its a mix of OX Platinum and Gold with their s-bend cyclocross stays. My actual plan for MOTO-BICI is to incorporate some carbon tubing into the builds and they'll all come with carbon forks unless someone wants that "all-steel feel" but M-B is gonna be bikes that are made to go off road, mainly cyclocross racers but we'll paint MOTO-BICI on 29ers all day long. Check out that handmade carbon fiber chain stay protector, no stickers here. These will be a standard on all MOTO-BICI frames. And I'm also working on what will be called the MOTOreo but thats top secret and in the future, you'll definitely want one on your cross bike when they are available. I don't have the head badges made yet so I just used one of the MEECH Pegasus badges, after all, they are all made by me. MOTO-BICI is gonna be bike frames built the way I want to build them with my paint scheme but custom fit to you however you like. I will always be building handmade custom frames with paint schemes the way you want desire but with M-B I can pursue building racing frames and experiment with carbon frame building techniques as well. My original idea behind MEECH Custom Bicycles was to build only 'cross machines with a blend of carbon and steel. I always liked riding carbon frames with lugs. My favorite brand before I started building frames was LOOK, carbon tubes with aluminum lugs, like the KG171, 281,381, etc. Those bikes just always rode so smooth to me. I always wanted to ride the LOOK 595 but I started building frames before I got one and once you start building your own, well, you ride your own. Now of course the lugs are made of carbon as well, no difference, I just always felt like a lugged carbon frame would ride better than a monocoque frame. Thats only my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. I haven't ridden a carbon frame in almost 4 years now and thats why I am pursuing it now. Trying to shave a little extra weight off to compete with these ultra-light machines they're making now. Honestly I don't think anything will ever ride quite as good as an all steel frameset but everybody is trying to build a bike that does so I might as well play along to, after all, its only educational. If everything goes well the first MOTO-BICI MEECHcrosser will be done early after the new year but your guess is as good as mine. The customer always comes first. I'm just one man building bike frames by hand one, and it seems like with every frame I build I come up with another idea. I just love making something for people that has a positive image and the fact that its healthy and rideable/raceable makes it just that much more enjoyable. I almost forgot to say thanks to Paul and Wayne from Ace's Wild Custom for the swanky paint job. Did a killer job. Thanks guys!

Ride On!

MOTO-BICI

Vaya con MOTO

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Mountain Home, Arkansas

(870)897-6703

MOTO-Swank

2011-11-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

Couple of shots of the first MOTO-BICI paint scheme. I got some more on the way. A few changes are in the works but we're close. Check back.

Off to the Paint Booth

2011-11-14T12:13:00.001-08:00

I got Phil's fork finished up this morning so this frame set is ready for some color. Everything went pretty smooth for me on this frame. I took some extra time on this frame because it has a couple of little details that are new for me. I have always used fastback-style seat stays on my frames and so this was the first frame that I have mounted the stays to the sides of the seat tube. Actually, the very first frame I built at the Yamaguchi Frame School has the stays mounted to the side, almost forgot about that one. Anyway, I don't care much for those heavy plugs that they normally use so I just put a little miter in the ends and brazed in some tubing to create the look. I saw someone else do this at some time or another and I thought it was a little more original and a chance to do something new. I got my buddy Mark, from Mainline Awards here in Mountain Home, to engrave the BB shell as well as the seat stay bridge. It was easily done and I thought it made for a nice touch. And a little handmade brake cable hanger for the rear brake was super-easy and didn't require too much time. This frame is made out of True Temper tubing, a mix of OX Platinum, Verus, and some RC2. Most everything on this frame is roughly 8/5/8 double-butted, the down tube may be 8/5/7 and I believe the chain stays are 8/6. Plenty strong with no excess weight. I think this bike is gonna be built up with some 38c touring tires so I'm guessing this thing is gonna roll like a Cadillac. Time to work on a paint scheme now. Check back for the finished product.

Progress? A little.

2011-11-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of before and after photos from the carbon fiber experiment. I wrapped the seat stay last weekend and was having issues with my vacuum bagging (leaking), so with time running short I resorted to a method that one of the representatives from West Epoxy Systems told me about. After laying down your carbon in the desired pattern take some strips of release film or peel ply that will let the resin soak through and wrap the layup really tight. Start loosely so that you don't pull the layers of carbon to the side of where you want them and then tighten the wraps as you go. After you have all the resin coated material covered with the peel ply then wrap that with some strips of breather ply really tightly, this will soak up the excess resin. Now take some of that stretchy plastic wrap that people use to wrap boxes to pallets, luggage, etc., (you can buy small hand rolls of this stuff at Wal-Mart or Lowes for like $5 and it goes a long way, it comes with a handle and has like a thousand feet of the stuff on a roll) and wrap everything up as tight as you can compress it. The rep told me that many DIYers prefer this method over the vacuum bagging because you can actually wrap it with more pressure. According to him, a maximum vacuum pull only has about 14 psi whereas by using your fingers to compress everything while you are wrapping it can achieve a greater psi. It got me out of a jam because on the first attempt my resin had a very short pot life and I couldn't get a good vacuum pull. Anyway, now I have some West Systems epoxy with a much longer pot life but I'm out of some of the vacuum bagging supplies needed so I just proceeded with the hand-wrapping method. I accidentally deleted the original pictures of the seat stay juncture before any sanding had taken place so the ones shown are sanded a little. I still need to clean it up a little more and I may put a final layer of twill carbon over this for aesthetic purposes. On these joints I used unidirectional tape and then wrapped it very tightly with some carbon tow in order to compress it into the juncture even more. The vacuum bagging technique looks much more sophistocated and with practice will probably make for a cleaner layup, but with some time the hand wrapping can be just as efficient, maybe more-so. I'll shoot some more pics after the head tube has cured. The first joint is not quite a thing of beauty however it is only the first attempt and I'm fairly certain that it is gonna be plenty strong, actually I'm pretty certain that I have overbuilt it, however the head tube and BB area are where the real action takes place so that will need to be solid. We'll see. Ever onward!

Jaime Flore's Custom Cyclocrosser

2011-11-13T05:13:00.000-08:00

A couple of pics of Jaime Flore's first custom built cyclocross bike. Jaime built his first frame a couple of weeks ago and let me build him a fork to finish it out. Since then he has completed the build and has a beautiful handmade bike thats gonna see miles and miles. Nice job Jaime! That first one is always the most special. Thanks for the photos. Ride on.

Passantino's 650B Tourer

2011-11-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pics of the 650B touring frame I am working on for one of repeat customers, Phil Passantino. Phil bought a cross frame from me the first year I started building frames and has since let me do some more building for him, most recently this 650B frame. I was shooting these at night so some weren't too hot but I'll be posting more later because I've yet to do the fork. Hopefully that will be done shortly and I'll shoot some better ones. Check back.

How is this for some sweet carbon fiber layup?

