Passantino's 650B Touring Frame

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

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

Project Moto-Bici

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

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

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

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?

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

First 29er Test

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

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

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.