Couple of quick shots of Mike's frame before its shipped.  It turned out great and I'm very happy with it.  Mike chose a paint scheme similar to the old Team Splendor bicycles from the 80's.  The sun makes the blue look much lighter than it really is but with the yellow and black contrasts it looks good regardless of sunlight or clouds.  I like paint that appears different colors in different conditions and this one does it.  Mike was the second customer to let me paint their frame and now I'm addicted to painting, maybe its just the fumes, naw, I like all the wild colors too. I learned a lot more while working on this frame, mainly about applying the clear coat.  I have my methods a little more dialed in and I plan on improving it with practice.

MEECH stem made from the top-shelf stem building components from Paragon Machine Works while the engraving was done here locally by my good friend Mark from Mainline Awards.  He has engraved bb shells, stem plates, and bar caps for me every since we moved to Mountain Home and he always does an excellent job.  Thanks Mark.  I wish I would've had a little aluminum polish to really make this thing shine.  Theres still time.

Handmade carbon chain stay protector.  Stickers, no way.

Ok, well this is a decal because I definitely can't paint this good but Mike wanted to fly the Pegasus logo on his stem as well.  I cleared over it to make it cleaner and theres no chance of the edges fraying. "Fly with MEECH."

These colors together just pop.

For some reason I can't get enough of these photos.

Thanks for giving me a shout Mike.  I enjoyed working with you on this.  Its always a pleasure  getting to meet new people while building their a frame.  One of the fringes of being a custom frame builder.

Thanks for checking it out.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

handmade in 

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Wet Paint

Here are a couple of quick pics of Mike's frameset after I just got done shooting the clear.  After trying a couple of different painting techniques over these last few paint jobs I think I'm getting it closer to dialed in.  Between the lighting and the flash on the camera I'm not sure any of these pics capture the true color.  This photo here that has a darker blue look to it is actually the closest but it may even be a shade darker than this.

The flash of the camera made it look baby blue in this photo.  Not bad looking at all but the true color is definitely darker than this.

Mike went with a full custom frameset, stem included.  Just wait until I put the carbon fiber chain stay protector on this frame, it'll be full scale rock'n'ride then.  Check back in a couple of days for the famous backyard photorama.  Chao amigos.

"Dude, I Swear It Was Right There Yesterday"

Here are a couple of pics that Mike sent me of some geese that set up camp outside his   Chicago bicycle shop after the century old golf course where they had lived got leveled for some new stores.  The geese were walking up and down the street protesting the "supposed progress".

View from the bike shop.

"Let's go. I think he's been drinking again. Theres no beautiful green golf course with ponds around here."

Ready For Some Paint

Wurster's Stem

Yesterday I did a little custom stem build for Mike's road frame.  I used Paragon's stem building supplies because they're top shelf components and make it super-easy, not to mention they make a great looking stem.  I basically just have to tack it together, check to make sure its straight, and then braze it up.  This one is good to go.

Fresh outta the oven.  That face-plate is gonna get a little custom engraving before long.

This dog is beefy.  Not as lightweight as these newer aluminum and carbon stems but most definitely built to last a lifetime.  Everything is finished now except I'm fixing to go braze a seat lug on and clean that up and then maybe have some photos later this afternoon of the whole thing.  Its about time to warm up the paint booth.  I don't think thats gonna be too difficult.  See ya in a bit.

"Young man, they're getting away, and your tire is broken."

Le Tour de Crashfest.

Tour Tricks

Tour Bikes & New Models

Couple of pics of some newer models that are getting unveiled at the tour.  This is Trek's new Madone 6.9 or something.  Nothing against the name but I lost count like 8 yrs. ago.  It looks to be pretty tight and I'm sure they're good riding bikes but probably not any better than any of the other bikes made, and especially not as smooth as a custom steel frame.  ;0

I always assumed that the brake bridge needed to be there, but I guess it doesn't matter if you put one between the seat stays or the chain stays.  I never really use a chain stay bridge unless someone ask for it.  It takes some getting used to looking at it all bare, it looks like it would be weak but I'm sure they have it dialed in.  If Cancellara is stomping on it I imagine its good to go.  

This looks like the pain-in-the-arse design to me.  Neat idea, nightmare to work on.