2011-11-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

My blogging has slowed a little here lately but thats not because nothing is going on, in fact, the problem is I'm working on different projects and not taking the time for photos and details. I was playing around with some carbon layup this weekend on my half-finished frame and finally got the top tube/seat stay juncture wrapped. It doesn't look too bad but it doesn't exactly look like these parts here. I would love to just cruise on the streets in this thing about 200 mph. Just leave the wings off and it would be like a bullet-car. Talk about population control. There's an idea for China. They are already at the forefront of composite engineering, and they need to slow down the population growth, its an up and up situation, no? Maybe its more of an up and down situation. The demand for firemen is gonna increase dramatically, it will help the economy, the Bullet-Car is a brilliant idea. I'm gonna go to work on it. Lets see, I need a bigger shop, more money, and a way to slow down time in order to get everything done. Man, I wish Santa would hurry up and get to the mall, I need to talk to him bad. To get everything I'm wanting Jesus will need to be there too. Last year there were two Jesus' sitting out in front of the mall. One of 'em needed a shower really bad. I told him walking on water was cool an all but that on occasion he should try getting down in it. Turns out, he can't swim, go figure. The other one still owes me twenty bucks. I'm only kidding. One day the real Jesus is gonna get sick of my jokes and plant me horizontally with a busted lip. Got photos from Phil Passantino's 650B tourer on the way, first MOTO-BICI paint job is coming soon, and I'll try to get some photos up from the carbon fiber mess I am making. See you soon. Oh yeah, here's a little poem I wrote in Creative Writing a long time ago:

Feed me speed

Crash and bleed

Jesus can heal

If you can believe

The professor didn't care for it but I thought it was brilliant. That guy was such a hater. Chao amigos.

MOTO-BICI Logo

2011-11-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit behind on my blogging here recently but I finally got the artwork finished for the MOTO-BICI frames that I plan on building starting after the first of the year. Paul has a frame in the paint booth that we're gonna experiment with a paint scheme on so hopefully by the end of the week we'll have something to look at. I hope to be playing with the frame design between orders and on the weekends but the plan is that MOTO-BICI is just gonna be off-road frames. We'll see, sometimes I change my mind like writing pens. But one thing is for certain and that is the torch will always be burning here at MEECH for anyone that wants a unique handmade machine. Thanks for checking my stuff out. Now go ride! Oh yeah, I forgot to say thanks to Stacey at Dijohn Designs here in Mountain Home for the excellent work on the logo. Thanks Stacey. Chao amigos.

Passantino's 650B Touring Frame

2011-10-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of shots from the beginning stages of Phil's 650B touring frame. Phil was one of my earliest customers when I started MEECH and its a pleasure to be working with him again on another build. Not much going on in these photos that is any different from any of my other builds, the usual water-tight miters and a few tacks to check the alignment. I have posted many photos like this in the past but i continue to do so for the customer. Many enjoy seeing their actual frame being built and the care and craftsmanship that goes into it. I enjoy doing it for them and since they can't be here during the actual build this is the next best thing. Nice tight miters and clean brazing surfaces are the foundation for any good frame. If your builder takes the time to do these things then you know that more than likely he's putting 100% into the rest of it. These seat stays are something new for me. Normally I use 'fastback-style' seat stays but Phil wanted to have them brazed onto the sides, looks a bit more vintage. The only other time I have done this was on my very first frame that I built at the Yamaguchi frame school and we used pre-made plugs on it, however I don't really like those that much so I just did a little extra fab work and these should work great. Its time to get back to work on it so I guess I'm outta here. It's colder and raining here this morning so I'm stalling a bit with an extra cup of coffee. Ok, lets do it. Later.

Rich's Toxic Orange Road Racer, Its Plum Crazy

2011-10-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

Just got Rich's road frame back from the booth. These were two colors that I never would've thought of putting together yet after seeing it I was pleasantly surprised. Toxic Orange and Plum Crazy are the chosen colors while Paul and Wayne from Ace's Wild Custom are the ones who laid them down. Nice job guys. They always make me look good. This is basically a size 62cm frame that has been tightened up a little with a sloping top tube. There appears to be a lot of steel here yet it tips the scales at only a little over 4 lbs. Not bad Virginia. That Pear to Penta down tube is a pretty beefy stick and the styling is excellent, "fancy music" as I like to say. I love the looks of a straight blade fork and with a 1 1/8" steel steerer this thing is corner like its on rails. The old stem and bar is just to hold the fork in place for photos, Rich has his own build kit to dial it in to his liking and I can't wait to see it all finished. After talking with Rich these past few weeks i have learned that he apparently has quite an arsenal of bicycles in his shop. Bishops, Cannondales, Howards, and Serottas are just a few of the bikes in his collection and I'm glad that he made room in the stable for a MEECH. Thanks Rich and enjoy the ride!

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Handmade in Mountain Home, Arkansas

Yamaha Moto-Bike

2011-10-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

All this talk about the Moto-Bike and I had to dig up a photo just for the sake of it, some of you may not know what I'm talking about. This kind of stuff is what got me started. I never had one of these but my friend Kevin Jones, who I was always getting into some sort of trouble with, rode one of these. He would do all sorts of stunts on it. In addition to jumping it he could stand up on the two tubes that run from up near the head tube to the back of the bike. He would stand straight up on them with his arms out to his side and just coast down hills kinda like Evel Knievel did on his motorcycle. It doesn't sound like much but it was carnage waiting to happen. However, the true carnage was when one day he decided to fire up his dad's Hodaka 250 motocrosser and ran it through the door and up into the house. That story is actually one of the first things that i put on my blog. Enjoy.http://meechcustombikes.blogspot.com/2009/06/creating-better-world-part-ii-kevin.html

Project Moto-Bici

2011-10-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Anybody remember the Yamaha Moto-Bike. I use to think those were so cool but I never had one. They probably weighed about 75 lbs but they were virtually indestructible. I've had an idea for an alternate brand of bikes for quite sometime. Actually it was more or less my original idea for MEECH however these past few years were needed to acquire some of the experience needed in order to make it happen. Anyway, if all goes as plan Moto-Bici by MEECH will be the brand and it will be off road bikes suited for racing, cyclocross at first and we'll see where it goes from there. I plan on incorporating carbon fiber into the builds and there is only gonna be one paint scheme available, racey. I have a frame in the paint booth now that is gonna have the original paint idea and we'll see how it turns out and adjust accordingly. As far as the frames go, the idea is very similar to the frame shown below however there is still a lot of experimenting needed to dial it in but they will definitely be made for MEECHcross, which is another of my ideas for a different style of racing that unless I win the lottery or find an invester/promoter may never happen. But I continue to dream about it and I do buy an occasional lottery ticket but winning 25 million dollars has proved much harder than I expected. MOTO-BICI frames are a reality though and hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll have a general idea of what they'll look like and they should be quite a bit lighter than the Moto-Bike. And for what its worth, MEECH custom bike frames built the way you want them, it your choice of a million different colors will always be available. Thanks for looking. chao.

Old Favorite

2011-10-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I like going through some of my old photos. Sometimes you stumble onto things that you forgot you did and this frame was one of them, however this bike is also one of my all-time favorites. I built this for a cross racer out in California. Whats shaking Erick? I love this bike for its simple, no-flash, shut-up and race style. When someone shows up at the ride on something like this you need to beware, you might be getting setup. Enjoy.

