The Business of Building Bicycles

Building BicyclesThis past week I finished up teaching a class at UBI. It was a great group, and everyone took home a frame that they’d built. They all seemed pretty happy at the end. Happy and tired. 

Usually on the last day of class we have a discussion about frame finishing and paint, equipment to buy if they want to keep building, lingering questions about the next step to take to set themselves up to build another bicycle frame on their own.  If people have questions about the business of frame building I do my best to answer them. 

“How do you make a business building bicycles?” That’s not an easy question, and there is a large range of possible answers based on the temperament of the builder, and what sort of business they want to have. 

The craft of building bikes holds an image of one person in their shop, using the skills they’ve acquired over the years to hand make each unique frame. It’s a practice and an art, and each finished frame has the unique signature of the builder who constructed it. But this is only one way to do it.

Other business models work toward higher production, which limits the capacities for uniqueness in each bike, but allows the builder to focus on a particular style and repeat it, refining the design process and the efficiency of manufacturing. A different set of skills, it allows a builder to take what they feel to be a “good” bike design and offer it to more people. 

But to a new builder, how do you even wrap your head around all this? How can you consider building bicycles as a business when really, you hardly know enough to build a frame from start to finish? All you really know is that it’s hard work, there are about a million steps to it, and at least that many tricks along the way. Planning Your Bicycle

You probably need to consider the business side of things at the beginning for one main reason, which is that it takes a fairly substantial initial investment to build a bicycle frame. This investment is in time; it will take you months and years to learn the skills needed to build a great bike. And, you'll invest money in the equipment you're going to use. Most people who come to frame building don’t have a bottomless bank account from which to purchase a frame and fork fixture, a vice, files, torch, grinders, a mill, lathe, and the million and one other tools that will assist you in making a bike. What tooling you'll want and need is wide open for interpretation, and is another discussion entirely. 

So, what's your plan? Are you investing in tools in the hope that down the road you’ll learn the craft and be able to make the money back? Or, are you saving your pennies and buying the equipment you can afford, knowing that eventually you’ll have accumulated what you need to build another bike, and you just want to have fun with it, build for yourself, for family and friends?

It’s good to have some ideas going into it. It’s also good to be adaptable. Learning to build bikes and making money at it takes a lot of time. Anyone can learn the craft, but not everyone is going to make money doing it. Nor is everyone is going to enjoy the hours spent alone in a shop working. 

Another thing to consider: Like any activity that you may love, are you still going to love it when you’re trying to put a price tag on it and sell it to others? Are you still going to love it when you're totally immersed, sort of suffocating in poverty and it looks like there's no way out? I bet if you were to talk to a lot of established builders out there you'd be able to get them to admit that there is some element of ass-stubborn masochism that has kept them doing it for as long as they have. There is love, surely, but there is also something else. Something darker. 

Maybe I’ll talk more about the business of building bikes later. But this past Friday, the last day of class, I saw people thinking about their future and all the great plans that were formulating. I didn’t feel like there was enough time to go into an answer in-depth. 

Frame Building ToolProbably the one, most important thing that I’ve learned about the business of bike building over the years is not so much the process of building bikes. That’s important, obviously, but that’s also the fun part, and so is easier to learn. The hardest part for me was learning the business itself. 

You have to learn the numbers and how to use them in your favor. How to keep doing it and not starve. How to keep doing it in a way that is sane, sustainable, in a way that isn’t going to grind you into a blubbering pulp on your shop floor. 

If you don’t know anything about business, it’s a really good idea to take a business class. Learn something about how to run a business, how to look at your business and see it for what it is. There is a lot of potential for fantasy, the most fatal of which could be: “I just need to work harder, longer hours, I need to make more bikes!” When you’re in the thick of it, there may be truth to this, but there may also be a whole lot of other things to think about, and if your business has a bunch of holes in it, like a colander, it’s never going to stay a-float. 

Happy New Frame BuildersI’m not trying to dissuade people from trying to build bikes for a living, I’m just saying, go into it with as many tools as you can get your hands on. I currently spend approximately half of my working hours making bikes. The other half is all about the business. The tools I need for that are knowledge. Knowledge about all the hidden costs of doing business; knowledge about marketing and shipping and the website and paint costs and branding and consumables and avoiding the millions of pit-falls along the way. Being realistic about what you have, what you need, and what you want, is probably going to be the best way to approach it. Knowledge is key. 

