Here are a pair of fillet coupled bikes for a couple that wanted complementary but not matching bikes. The paint technique is known as ‘marbleizing’ and looks to be a foot deep even in low light let alone the sun. I like how the marbleizing shows off the contours of the fillets – I put a lot of work into those fillets so like when the paint really shows them off.

I’m off to the shop now to work on some show bikes for this years NAHBS. For the next few months it will be NAHBS all day – everyday! I hope you can make the trip to the show.

Dave

One doesn’t come to Montana to ride their bikes in the winter – ski yes – bike no. But this winter is really odd and the skiing is not good but the riding is great. It was 48° when I headed out for a ride on my cross bike this afternoon which is a solid 20° above ‘normal’ so I couldn’t resist going out for an hour after work.

I ran across some horses that really wanted me to toss one of their hay bales over the fence to them. They started to run along the fence next to me as I left them. Good horses.

Get it while it lasts.

Dave

Today is January 1^st, 2012 and it being cold and gray outside it seems like an ideal time to sit for a few minutes and reflect on the year 2011. So here are a few brief (or not so brief) thoughts in bulleted form -

• I doubt many would argue that 2011 was a great year. Many of my friends and customers have be experiencing hard times and this of course effected my business. I did have a number of folks who put down deposits in 2010 ask me to put them to the back of the line when I got to their spot in the queue. Who can blame them? – when things get tight a new handbuilt bike usually isn’t at the top of the priority list. That said it was a good year overall for Kirk Frameworks. Both deposits and deliveries were higher in 2011 than either of the two previous years and the business was solidly in the black. I have no complaints considering how many framebuilders closed shop and sold all their tools on eBay. I am truly fortunate and I thank all of my customers for making this possible. Seriously – thank you very much.
• The year 2011 saw a dramatic increase in overseas sales/deliveries for the business. I sent bikes to Belgium, Norway, Scotland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Switzerland and of course a large number of bikes went to Taiwan. All tolled a solid 38% of my work went out of the country in 2011. A big thank you to all of my overseas customers who are happy to deal with the time differences, language barriers and shipping costs in order to ride one of my bikes. It means more than you know.
• I was proud to introduce a few new products and features this year. It was the first year of the JKS Classic and the JKS X. Both have been selling well and the first JKS X has been delivered to a happy customer. I love that bike. This was also the first full production year using the ‘new’ Triple F rear dropouts. I say ‘new’ because they have been in the works in my head for so long they seem anything but new. They have worked out extremely well and I’m very proud of the way they work and look. I think my entire design philosophy can be neatly wrapped up in their design.
• 2011 was the first year I brought my ‘Booth in a Box’ to the annual NAHBS event. After a number of years of packing and unpacking cardboard boxes to get stuff to the show I broke down and invested a huge amount of time into the crate that hold the goods and then opens to become the display. It was worth every minute of time invested to be able to hang the bikes on the wall of the booth at the end of the show, close the box and then not worry about it. Couple that with the fact that I really like the look and things are good.
• I ended up building a wide variety of bikes this year. Most of them were members of the JKS family but I also did a lot of Full Customs. I designed and built fixed gear road bikes, MRB’s, expedition touring bikes, sport bikes, bikes with smaller tubes for lighter riders and bigger tubes for heavier riders, bikes to work with Di2 and so many others. I love that there is nothing cookie cutter about them and that each is made for that rider and how they will use the bike. This keeps it fun and fresh for me after 22 years of framebuilding and many thousands of bikes. So thanks for thinking of different uses and asking me to help you.
• This was also the year I got back into racing my bike. In a previous life racing was almost all I did and at some point I lost my excitement and enjoyment of racing and stopped. Then I was hit by some health troubles and racing wasn’t something I could have done even if I was motivated to do so. But over the past two years I’ve slowly and carefully worked my way back into better health and with it came the desire to ride much more and do some racing. So after something like 15 years of not racing I entered a cross race here in Bozeman. The last cross race I did before this was in the mid 1980’s. I had a ball and very much look forward to continuing to ramp it up for next year and race a good bit more. In fact I’m building myself a new cross race bike for next year with some new features and it will be shown in my booth this year at NAHBS.
• As many of you probably know I work from home – I build my frames in ½ of my garage and split the room above the garage with Karin (she also works from home) as our home office. It works well but one thing that was really needed was more light and better ventilation – in both the shop and the office. So after nearly 8 years of having very little natural light in the shop during the winter months I now have 3 new huge windows and a garage door with windows. It no longer feels like a sweatshop and I can even tell if it’s light or dark outside! The photos show the new windows installed but still needing a bit of trim and paint. This will be done soon and I’ll move my bench across the room to these south-facing windows and bask in the flood of natural light. We have also added windows and skylights to the office above and now we’ll have much more light and cool fresh air up there in the summer. It used to get into the mid 90’s up there in the summer and you would just drip sweat onto your keyboard. Not good. But no longer.
• It was also a very active year for me with autocross racing. I’m a member of the Southwest Montana chapter of the SCCA and we host about 10-12 events a season here in Bozeman and about 1 ½ hours north of here in Helena MT. I had a very good season racing my Lotus Elise and this year took on the role of the main course designer for our events. This is a huge challenge and hugely rewarding I design the courses ahead of time on paper to scale and then set the courses the morning of the event. This means I’m usually the first one there on a cold Sunday morning setting up cones but I love it. The club seems OK with it as they keep asking me to do it – good by me.