Jaime's Fork

2011-10-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Heres a fork I just finished up for Jaime. Jaime just finished up his first handmade frame a couple of weeks ago and needed some legs for it. He did an excellent job on it and I'm all sure his new all-steel ride is gonna be on rails. Enjoy the ride. I will try to get some of the photos of his build on here shortly. Thanks Jaime.

29er Review

2011-10-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

I was in my hometown of Jonesboro this past week doing some repair work on my old house as it seems to be falling apart faster than I can nail it back together. Anyway, whenever I'm in Jonesboogie I try to always get in a ride or two with Yancey and/or any of my other old riding buddies still living there. This week Yancey let me test ride his new mountain bike that we just completed a couple of weeks ago and I have to say that when that crow is done baking serve me up a big plate of it because everything I have ever said and thought about 29er mountain bikes (without actually riding one) was all wrong. I know this is old news to people who have been riding 29ers for the past 10 years or however long they have been out but this thing rolls and rolls fast. I hadn't been on a mountain bike for at least 3 years, maybe longer, because they just seemed like I was dragging bricks behind me when I was on one and I just wasn't enjoying it, however this bike rode without any effort and it made things fun again. This ride is fully rigid and I didn't even notice. It was like getting back to where it all started. The "no tube" wheels were also a first ride for me and they spin up really quick cause they're so freakin' light. Little ditches that normally swallow up your whole bike were hardly noticeable on this thing, you were rolling out of it while you were still waiting for that big dip. The SRAM Double X components are pretty bad-arse. The shifters are spot on and the disc brakes are sweeter than the icing on a Honey Bun, (I had one for breakfast that morning). I normally like my brake levers really tight so that the brake engages with just a little pull and these needed to be bled before they would be that tight however I started liking them alot after a little riding because I would just hang a finger over and have it pulled right up to the point of engaging and just ride like that until I needed it and then just give it a little hug and before you knew it you were sliding the rear end around the corner. When I opened up the box that contained that huge SRAM cassette I said to myself, "This thing is gonna weigh a ton." Wrong! This may be the lightest cassette I have ever held in my hand, its a trip. Yancey didn't have much tire pressure in the tires at the time and my body was fried already from working on my roof all day but for about 30 minutes I forgot all about my aches and pains and I got a nice little dose of 29er and I can't wait to try it again. Problem now is I want one. Viva el 29er!

What Does This Look Like?

2011-09-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

Two old guys fighting over who won the Preparation H prime.

First 29er Test

2011-09-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here is Yancey on the maiden voyage of the one and only MEECH 29er. Damn Pastrana, I said take it out for an easy "break-in" ride, not a "break-it" ride. It reminds me of what my dad use to say to me when I was a kid, "Do you have to try and tear up everything?" That whole blog about jumping garbage cans was supposed to be a joke. He doesn't even have any suspension. I guess he figures the garbage can will soak it all up. Next week the garbage man is gonna find a garbage can in the garbage can. I think that is some sort of ordinance violation, you're not supposed to throw away garbage cans in the garbage, they have to be disposed of properly. I'm all sure that trying to climb that tree is probably most definitely gonna void the warranty of that fork. I don't know what the White Brothers are gonna say about this, however, if the fork stands up to all this abuse maybe we can get some sort of sponsorship or something, we're gonna need it. Those are brand new Stan's No Tube Race Gold wheels, they only weigh like 9 ounces, they're gonna look like Pringles tomorrow. Stan is gonna be pissed. Enjoy the ride. Why does this frame look so blue in the pics when it is clearly supposed to be purple?

Break Out The Paint

2011-09-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here is Rich's road frameset ready for the paint booth. This is the largest frame that I have built since I started building frames however we built it in a way that doesn't make it look overly large. The frame only weighs a mere 4.1 pounds and this is a size 62 cm frame with a whole lotta head tube and a beefy down tube. I'll let Rich give me the low-down on the ride and if he thinks we can go lighter then on the next one we'll shave some more off. Hopefully here in a couple of weeks we'll have some pics with color. Check back.

Jess Parker, Cross Racer Extraordinare

2011-09-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of one of my old riding buddies from Jonesboro. This is Jess Parker and he was one of my first paying customers as well as a really good test pilot. He's put some hard miles on his MEECH and I'm pretty sure its been on a couple of podiums. I just want to say thanks to Jess and everyone else out there who ride and race my frames. I truly enjoy building bike frames and you guys are making the dream come true. Keep on Rockin n Rollin! Cross season is here. PAIN PARTY!!! Love Ya. Chao.

I Want One

2011-09-20T06:09:00.000-07:00

This is Ryan Trebon's cross racing machine. His legs must be longer than mine. This saddle to bar height ratio is crazy, I thought mine was bad. The only thing that would make this ride any sweeter was if it said MEECH on the down tube. I love it.

A Little Fillet Work

2011-09-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

I have been running behind on getting my posts up lately but here are a couple of shots of the fillet-brazing on Rich's road frame. Striving to make them better and better on each and every frame. The fork is finished so just a little more clean-up work and I'll leave it up to Paul and company to put the color on. Check back for the finished product. Thanks.

Rich's Road Racer

2011-09-08T07:47:00.000-07:00

A quick tacking of the tubes and Rich's frame is all ready for the final brazing after I install the brake bridge and check the alignment. This is a pretty big frame, the largest one I've built to date. Rich is roughly 6'6" but he knows the riding style and frame measurements that work for him so it made it fairly easy for me drawing it up. The goal was to build a "big boyz" bike yet keep it tight and not have that unproportional look that a lot of big frames have. Today, all the carbon frames have those super-fat mega-tubes that makes the largest frames look pretty compact but it isn't quite so easy with steel tubing when you are trying to keep the weight down as well. This frame here is roughly a 62 cm frame with a little longer head tube (238 mm) to accommodate his preferred riding position. The head tube is 1 1/8" and I used one of my favorite down tubes, the Pear to Penta, while the top tube is an OX Platinum 31.8 mm. We put about a 5 degree slope on the tt and it tightened the whole thing up quite a bit. Should be plenty strong for those outta the saddle digs when you go on the attack. We also decided on some s-bend chain and seat stays because everyone loves a curvy rear end and it gives Rich a little extra space for running larger tires. In the winter time I love training on 28-30c tires. We are gonna put a steel fork on this frame as well so I'm thinking this bike is just gonna roll like a Cadillac. I am really curious to see what kind of paint scheme Rich chooses for this. We'll just have to wait and see. Stay tuned. Chao.