Alright, enough said. Happy Monday. And best of luck to all you newly aspiring bicycle frame builders. 

Custom Flask Engraving Is Here!

That's right, you can now get your flask custom engraved from Ahearne Cycles! 

Custom Flask Engraving!This has been a long time coming. I've had people ask me about custom engraving for years. Now, it's possible! And just in time for the Christmas holiday. 

The way it works is simple. You order the number of flasks you want from the Ahearne website. Once you've placed your order, you then send an e-mail with the logo or image that you want to see on the flasks. The file format to send is either a pdf or jpeg file. Or, if it's text only, you can choose your font and send it as a Word document. Please send the file exactly as you want to see it on the flask.

All the details for the ordering process are on the Custom Flask Engraving page. Discounts are available for orders of ten or more flasks. There are also discounts availale for bike shops, clubs, cooperatives and teams.  

Flask Holster and Flask

You can order your custom engraved flasks with or without the Flask Holster. Remember, though, if you order both together you receive a $5 discount. 

To be sure your flask is ready to give as a Christmas gift, orders for custom engraving must be submitted by the 10th of December!

Time Lapse Video: Front Triangle Braze

Mr. Goodman's Bicycle Tubes

I spent Sunday in the shop and decided to make another time lapse video. I'm working on Dave's bike, which is going to be a lugged commuter-style machine, with some cool features. This time lapse is of the front triangle being mitered and brazed, and then drilled for water bottle mounts, which I braze in right at the end. I hope you enjoy.

Dave's Bicycle Front Triangle Braze from Joseph Ahearne on Vimeo.

Here's a video of mitering and brazing the front triangle of Dave G.'s bicycle frame. Also shows three sets of water bottle bosses drilled and brazed in.

Mike Muzik's Touring Bike

The Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show was in Bend, Oregon this past weekend. The event was coupled with the big cyclocross Halloween race, which draws a pretty large crowd every year. The race has been at the coast, in Astoria, for the past few years. They moved it to Bend this time for a change of scenery. I didn’t make it over to the race, but I heard part of the course was too dusty to see. 

The bike show was held at the GoodLife Brewery. I’m not sure of the exact number, but I think there were about 35 or so booths. I liked that it was a smaller show. A steady stream of people came through, and nobody seemed overwhelmed. At the larger shows you can see peoples eyes turn to spirals from goggling at bikes for too many hours. It’s a particular form of melt down that affects the insatiable bike nerds.

Jonathan Maus of bikeportland.org was in Bend covering the story of the Halloween Cross Race. He also posted a summary and overview of the bikes he saw at The Handmade Bike Show. 

Here is one of the bikes I brought with me to the show. It’s a touring bike for Mister Mike Muzik. I’ll let the photos tell the story. 

Cargo Bike Article in Bicycling Magazine

If you haven't seen the article by Tom Clynes in this months' Bicycling Magazine, you ought to check it out. The article is titled, Cargo Bikes: Is This The Coolest Bike Ever Made? It's a perspective on the growing interest in -- you guessed it -- cargo bikes. It's a pretty comprehensive article, covering a variety of facets of interest, and he checks in with manufacturers both large and small. 

I quote here the final paragraph, which gives insight into the rest of the article:

It's then that I see, in the parents' faces, what Dave Cohen calls "the politics of possibility." I could tell them all how green my bike is, how cost-effective and healthy. But in the end, what they see—and take away—is how much fun it is to carry people and things around under your own power. In the delighted faces that surround me, I can see the possibilities opening up. In practicality, it seems, there is joy.

Also, there is a somewhat breathless quote in the article by yours truly:

For eco-conscious cyclists like Joseph Ahearne, a Portland bike builder, part of the allure is making a statement. "Every time I'm on my bike with a big load of stuff on it," Ahearne says, "I can only hope that some people in cars see me and are already so frustrated with traffic and the costs of fuel and car payments and the roll of fat falling over their belts that they look at me taking care of business on my bike and feel something like envy. It plants a seed."