Viva Knievel

I was wondering the other day if my childhood hero, Evel Knievel, was still alive? Turns out he passed on in 2007. The first time I saw him on TV I was blown away. I went straight outside, got a concrete block and a piece of plywood, built a ramp, and crashed straight into my mom's Monte Carlo. I had some Evel Knievel stickers on the seat of my Western Flyer that I got out of a cereal box and I was always doing my best imitations of him. My parents wouldn't get me a motorcycle so I had to do all my jumps on my bike until I got old enough to buy my own motorcycle. I had Evel's motorcycles, sky-cycle, lunchbox, everything, etc. I used to soak'em in gasoline and crank them up and run them through fire. I set the driveway on fire more than once, remember Mom? One morning, years later, I was waking up with a cup of coffee and our Chesapeake retriever was standing at the back door with something in his mouth that looked a little gross so I wrestled it away from him and it was the old, burned-up, melted Evel Knievel doll that I had thrown in the woods to keep my parents from finding it. Good boy Champ! He flunked dog obedience school but nothing got past his nose. Champ was a hell of a duck dog. He would go get the ducks no problem but then he wouldn't give'em to you. He figured if he was the one that waded through the icewater to get it that it was his to eat. That dog heard a lot of cuss words. Remind me later to tell you about the time he ran out into the street to fetch the football and got hit by a Mazda RX-7 and still retrieved the football. Don't worry, he wasn't hurt but the RX-7 needed a little body work. Here is a photo I stumbled onto on Wikipedia, I was a little surprised to see ol' Evel with a bicycle. Let it be remembered that Evel Knievel rode steel frames.

I got another 650B belt-drive mountain bike in the works to start off the new year. Stay tuned.

El Griego

Fresh outta the paint booth. Aces Wild Custom put a sweet Sunburst Orange finish on this one- of-a-kind frame. Custom wishbone seat stay, Paragon track dropouts w/hanger, as well as their 3-piece brake bosses on the rear, not to mention the super-smooth fillets set this frame off from the rest.

Word of the Day, "Biciciclismo"

Its really not that hard to say 3 times really fast.

Cross Frame w/ Stainless Drops

Here are a couple of photos from one of my earlier frames. The painter, Josh Colvey, knocked it out of the park. This looks good enough to eat. For some reason you can only enlarge the fork photo but it is the best one. More photos of this frame can be seen at my Photobucket album under the name MEECH151. Thanks for looking.

Championship Cross Bike w/ Champ on Board

This is the finished product. A few weeks ago I posted a photo of a raw S3 cyclocross frame built for Larry Yancey of Jonesboro, Arkansas and here it is after Larry got finished. Its an incredible 16.8 lb steel cyclocross bike. I took a quick 200 meter spin on it and it climbs just like a road bike. This is a pro level cross bike, pure racing machine. You could race crits on it if you wanted and I wouldn't be surprised to see Yancey pushing it off the front going for a few primes this summer. This frame is totally stacked, Campy Record 10, Easton fork, Zipp Cyclocross tubular wheelset, everything is high-end race componentry. I love building frames and I especially love seeing them built up the way people are gonna ride/race them. This bike didn't get finished until Saturday night, Larry picked it up, took it to the Arkansas State Cyclocross Championships on Sunday morning and won. He only got to do one warm-up lap, got a dead last place start, and then started chasing them down one by one until he was out front. It was a classic ride and now he has the champions skinsuit to show for it. Congratulations! There were 2 more MEECH riders in the field I would like to mention, Trent Talley and Jess Parker. Thanks guys for flyin with MEECH. Another Jonesboro rider who rides for Big Shark Racing out of St. Louis won the Cat 1/2 race in supreme fashion. Congratulations to Nathan Rice, who is also a mechanic from Gearhead Outfitters that stayed late and finished up Larry's bike so he could make it to the race. Thanks Nate, I wanna get you on one of my frames brother. Here is a quick photo, hope you like it.

Holiday Season

Just touching base because I haven't posted anything in a while. I didn't know much about blogging when I started this thing and I'm not sure I know anything now however i have actually enjoyed posting photos of my builds, racers and friends alike, and just anything that comes to mind. Thanksgiving was different this year b/c we just got a house in the town of Mountain Home, AR and we had to move fast to get out of the other. There was no turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce just alot of moving. This was the second time in 7 months that I have moved my shop. Its not a very big operation, it will almost fit in the back of my pick-up (not the 350 lb. alignment table), however moving just breaks your rhythm and it takes time to get adjusted to the new setting but I have a pretty nice shop now and I think I am finally in a place where I can settle in and knock out some work come the new year.

I have only been in business for about 15 months but I am happy with the way things have gone so far. I built over 20 frames and sold the majority of them. Some I sold way too cheap just to move them and get some money to keep building. I would rather sell them a little over cost, pay for the materials and start another than to just stack them up. I am a new builder and can't ask the high prices that many well-known framebuilders can get but I am dreaming of that day. I made my fair share of mistakes too. Misplaced braze-ons, chainring and tire clearance issues, etc., just to name a few, but fortunately no broken frames and that was my main concern. R & D riders Larry Yancey and Trent Talley ride their CX bikes like Ricky Carmichael rides a motocross bike, and I also know that most of my customers are racers as well so I am happy that no one has broken one of my frames and I hope that none of you ever do. I try to take a lot of care when I am building a frame because I don't want to have to fix it and I especially don't want you to have to mess with sending it back and waiting for me to fix it however should it happen I will make it right, I don't want my name on any junk. I have also received quite a few compliments as well. About 4 people have commented that the frames climb really well. I don't know exactly why, maybe its the geometry or the big, fat fillets I put on the BB shell or maybe its just because I want them to climb well. I love climbing, I'm not that good at it but I like it. Anyway, now after every frame that I finish I ask a little blessing over it, "Dear Jesus, please let this frame climb like a pissed-off angel. Amen." Its been working. My other favorite compliment is really a simple one but it means a lot to me, someone told me, "Man, they're just good bikes.", and thats what I want to make, good bikes that climb like pissed-off angels.

I would like to say thanks to everyone that has helped me out, those that visit this site, those that ride/race my frames, those that help me troubleshoot problems, and all my family and friends who support me, I couldn't do it without you. I am currently working on a website but who knows when it will be done, I really suck with computers. I am also looking into incorporating some carbon fiber into my frames, I hear its really messy. Anyway, I hope you have a good holiday season and get ready, the next training season is less than a month away. Do I smell pain? You know you love it. Enjoy.

"Fly with MEECH"