Ready To Jump Some Garbage Cans

2011-09-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Finally got the 29er back from paint. It was actually done over 2 weeks ago, and while it was painted exactly like I asked, my bright idea to leave the name off the down tube just left it looking a little plain. Paul agreed with me so we took a little longer with it but now its right. I went way back for the paint scheme on this frame. Purple and white was the color of my first new bike, a Western Flyer with a big banana seat and an Evel Knievel sticker running down the side of it. It was the bike that I did my first ramp jump on. Slammed straight into my mom's '73 Monte Carlo. Did I get a spanking? You know it, just one of the many, didn't hurt though, it just taught me to back the ramp up and then i could fly that much farther. Man, what a smart kid I was. This frame is fully rigid as of now. We're gonna test it out with the White Brothers Rock Solid rigid fork because its just so much lighter. The frame came out a tad over 4 lbs. and with the carbon fork its right at 6 lbs., but as far as I can tell this frame rivals all the other 29er steel frames and is just roughly a pound heavier than the carbon and aluminum frames out there, but the real concern is the ride quality and that test will be coming soon enough. Yancey and I are gonna bolt on a slew of Sram Double-X components along with a set of Stan's No Tube Gold Pro wheels and take it out to the Broken Bricks where, "... you gotta jump over water but you land in oil, climb the ladder of a broken crane yeah, yeah, yeah." Can you name that song? If so, you'll win a brand new pair of slightly used taco'ed wheels with jenuwhine Specialized hubs, or I will knock a couple hundred bucks off a set of new wheels of your choice. The steering on this purple people-eater is carbonified with some Easton bars and an FSA stem, so light that they were floating around the shop until I bolted them down. Those bars may look wide but you'll need it all when you're hanging on during that Superman-Air over fifteen garbage cans. Sshhhh, don't tell'm but I actually put seventeen. Virginia, did he paint that seat lug purple? Brilliant!

Pic From EuroBike

2011-09-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

I would wear this helmet, at least in the winter months.

New Build

2011-08-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

Beginning stages of a road frame for Rich up in New York. Starting out with the usual water-tight miters. You can see all the scuff marks around the edges of the miters, this gives the brass some sweet hand-holds for never letting go. Reminds me, the other day our cat Louie was in a bit of a predicament. He was walking on a skinny branch up in a tree and he slipped. So he's just hanging on with his front feet wrapped around the branch and his hind legs are trying to find some solid ground, he looked like he was 4 feet tall. Since he was only about 6 feet off the ground I just let him figure it out for himself. The branch was bouncing up and down and ol' Lou was looking more like a monkey than a cat, he just wouldn't let go. Anne and I were on the front porch drinking coffee, mine was coming out of my nose. After hanging there until he couldn't take the burn anymore he just pulled himself up on the branch and then shimmied down the tree like it was all part of a plan. I don't give Louie enough credit because he's the baby of the family but for the most part he has his act together. He's an athlete and a hunter and gets mostly C+'s on his report card, but he doesn't care about his grades, he's just living for the moment. I didn't get the seat stays done but they're next in line. I'm using one of my favorite down tubes on this frame, the Pear to Penta from Nova Cycles. Its more or less an 8/5/8 bi-oval design with a little added flare, its super-stout and looks fast too. My grandmother keeps one by the front door in case a burglar breaks in. Her's is tri-oval now but there's one less crackhead in the neighborhood. Let 'em have it Granny.

Pro Tour Challenge

2011-08-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo from the Pro Tour Challenge thats going on in Colorado this week. If I'm not mistaken this is the dirt climb that leads up to the Cottonwood Pass. I did this climb a couple of years ago when I did the BTC with a buddy and this is a great climb. As you can see the road is super-smooth and even though you are climbing it feels like its begging you to go faster so you can get to the end but then the end never seems to come, then comes the eye-watering descent and your just hanging on. I have only done a handful of passes but this is my second most memorable behind Pico de Veleta. I have a few miles on that one. I think this is the stage that Big George won. Go Hincapie. Oh yeah, I took this photo from the Velonews website, as well as many others over the course of time, so I should say thanks to them, hopefully they don't mind. How could a racer live without Velonews? Its actually part of my breakfast every morning.

This Is Gonna Suck!

2011-08-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

I waited and waited, finally I got a vacuum pump. The Ritchie Engineering Yellow Jacket SuperEvac. Its a 1/2 hp 4 cfm 'genuwine awthenic' sucking machine. I was playing around with it today doing some practice joints on pvc pipe cause I'm not quite ready to make an assault on the bike frame yet. I want it to look as good as possible, after all I'm gonna be riding this thing around with my name on it. Howard Stern's mother wrote his name on his underwear when he went away to college. Where did that come from? His book. Just a little trivia for you. Today I learned that playing around with carbon fiber and epoxy resin on 95 degree days when the humidity is about 99% isn't the best conditions. Anyway, its cleaned up until the next attempt and I'm sure they'll be plenty more messes in the future. The good news is that the SuperEvac pulled about 28 hg on my first vacuum bagging attempt. Thats vacuum pump lingo. A perfect vacuum is 30 hg however 29 is about the max that you could hope for so it has more than enough sucking power. The first part that I made actually came out looking much better than I expected when I put it in. The compression kinda evened things out, but I still need to figure out an actual plan for laying the carbon patches down so its not just a big, uneven mess. Practice makes perfect. I think Houdini said that? I also have to figure out how to get more pot life out of my resin, or wait for cooler weather. If you've followed my first carbon build you know it will probably be the latter. The first one is the hardest, hopefully.

Vuelta a Espana

2011-08-20T06:46:00.000-07:00

Today my favorite race, la Vuelta a Espana, starts. I spent around 7 months in Granada, Spain a few years back. Learning some of the culture and the language was a great experience, and oh yeah, living 20 minutes from the base of Pico de Veleta made for plenty of interesting riding, or suffering was more like it. If you left from the center of town you could ride uphill for more than 2 hrs., and that was if you were really fast. Anyway, when you finally did get up to the top it was a great view and then you got to descend for about a half an hour passing as many cars as you could. This is the Moviestar team for this year's addition of la Vuelta. That naked, hairy guy was a last second replacement for an injured rider. Turns out he is their GC man, so be looking for him attacking out of the peloton on some of the harder climbs. He doesn't appear to be much of a time trialist. Adios amigos.

Covington BBQ and Cyclocross Race-Check It Out

2011-08-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.covingtontn.com/bbq.htm

2011-08-17T05:33:00.001-07:00

MEECH'Cross de Acero y Carbon

2011-08-16T05:52:00.001-07:00

With 'cross season inching closer I have been looking at some past builds. This one was the first time I experimented with any carbon and this frame turned out very nice. Brad said it rolled very smooth, solid and compliant. I plan on building an all carbon cross frame just as soon as I finish this carbon road frame. I know, I know, I've been talking about it for ever. I just ordered all the vacuum bagging supplies that I will need and I should have a vacuum pump shortly. Steel frames are what pays the bills right now, so that is what I spend the majority of my time on but I really enjoyed building this frame and would be happy to do more. Looks like a race machine. The 29er should be painted today or tomorrow and I'll be posting some pics asap but in the meantime I had to put up some "blast from the past" stuff just because I was tired of looking at Clinger's face. We'll probably see less and less of it. Good luck to him.

I Never Would've Guessed

2011-08-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

Apparently David Clinger got busted again for doping violations which garnered him a lifetime ban from competition. Why would I comment on this? I'm really not sure. I don't know him, never met him, he's probably an alright guy. The tattoo on the face is a little weird but it is nicely layed out, I like it. You know if you are out training with this cat that nobody is ever gonna harass you. He's got a really nice nose, the tat compliments it and I even like the cobra on the neck. The ones that give me the creeps are when people, especially women, get a black widow tattooed on their neck. It would just be hard for me to fall asleep with someone like that laying next to you. Sorry honey, my parents aren't ready for you yet. If Clinger would just shave his neck he could probably get a job as a front man of some hardcore band. He looks a little like Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver. I think he makes the perfect posterboy for cycling dopers. Imagine if on your second doping offense you could either be banned for life, or, you could get your face tattooed and start racing the next weekend, but you only had 24 hrs. to make the decision. What would the peloton look like then? Probably similar to the Jim Rose Circus. Ever see that? Circus is the only word capable of describing it. Lets try to think of some names for Clinger's band. Too bad Circle Jerks is already taken. Shave your neck man.