Future bike. This is some sort of new endurance model from LOOK.  LOOK was my old favorite brand.  They were doing carbon even before aluminum became popular.  I'm not sure what an endurance model is but it has something to do with being an everyday, do-everything bike I think.  Innovative looking but I'm not so sure I like it.  I imagine bikes will continue to  follow this trend in the future.  The "endurance bike" idea makes me think of a dirt/road bike and I'm all about that.  I'm fixin to build one.  Road frame, little longer chain stays that will accommodate a 28c tire, long-pull caliper brakes, and you're ready for anything.  Yeah baby, Endurance Bike!

This is a special bike made for George Hincapie's record of 17 TDFs.  Hincapie is so bad-ass, he makes everything look so easy.  Yesterday in the tour, right before the base of the climb, when the peloton was doing like 40 mph, he just runs right up the left side dragging Cadel Evans up to the front like 5 mph faster than everyone.  It looked like Moses had laid down a little special path just for Hincapie.  Hincapie has been around so long that we just take it for granted that he's always gonna be there and before long he'll be leaving.  End of an era. You can't replace that dude.  I wish he could win a stage.

However this is my favorite new bike.  My buddy Yancey has one and let me ride it the other day.  Yes Virginia its fast.  It goes about as fast as a MEECH.  Crazy, sick lightweight flying machine.  They call it the "Best Bike in the World" and it probably is for what its built for.  I love it.

Oh my GAAAWWSH!  

I never get tired of looking at this bike.  Kinda looks like a Kawasaki KX.

I've always been a Suzuki man myself.

We Square?

Geez Louis.  I've ridden some squared off tires in my time but nothing like this.  When I threw these tires on I didn't really pay much attention to them.  So I went to take the bike for a spin to make sure everything was in line.  Our driveway is a short, steep one with a 90 degree lefthander at the bottom.  You get a quick burst of speed that will make you tap the brake for the corner on most occasions however I seldom do because I'm so used to it.  So anyway I clip in and let it go, get to the corner and start to turn and it doesn't want to turn, so I leaned into it hard in order to clear my neighbor's mailbox and about washed before I got it under control. I was like, "WTF?"  These things look like something Fred Flintstone would be rolling.  The contact patch is like...well, the whole width of the tire, turning is next to impossible, you have to balance on that razor blade-like edge like a tight-rope walker.  The first five seconds of my test ride were extremely sketchy then it turned to trudgery.  I hadn't been on the bike for a week, the temp was a cool 100 degrees, and my tires were rolling like bubble-gum, but ahhhh, it felt good to be riding. It had only been 6-7 days but I start to get cranky after about 4 days off.  I can't wait to go again today, and I really can't wait till I've got some new skins to roll on.

Glued and Screwed.

I didn't braze on a derailleur hanger since i had planned to use a clamp-on, but when I realized that the clamp-on was gonna cover up my "MOTO" I got a little concerned. So this was the quick fix. A little JB Weld and a couple of screws and its not going anywhere Clarise.  This is basically how I'd do a carbon frame.  Turned out pretty clean.

You can't cover up your MOTO.  The next one will get painted on a little higher up.

Cancellara was in another league yesterday in the prologue as he blitzed everyone.  Is he still using that mini-motor?  Had Tony Martin not had issues with his bike it would have been really close.   This should be a good Tour.  Theres a handful of guys that are really close in speed in the mountains and the time trials. I think Cadel Evans has the confidence and the team to win again but I'm going with Nibali from Liquigas as the "protagonista."  I just like their riding outfits.  Hasta luego amigos.

My New Bike

  I've been waiting on some bottom bracket shells to get engraved so that I can start brazing on a customer's frame, but while I'm waiting I always try to get a few things done on the side.  A frame that I built for my wife quite a while back, the mixte, is still waiting to be painted.  I actually just bought the paint yesterday.  Anyway, she's been telling me that she wants a bike to ride and to build up her old frame, which happens to be the very first frame that I built after returning from Yamaguchi's school.  I had most of the components I needed to build it up except for a rear derailleur and a couple of other things so I swiped the rest of what I needed off of my bike, the carbon frame that I've been riding since the first of the year.  The carbon frame has been thoroughly tested and its held up quite well and I still can't believe I haven't built more carbon frames, even one more, but I just haven't gotten to it.  Customers come first.  So anyway, now my wife has a bike that probably won't get ridden much (don't tell her I said that) and I didn't even have a bike to ride.  You might think that as a frame builder and avid cycling enthusiast that I have a plethora of bikes and parts just laying around and that I can ride a different bike every day of the week, nope, not true.  I   normally only have one bike built up and if I get ready to switch I just swap out my components as I don't have a lot of excess parts laying around. I do have about 2 1/2 groupsets that I interchange on occasion.  So I went about a week without riding and decided I needed to ride.  I started to build up the old S3 frame for a quick comparison between steel and carbon but then I saw this cross frame thats been laying around our spare bedroom every since it got painted over a year ago.  MOTO-BICI was one of my excess ideas/intentions for a separate brand apart from MEECH and it basically just boiled down to I had an idea for a cool new logo and I was looking for a way to use it, but in reality MEECH is the brand I need to be pushing so this whole MOTO-BICI thing has been put to the side indefinitely, but there is one MOTO-BICI bike out there and its mine.  Here are a few pics of my new bike....

