Secret Plans
Rapha is a very high-end and expensive brand of cycling apparel. I’m talking $100+ tee-shirts expensive. I first heard about Rapha through their Continental project on display at the 2008 North American Hand-built Bicycle Show. On top of their business of cycling-specific clothing they spread a very thick atmosphere of a specific branch off the bicycle culture tree. It’s the old school, Euro-styled, blood sweat tears, hard-man riding up the mountain of pain kind of cyclist that they are appealing to. Their marketing is very romantic, inspiring, classy, and often quite subtle, but it will always be corporate advertising.
Within this marketing there are quite obviously some things of value. For example, on the Continental site they have a collection of interviews and workshop photographs of eight independent frame builders who built the Rapha Continental team bikes. The builders featured are Ira Ryan, Tony Pereira, Richard Sachs, Chris Igleheart, Chris Bull & Brian Chapman of Circle A Cycles, the previous president of Independent Fabrications Matt Bracken, Jeremy & Jay Sycip of Sycip Bikes, and Stephen Bilenky.
I savor this quote from Richard Sachs’ interview:
What’s it like being a benchmark. Do you think you’ve inspired next-generation builders? The craft is exploding and enjoying such a robust resurgence. What’s that all about, what does it mean for you?
You want be a frame builder? You don’t have a freaking clue. You don’t ride a bike, or if you do, you don’t ride fast. Or a lot. Because if you do, you realize you’ve only made 2 frames. First of all, a bike is a freaking vehicle. And you’re going make one and sell it to somebody and hope that it stays together in traffic, next year, next decade, we’re not talking about macramé or glass blowing here. This is something you put out on the road.
I’m talking about a skill-set and experience, I made a lot of fucking frames to get to where I am. And I made a lot of fucking frames before even thinking about starting my own business. Because in my peer group you had to learn on a line, we didn’t have books or UBI’s. I don’t condemn books or UBI’s but even they would tell you only 2% of graduates make a living. Just because you take a frame-building course and actually make descent frames, it doesn’t mean that you’re capable of running a business.
You can’t be a doctor after taking a surgery crash course or by reading ‘Doctors for Dummies’. These people get some tubes and a jig and they think they’re instantly a frame builder. Well, they’re not. Not until they make 500 frames and show, after a decade or two, that they hold up. Frame building, in a way, is like Latin. Nobody speaks Latin, nobody likes Latin, except for scholars. Except for a few, like Sacha White of Vanilla, I can’t imagine which one of these new guys is going be here in 5 or 10 years.
I have a desire to build bicycle frames which I have filed under ‘Secret Plans’. When riding, fixing, and building bikes one comes to recognize various levels of quality. An inexpensive rear derailleur won’t shift as accurately, won’t adjust as easily, and won’t last as long as one made of better materials or of a more elegant design. The same can be said of frame construction and bicycle assembly, you’re likely to get out of these components and processes what you put into them. I believe I can find immense satisfaction in getting something great out of a bicycle because I put it there myself.