Video: Mayor drives over Merc in tank to clear bike lanes - Europe, World News - Independent.ie

2011-08-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Video: Mayor drives over Merc in tank to clear bike lanes - Europe, World News - Independent.ie Don't trespass the bike lanes in Lithuania. I've been saying cyclists are going to rule the world before long. Now we have tanks. That tank is actually being propelled by about 8 cyclist inside.

Color of the Day

2011-08-12T05:35:00.000-07:00

Couple of cross bikes from the recent past. These are both beautiful bikes and are some of the most custom work I have done. They both contain S3 tubing on the main triangle and they both have custom handmade seat stays. The paint work that Paul and Wayne from Ace's Wild did was excellent. I think I want an orange bike. Orange and Purple, oooohh yeah, with some red racing stripes. Consider it done.

Juro palavra dora

2011-08-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Check this guy out dancing all over his bike. Paul from Ace's Wild stumbled onto this and forwarded it to me. He's definitely got his own thing going on and when you add the music I think this guy is destined to be famous. It would be cool to get this guy over here for some sort of X-Games demo. He'd probably go home with a pocket full of loot, maybe a Red Bull sponsorship. Shake your money maker! I'd love to have this guy dancing all over a MEECH.

Cross Build

2011-08-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pics of a cross frame build I am working on right now. Actually the frame is already finished, I just forgot to post pics of the build like I had planned. I had this frame cut, fit, and tacked before I remembered to shoot photos, oh well. Anyway, like all my frames I always start out with some super-tight miters on the foundation and continue this process all the way around the frame. As a frame builder, once you make your first water-tight miter you can't bring yourself to tack anything less together, your conscious won't permit it. After close to 4 years of building frames I actually work slower now than I did in the first year however I am much more efficient in the process. Being a "one-man show" here at MEECH, I shoot to build roughly 25-30 frames a year and if more get done then so be it but I don't rush any of them. I'm not trying to break any records I just want each frame that I build to be the best that it can be and so far everything has worked out. However, being a solo builder doesn't mean I don't get help from others, I owe a lot thanks to everyone that makes it possible. Family, friends, riders/racers, machinists, painters, suppliers all make it come together, so thanks. Fly with MEECH!

Slap It With Color

2011-08-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

The 29er is off to the booth. I thought I knew how I was gonna paint it but I am still throwing ideas around. Check back and we'll see how it turns out.

Vanstone's Red Rocker

2011-07-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Here of some shots of RV's road frameset. His frame arrived promptly yesterday and as soon as Ryan had opened it up and gave me the 'ok' I was ready to show this one off. This frame is constructed out of True Temper OX Platinum like most of my frames and the fork is Easton's top of the line. I have already talked about the stem made from Paragon Machine Works components and you've seen the raw photos but the painted version is even better. Paul from Ace's Wild Custom laid down the paint in classic style. Its hard for me to believe, but out of all the frames I have built I had yet to paint a frame red. I painted a couple that were shades of red like a burgundy and a couple had red logos but nothing had been painted Ferrari red. I had been wanting to for quite a while and finally I got to do it. I love it and I can see more red in the future. Ryan hails from the Austin area, which has an unbelievable custom bicycle population, so I am very happy to have one of my frames rolling in their streets and I hope to send more there. Thanks Ryan.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Handmade in Mountain Home, Arkansas

meech151@hotmail.com

Clean Slate

2011-07-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness the Tour de France is over. Man, I didn't feel like I was getting anything done for the whole month of July. It was an excellent race this year, and I think most people were happy for Cadel Evans but I'm ready to start a new project and right here on the table it is. I did manage to get a couple things done. I finished up my first 29er and I should have some pics of that shortly, and I just shipped off RV's road frame which turned out excellent but I promised not to post any pics until after he has seen it so hopefully in a couple of days I can post those. The carbon frame is just sitting over there in the corner waiting to be finished and things keep coming up that take precedence. When I said I hoped to be riding it in the spring, I unintentionally meant spring of 2012. The year 2012 just sounds like something futuristic, like some movie preview you saw when you were a kid in 1975. Does anyone know how to slow things down a bit? If you do please let me know. Anyway, this fresh batch of tubing is going on a, yep, you guessed it, a psyclocross frame. The "Pain Party" is looming in the background and I plan on having someone on the starting line on this frame. I already know how its gonna be painted. Allrighty then, let the transformation begin. I just realized that there are no fork blades in this photo. Pfff, wheres my phone?

Take that Clown!

2011-07-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

While Alberto might not have won the tour at least he got one good punch in. This clown deserved it. Now he needs to turn around and bruise Captain Moron on the other side. Viva el Pistolero!

29er Build

2011-07-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Whole Lotta Rosie - GN'R Sydney 2010

2011-07-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

Monday July 11-Some Days Are Just Fluxed Up

2011-07-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

It all started with this sexy rigid White Brothers fork thats been laying around my house for months now. I started to just sell it but I knew it would look great on a custom frame. What kinda frame though? Well, obviously its gonna have to be a mountain bike and with all that space between those long carbon legs I guess it needs to be a 29er. But I don't even like mountain bikes that much any more, especially 29ers. I have never owned one or even ridden one for that matter, they have never interested me in the least because I'm a roadie and a backseat driver cyclocross racer. Well if you've never tried a 29er Dimitri how would you know if you like it or not? Thats what they told me about things like broccoli and liver and i hate both of those. So anyway I have this fork and I had some beautiful steel Paragon dropouts w/disc tabs so I drew it up according to a popular geometry because I have no idea how this thing is supposed to ride, I've just always heard that they plow over everything that gets in their way, maybe thats why I don't like'em. I didn't even have a mountain bike wheel for mock-up purposes but luckily 29er tires fit nice and snug on a 700c wheel, the hub spacing is off by a shade but not enough to hinder things. So I went and bought my first ever 29er tire, didn't care what kind, just the cheapest one they had. When I unrolled this thing it was like a flemsy motocross tire, I think I used to run this same exact tire on the front of my RM 125. So I mounted it, looked at it, measured it, and thought,"Fitting this between those chain stays is gonna be a pain in the arse.", and I hadn't a clue about what kind of seat stay I was gonna use. The goal was to use stuff that I already had lying around and not go buy any special stays. So I tacked the chain stays in place and there is sufficient space for your average mountain bike tire but there isn't just gobs of clearance and I really don't care because I prefer bikes that are a bit tighter and as far as maximum mud clearance goes, well, I'm not really worried about what pigs have to say about my frame. I think clearance is overrated just like stiffness, to a certain degree they both are beneficial but I think there is alot of overkill. I don't like mudd or anything else that slows me down. I like riding on dry, fast, hardpack terrain, like Carlsbad MX Raceway used to be, and if you crash enjoy the rash. I have designed a handful of different seatstays but I wanted to keep this one simple and funcional, nothing fancy but custom, and after various ideas I came across these wishbone stays that I have had forever and I think they are gonna fit the bill perfectly. I shaved off the miters they came with, fluxed 'em up, and the vise was my jig. It all came together just too easy, worries for nothing. I'm liking this 29er thing better already. Today I'm gonna tack it all up and throw that fat mambo jambo tire in it to see how it all looks. When this frame is finished I think I'm gonna paint it pink and name it Fat Lilly. Big-Legged Emma and Whole Lotta Rosie have already been taken. Ever heard Axl Rose cover Whole Lotta Rosie? I'll try to find a version of it for you. Check out that fresh batch of flux that just showed up. It was over 100 degrees out in the shop yesterday. When I opened that flux up all I could think about was a big, icey Slushy, however, this flux doesn't taste as good as it looks. Catch ya later.