...but first, here is a pic of my wife's bike.  This is the first frame that I ever built with the exception of the one I built with Yamaguchi helping me.  The rear triangle is not perfectly straight but its not bad, it rolls pretty good.  Check out how many times my name is on it, think I wasn't proud.

You'll probably never see another photo like this one in your life.  Campy Record cranks with Wal-Mart pedals.  Go figure.

Since I had these old Ksyrium wheels laying around, with the one red spoke, I decided to throw my red Avocet O2 saddle on.  Then I decided to paint my Ritchey stem red. I started to paint the tires red but I held myself back.  Anybody that knows me knows that I'm a motocross head, so I  kinda went for the whole Factory Suzuki motocross look with this bike. 

I just threw some old cross tires on that I had laying around.  They're cheap but I like them because they are really skinny for cross tires.  I'll spend most of my time on the road anyway so I just pump them up to about 80 psi and roll.  They are 30c tires but are really only about 28mm wide with knobs on them.  Ready for anything.  Dirt criterium anyone?

This is the view I prefer to show people when I'm riding however these days I'm usually treated to a view of about a hundred arses.  One of the greatest quotes in cycling was from Laurent Jalabert.  After a horrendous crash at the Tour in '94' I believe,(remember when the police officer was taking a picture and caused that mass pileup in the finish line sprint and Jalabert was shown laying there in a pile of blood and a broken LOOK frame), anyway, Jalabert had rehabbed and started racing again.  In an interview, the commentator asked him how the racing comeback was going and he replied, "I've been looking at the arses of people that I've never seen the faces of."  Now thats a good line.

Check out that handmade carbon chain stay protector.  Chain slap that!

"Oh my gaaawwsh!  Did he put a hot-pink "MOTO" on that frame?"  You know he did.

My butt has been sitting on Avocet O2 saddle for 22 years now.  Its the best saddle ever made bar none, the newer ones don't feel the same.  Back when I was having a little problem with epididymitis I thought I might have to change saddles, luckily it has passed for the most part. I would almost have rather quit riding than change saddles.  Not really, I'm exaggerating now.  I would probably do whatever it took to go riding.

Just as soon as I tell everyone that I don't have excess parts laying around....  I'm serious when I tell you this is my favorite saddle.  I normally don't collect stuff but I've stocked up on enough of them to last me my entire life.  That grey one in the middle has about 40,000 miles on it.  I will sell most anything that I have but don't even try to buy one of these from me because I won't do it.  All I can say is keep a look out on Ebay.

This is the only MOTO-BICI cross bike that I know of.  Its a take on the old Yamaha MOTO-BIKE that my friend Kevin Jones had when we were kids.  He's the guy that ran his dad's Hodaka up into his house, literally up into his house.  Crashed it through the door and it landed up on top of the bar with the throttle stuck wide open.  I wrote a story about it on the blog.  Its one of the very first posts that I did, way back.  Ah, those childhood memories.  Bottle rockets and jumping garbage cans.  Those were the days.

Handmade in beautiful Mountain Home, Arkansas.

  I plan on riding this bike quite a lot.  The reason I like this bike so much is that it looks like the kind of bike that would catch my attention if I walked into a bike shop.  I think I would have to have it. Gotta go and give it a test ride later today.  The temperature has been crazy hot.  The Tour has started.  Hope its a good one.  My favorite guys aren't even racing in it but I'll pick a favorite out before long.  I'm guessing Peter Sagan to win the prologue, Wiggins should be up there  as well and also  in the overall.  I think Cadel and Wiggo have the most solid teams, at the start anyway, but I hope someone comes out of nowhere to surprise everyone. Ryder Hesjedal has absolutely no pressure on him at all and thats not a good thing for his competitors. I want a surprise. Thanks for checking things out.  Enjoy the tour.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

Handmade in 

Mountain Home, Arkansas