TOUR DE FRANCE 2011 stage 9 - car crashes into Juan Antonio Flecha and J...

2011-07-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty knarly takeout and these guys usually just get back on their bike and go about their business. They're better sports than I am. I would kick the driver of that car out of France forever.

RV's Stem

2011-07-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of quick pics of Ryan's stem before everything goes to paint. I have made a handful of stems in the past but they were all the old style where you had to remove everything off your bars before you could remove your bars, some people actually want that style of stem for a retro build however on this stem we wanted to be able to use some of the more modern components and we needed a removable faceplate. Luckily Paragon Machine Works has it all covered. I have said it before, Paragon makes top-shelf components and they make a builder's job much easier. This stem is all steel except for the aluminum faceplate and I'm guessing this thing will still be around long after I'm gone. Check out that custom engraving. I just couldn't let that big blank canvas go untouched. Hopefully this thing will be all painted in a couple of weeks but none of you are gonna see it until after Ryan has opened the box and has seen it all for himself. Its part of the surprise and when the frame is built especially for you, well, you get to make things happen your way. Stay tuned. Chao.

Hey, Thats no MEECH

2011-07-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

Over the 4th of July I was at my mother's house going through some old photos when I came across this one of my dad years ago. I never ever saw my dad on a bicycle so I was pretty surprised to come across this. He was old school, you know, football with leather helmets, boxing, etc. In either l945 or l947 he was a Golden Gloves boxing champion and he went on to train fighters after that. He tried to teach me how to box when I was little but after my big sister knocked me over the coffee table he told me I should hang up my gloves and focus more on getting away from danger so I guess thats how I got into bicycles. He had his sports and I had mine but we were equally passionate about what we chose. One afternoon he tried to walk on my turf and heres what happened. I was outside with my skateboard on the hill in front of our house when my dad came home for lunch. After lunch he came outside to get in his car when he saw me walking up the hill. Being the good dad that he was he decided to spend a quick moment with his son so he came walking out in the street and said, "Here, give me that skating-board, I used to be the champion on these things." He's wearing dress pants, a white dress shirt, and some Wing Tip shoes. So he practically takes the skateboard away from me and before I know it he's riding down the hill. About half way down this hill it had a sharp little dip in it that doubled your speed and it was about this time that he developed that famous speed wobble that all skaters are familiar with. So he bails off at about 20 mph and I guess Wing Tip shoes aren't much for running because the rest was total carnage. Wiped out hard! Cartwheels, flips, no hander lander, he bought it all. He comes walking back up the hill with both knees ripped out of his pants, scuffed up shoes, and the little bit of that white shirt that was still hanging on him was covered in blood. When he gets to where I'm standing he just hands me the skateboard without saying a word and went back inside and let my mom patch him up. I doubt it if he was ever really a skateboard champion but he did some things that day that I hadn't seen yet. In his younger days he looked like a cross between Dinero and Fonzie. He was pretty cool but I'm afraid that he would probably get dropped riding that cruiser with the seat so low, and from the looks of that basket on the front I'm guessing he crashed that bicycle at least a couple of times. Probably why I never saw him on one. Fly with MEECH!

Carbon Fillets

2011-07-06T17:20:00.000-07:00

Here are a few "before and after" pics of the recent work I have done on the carbon frame. Laying fillets down with brass and a torch is a little more fun than with epoxy and shredded carbon tow, but with some rubber gloves and a popsicle stick you can build what seems to be a pretty solid bond. And whether your fillet is melted brass or epoxy/carbon tow they both have to be cleaned up and smoothed out and one is no easier than the other. I expected the fillets would add more weight than what they actually did. The frame was 2.22 lbs. before the fillets and after it had only increased to 2.28 lbs. I am hoping that the carbon patches don't add too much either and maybe I can keep this thing down around 2.5 lbs. I added the water bottle bosses this morning. I carefully drilled some pilot holes and then increased the size slowly with a Dremel tool. I just epoxied in some steel bosses that I had because I don't have the little pop-rivot gun that I have seen others use. I believe the epoxy will be strong enough however only hard miles with full water bottles will give me the truth. H2O bosses aren't weighing heavy on my mind right now, I am more concerned with being able to dance on the pedals up steep hills and slamming on the brakes at 50 mph without hearing cracking noises, and should one of my frames get hit by a car I hope it smashes the car all up, kinda like the time our Chesapeake retriever was fetching the football and got hit by a Mazda RX-7. He dented the car all up and still brought the football back. Should anyone ever smash up their MEECH frame just give me a shout and we'll work some sort of crash replacement out. Other than a couple of cable guides and a derailleur boss I am just about to the vacuum bagging part of things, and seriously, how hard could that be, just stick the frame in a big garbage bag, plug it in, and flip a switch right? I still don't have my vacuum pump yet but it won't be long. I already have it picked out. Stay tuned.

Carbon Build

2011-07-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Got the carbon frame all tacked together this weekend and it looks like a bike frame however I have only done the easy part. Laying down the carbon patches and the vacuum bagging is gonna be where all the strength comes from however I have to build up some fillets around all the joints first and this will provide some extra strength as well as give me a smoother foundation for the carbon layup. I have to remind myself that on this first carbon frame I am just shooting to get a good, solid, rideable frameset but I also am hoping that it doesn't look like a pile of rags while I'm riding it. I shouldn't even pay attention to the weight however I can't help it, building a lighter frame is the main reason I am experimenting with carbon. Right now its 2.22 lbs in a size 58cm without the tubes trimmed. I am hoping that the finished frame will be sub 3 lbs but we'll see. The next weigh-in will be after I have all the fillets laid down. I'm fixin' to start on that right now. Stay tuned. How bout that Tour? I don't have a clue who's gonna win but I bet we're gonna see Alberto Contador climb like a maniac before too long. Enjoy.

Carbon Frame Cut & Fit

2011-06-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

While I am waiting on a few stem building components to arrive I spent a couple of hours cutting and fitting the tubes for my first carbon frame and other than sanding some of the rough edges off its pretty much ready to bond. The main tubes I am using are from Enve Composites while the rear end is a Dedaccia Firefox from Nova I believe. I bought it quite a while back and have forgotten which one it is. While everything is pretty much the same process as building a steel frame so far I have been as easy on the tubes as possible. After building quite a few steel frames I am pretty comfortable handling that material, being able to tell what you can and can't do with it. With the carbon tubes I feel like I am playing with crystal. So far I have done all my cutting with my tube notcher and hole saws but you have to be extra careful. You can see that I put masking tape around the ends to prevent it from fraying but you can also see the repair I made on the down tube up next to the head tube. It was the first cut and I tried to push the hole saw all the way through and it frayed a couple strands of carbon so I took some epoxy and touched it up and will sand it down later. It will be covered up by carbon patches so everything should be ok but after this initial mistake I started stopping the hole saw just short of a complete cut and then I took a Dremel with a little cutting wheel to finish it up and this proved to work better for me. To fine tune my miters I basically just used these sanding drums in my drill and they did a pretty good job. It is always a good idea to wrap some tape around the ends when cutting or sanding because you can see where I let the sanding drum slide over on the side of the seat stay. It just barely scratched it but it happens really fast. I am sure there are better ways of mitering carbon but these methods got the job done you just don't want to get in a hurry. I only had one down tube so I didn't need to butcher it. The dust that comes from sanding these tubes is my least favorite part so far. The stuff just feels toxic if you breath it and when it gets on your skin it can itch pretty bad, doesn't seem to wash off either so long pants, long-sleeves, and a breathing mask aren't bad ideas. In time I plan on dialing in the process a little better but the mistakes are a golden part of the process of anything you choose to do. I have to remind myself of this on a regular basis. Anyway, I am not far away from breaking out the Elmer's and gluing this bad boy together. Just kidding, I got some super aerospace epoxy somewhere in my junk draw that I have been saving for just the right moment, I think this is it. Time for all those intense gluing exercises from the first grade to start paying some dividends. Just when you thought you would never need to know this stuff for the real world. I have a few tubes leftover to start on the second frame. I already know what kind of frame its going to be and who's gonna be riding it, factory MEECH cyclocrosser Larry Yancey. Yep, I'm gonna build this first road frame for me and give it a little test and if all seems solid then the next frame will be a cross frame for Larry to put to the real test. I just like to pussy-foot around a little on my bike but if you really want to try and tear something up you send it to Yancey. Stay tuned. Chao amigos.

Scott's Custom Touring Bike

2011-06-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

Just finished up Scott's touring bike so I thought I would post some photos of it while everything is still nice and clean. Scott wanted something built that was rugged yet comfortable for those long hauls and I think we have it dialed in, of course every frame I build is supposed to be rugged and comfy so this one isn't any different from other MEECH frames except this bike is built exclusively for Scott. I am not the most knowledgeable about touring cycling since my background was mainly racing however with a little (actually alot) of research and some phone calls to various friends and bike shops we were able to put together a recipe for success. Paul and Wayne from Ace's Wild coated this ride in a British Racing Green off a BMW color chart and added a few yellow highlights for contrast. Its a really dark green with metallic flakes so sometimes it looks black but when the sun hits it lights up. Scott is into "Classy not Flashy" so we left the mega-MEECH logo off and went with something a little more subtle on the chain stays. As long as the custom Pegasus head badge from Revolution Cycle Jewelry is on the front you know its a MEECH. Scott is a jeweler here in Mountain Home so Paul thought a couple of diamonds might be a nice touch on the top tube and the fork blades and I love it. We built it up with a Shimano mix of everything from 105 to Dura-Ace bar-end shifters. Its getting harder and harder to find good brake levers without the shifting built in but these Cane Creek levers fit the bill and look great as well. I have never used Paul's Components before even though they have been a hot item for a long time so I used this bike as an opportunity to check 'em out. Now I understand why so many custom builders use them. They are beautiful works of art, easy to install and set up, and just about as good as it gets. I'm gonna put some on my next cross bike when I build it up. Who knows when that'll happen. Just in order to get half the stuff done that I want to do before I die I'll need to live as long as Moses did, and I'll probably have to hire Jesus to help me. How much does Jesus get an hour these days? Believe it or not I have a frozen pizza in my fridge and if you look at it real hard for hours you can see Jesus in it. He's on the side of a dirt road changing a flat tire on his bike and at the top it says, "Specialized tires suck!" Ride Conti. You'll probably see it listed on Ebay in a few days. Have fun with it. Thanks to everyone who lent a hand on this thing. Chao.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Handmade in

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Dog Attack Shark

2011-06-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

Now this is a retriever.

Carbone-ification

2011-06-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

I am way behind on my first carbon frame project. If things had gone as planned I would've already ridden it and given you the lowdown, but I have been busy building frames for customers and various other projects that take precedence over my own personal desires. The riders/racers of MEECH Bicycles are my number 1 priority right after my family so I have to take care of you guys first, but when I get up to par on those things then its time to play a little. I'm not quite there but I'm getting closer. I just received a batch of "carbonified tubes" from Enve Composites and hopefully a rideable bicycle frame will come out of this pile. I'll post the progress as I make progress, if I make progress, or at the least I'll post the mess I make. I'm gonna take my time because these things are just too nice to be wasting. I've included a mug shot of Pinky the super-hound. I talked Anne into giving him a mohawk the other day, now he looks like the butt-head that he can be. When Anne and I first started dating I didn't care much for ol' Pink, and he tried to kill me on several occasions, but over the years we've become a solid team. Jeez, you can't believe how freakin' loud his voice is. The greatest thing about little dogs is that the messes they make are much smaller. Ever clean up a pile of puke from a dog that weighs 100+ lbs.? It takes almost a whole roll of paper towels, sometimes it takes 2 rolls if their vomit makes you vomit while you're cleaning it up. I'm drifting now into gross territory. Lets get back to the carbon. There, much better. I was getting nauseous.

Steve's Custom Build

2011-06-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick photo of Steve's custom road bike that he just got finished up. He is the only one so far to have this style logo on his frame. It was inspired by the old Yamaha YZ logo from the early 80's. Motocross has always been in my blood since I was a kid. He said, "It's comfortable, fast, and super-stable." Thats what I like to hear. It looks ready to race to me. Thanks Steve. Enjoy the ride.

Fly with MEECH

Good News!

2011-06-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette published a story about me and my frame building this morning. It was a pretty in depth article about how I got started and what goes into building a custom frame. It was some good publicity for me and the people that ride my frames. Its nice to get recognized. There are a lot of lonely days in the shop but days like this make it all worthwhile. Check out that butt-shot. I'm definitely not a Kardashian.

RV's Build

2011-06-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

RV's frame is cut and fitted for the most part. Still gonna trim the seat tube and head tube a bit. Gotta take a couple days off and go to my other life which is remodeling a small rental building but when I get back the engraved BB shell as well as all the small parts should have arrived and be ready to go, then we'll be ready to play with fire and I have been practicing that since I was 4 yrs. old. Ever played with a railroad flare? Unfortunately I have. We accidentally burned the neighborhood baseball field up. My dad wasn't happy about that in the least. I couldn't help but to laugh as I was getting my spankin though because his eyebrows were burned off. My butt hurts just thinking about it. Be back soon.

Flyin Ryan V's Road Frame

2011-06-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the beginning of a new road frame for RV out of Austin. My first and only framebuilder's show was the Texas Handmade Show in Austin. They definitely got a lot of custom bicycles rolling around that town and I am glad to be getting one of my frames amongst them. Just got done cutting and mitering a couple of tubes and I always like to do a little check to make sure things are in line. I think I have the camera tilted a bit, luckily the level never lies. We have established that I am not a photographer. I actually have the rest of the tubes mitered but am waiting for RV's bottom bracket shell to be engraved. "Chava" is in reference to Jose Maria Jimenez, my favorite rider of all time. I put a lot of care into each miter. I spend about as much time on each miter as I do when I make a cheesecake. This means that I am either really slow at filing miters or I'm extremely fast in making cheesecakes, either way a lot of love goes into the both of them. I have read of builders doing their miters in less than a minute and thats great if your in a miter race but I don't like to rush. When this frame is done, the pave should melt away under you just like a bite of my cheesecake when it touches your tongue. I'll be back with more photos later. Miter race. I wonder what the payout is on one of those? Who cares?

Graduation Day

2011-05-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

I was going through some old pictures the other day and came across these from the Yamaguchi frame school. This was the final day of frame building. It was over 3 years ago and I never would have thought that I would still be building frames, however, building frames was the original idea behind going so I guess things are rolling along as planned. Judd and Will were the other two students with me. Check out those 50 caliber shell casings brazed into Will's seat stays. While Koichi & Will were hollowing out the shells for brazing Judd was out back trying to ignite the caps with a hammer. Way louder than what anyone was expecting, just ask Rosco, he was under the table for a couple hours after that. Dangerously custom you might say. Working with Koichi was a very memorable experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat, he's about as cool as they get. If you ever get the chance to go it will definitely be worth your while. Enjoy!

Mark's Cannibal

2011-05-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here is Mark's Cannibal CX build almost completed. This bike is very tastefully done and Mark said the ride is responsive yet compliant so you can't ask for more than that. There are a couple of personal accents that Mark had his painter add to make sure this custom ride was to his exact desired vision and they did a very nice job to make this bike the complete package that it is. Enjoy the ride Mark and thanks for giving me the opportunity to work with you. Chao amigos.

Will It Ever End?

2011-05-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

The number of people coming forth in the Armstrong investigation is stacking up. Its been going on so long that I started ignoring it, sick & tired of hearing about it as it has no real effect on me and my enjoyment of the bicycle. However, I have always felt that the truth should come out. I have never really liked Armstrong and I would be lying if I said there wasn't a part of me that wants to see him get busted, thats pathetic on my part I know, but its gone even beyond that. Now I just view Lance as a human, like the rest of us, clearly a much stronger cyclist though. Drugs or no drugs he is one helluva bike rider. Since just about everyone from his era has been busted or confessed for using drugs its hard to believe that he didn't. I was and still am a Jan Ullrich fan and I always hoped he would admit to using drugs so that I could still have some respect for him but I don't think he ever did. Just admit it. People will understand, forgive you, and have respect for you again, probably even more so. My problem with it now is, and I guess my point is mute since the proof is not quite on the table, all the problems Lance is causing for all the people around him. Teammates, coaches, and friends would have to be lying in order to protect him and his word. Have you ever had anyone ask you to lie for them? Nice feeling huh? Though now it seems like it has finally gone so far that no one can take the weight anymore. Actually its the pressure from the feds they can't handle, otherwise they could probably hold onto the lies, they have so far, and I guess its only fitting that Lance should be the last one standing as it all comes to a head. As its already been said, they have wasted a lot of taxpayers money on this stupid case and its really not gonna change anything for us if they find him guilty or innocent, I would just like to see the end of it all. Lay the truth out on the table and let the healing begin, the new era of cycling with riders who want to win cleanly and honestly, and I should also say that there were probably plenty of guys from the past who did race clean but never got the recognition they deserved because they weren't winning, so my hat is off to those guys for sure. I used to look up to all the professional cyclists and I still do to some extent but not near as much as I look up to the everyday cyclists who just enjoy riding and racing and having a good time without drinking the junk to win. All of what I think I know about any of this whole thing is pure speculation as I don't personally know nor have I met anybody that is involved in this, thank goodness. The only fact that I have about any of this that I can tell you for certain is that this helmet is and always was way too small for Lance's head. I hope he can accept that. The truth will set us free.

Scott's Touring Frame

2011-05-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

I have fallen behind a little on my blogging. Man, I have been so freakin busy lately working on various things it feels like I'm not getting much done. I live and build frames here in Mountain Home but I still have unfinished business in my hometown of Jonesboro, Arkansas as well. I have been doing some repair work on a couple of rental properties and it has been going at about a snail's pace, but its coming together a little at a time. My frame building business has gradually been growing and I am looking to cut ties with some of this other stuff I do to make green and focus more on frame building. While building bicycle frames is what I spend the majority of my time on it doesn't pay all the bills by any means. I have a ton of respect for anyone who is making a living building bicycle frames and I hope to stand among them one day, but for now I do whatever it takes to keep building. Here are some pics of a touring frame I'm building for a local rider here in Mountain Home. The last two frames I have worked on were for local riders and I have sold a recent handful of frames in the Arkansas/Missouri area. Truth is, I don't care where my customers are from, I enjoy sending these things anywhere. I have the frame finished and I need to get this fork done today or by Monday at the latest. You can see how clean the inside of the fork crown is, and I like to rough up the surfaces that are going to be brazed/bonded really well. Millions of little tiny mountains and valleys are created with some 80 grit emery cloth so that the silver has something good to flow into. Man, that sounded like poetry didn't it? I guess that Creative Writing class I took years ago is paying off. I think I deserved better than a "D" in that class. The first time I went to college, aside from the PE classes, most of my grades were in the C's & D's, one of the professors didn't even give me a grade at all, he said, "What was your name again?" I said, "Look man, I have been coming to this class almost 2-3 times a month for close to 4 months now and you have the nerve to ask me my name. This is outrageous!" Anyway, I went back to school a couple of years ago and got all A's except for one B in some history class. Even with all those A's my overall GPA wasn't much on the eyes. What does this prove you might ask? Nothing really, except that I was really, really stupid when I was in my 20's. Did you ever see the movie "Up in Smoke?" One of these days I might tell you about my Zoology 1 experience. I thought I was gonna be a dentist. You ever tried to dissect a worm? Sorry mom, not gonna happen. That professor actually told me that it would be better if I just quit, but I didn't, I went to that class everyday and earned that "F". As my dad used to say, its ok if you fail just don't ever quit. Its all educational.

Ace's Wild Custom

2011-05-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is Paul and Wayne from Ace's Wild Custom. I met these guys a couple of years ago when I moved to Mountain Home and they have been painting my frames every since. This shop is the coolest hangout in Mountain Home as far as I'm concerned. Hot rods, stock cars, motocross bikes, shifter-karts, custom Harleys, helicopters, did I say helicopters?, ok I don't know if they've painted any helicopters but I betcha Coke they would, anything and everything comes and goes in this place. These guys are super-cool and do excellent work on just about everything imaginable. Oh yeah, they do bicycle frames too. Thanks guys!

Custom 'CXer

2011-05-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

The paint has finally dried on Mark's 'cross machine and we're just gonna let the photos and the ride do the talking. Once its complete with some Campy Chorus 11 its gonna be one sweet ride. Thanks for checking it out.