I’ll bet that gives you more info than you really wanted or needed so I’ll wrap it up with what I expect from 2012 –

• I think we will see more electronic shifting systems and the firm move of disc brakes from MTBs to cross and then, in the next few years to high end road. I’m excited for all of it.
• I hope to get fitter and race more next year – mostly cross with a bit road and MTB tossed in.
• There will be a few new products and features offered this year and I’m excited for them. I don’t offer new stuff just for the sake of it and feel that anything new needs to offer something the old didn’t so I roll out the new stuff slowly. But some cool new stuff is in the works.
• I look forward to racing my car again this season and working to continually improve as a driver. Having a fast car is easy – being a fast driver is not.
• I will take a vacation this coming year. Last year it just never happened but this year I vow to make it happen. Maybe a visit back east to do some cross racing in the North East – that would be fun.

That’s all I got – thanks so much for a good 2011 and I look forward to an even better 2012.

Be well and Happy New Year.

Dave

It’s a bit of a slow week here with the Holidays and it’s been nice to have a few free moments to sit and reflect.

The other day I was sitting and looking out the office window and noticed all the birds in the back yard looking upset and agitated. I wondered what was going on and opened the living room shade and looked straight down outside right below the window to see what all the fuss was about. There was a falcon sitting and eating a black bird while I, and a yard full of birds watched. He was about 3 1/2 feet from me and I managed to slip away and come back with the camera to get a few photos. It was hard shooting through the glass but a few came out OK. He was surprisingly small but very powerful looking and seeing a wild creature do what he is designed to do is awe inspiring. After taking a good number of photos I knew were mediocre I tried to ease the other window shade open to get a better line of sight but he spooked and took his catch and was gone. Just seconds later all the black birds came back to the feeders near the house like nothing happened and the only sign of the incident was the pile of feathers and prints in the snow. I was lucky to see it.

Now to get back to work on the bikes and getting ready for the upcoming show.

Dave

It seems there are some creatures that pass through our lives that have bigger personalities than their size would make you believe possible. Amasa was one of those creatures.

Karin and I were living in Saratoga Springs NY in 1996 and we had two cats, Poky and Spaulding and they were great friends with each other and us. One day Poky didn’t come home……………one day turned into one week and then two and three and we figured we’d never see him again. His pal Spaulding was obviously upset and he just wandered around the house never seeming settled. So after almost a month we decided to get Spaulding some company of his own kind and went to the shelter and picked out an orange kitten they called ‘Tad’. He was less than a year old and full of personality and energy. He had long fur and these earnest eyes that seemed to look at you and understand. We brought him home and named him ‘Amasa’ after the color of the burnt orange sandstone on the Amasa-back mountain bike trail in Moab Utah.

The first night we had Amasa home we heard a mournful crying at the backdoor in the middle of the night and I thought it must be the kitten but I got up to check and much to everyone’s surprise Poky was at the back door – home after nearly a month missing. He came in and the first thing I said was to Poky – “Poky, we have some explaining to do’ as Amasa ran up to him like he owned the place. So now we had three cats.

Not all that long later we picked up and moved almost 3000 miles west to Bozeman and the boys came along for the ride. Sneaking them into hotels at night was the challenge of that trip – we always asked for a room near the rear entrance so we didn’t have to carry their boxes past the front desk.

Once in Bozeman the three boys settled in quickly and all seemed to love it here. Amasa in particular loved the warm sun and cool air and would go out onto the back deck and sun himself with all four feet straight up in the air. A few years later we fell for a little girl kitten at the shelter and with the addition of Inga we now had four cats. Yes, we were that crazy couple without kids and a house full of cats.

So we had three New Yorker cats and one Montana local living with us and over the next few years we lost Poky at the age of 15 and then Spaulding at 17. This left Amasa as the only transplanted New Yorker – a distinction he somehow seemed to wear with pride. At some point we welcomed an all white Manx we named Pearl into the house and then there were three. They all got along so well and was a joy to watch them play or all nap together in the warm afternoon sun.

About 6 weeks ago Amasa started acting funny – uncomfortable and unsettled. He seemed to not want to eat as much and he never seemed to really sleep. He lost a lot of weight. At some point recently he stopped eating even his most favorite food (canned tuna) and we knew this wasn’t good. We brought him to our trusted Vet Ruth and made one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever made. Ruth thought he had some kind of cancer and that there was nothing that could realistically be done. Amasa was 15 years old.

We miss him very much and he left a huge hole here. His personality was so big and he was always in the middle of the action. We loved seeing him at Christmas – he’d sit under the tree and play in the pile of ripped open wrapping paper. One time many years ago Karin’s family came to visit and we set up a train-set under the Christmas tree and everyone gathered around to watch it go round and Amasa got right in line with everyone else to watch. He was one of us. So it’s especially sad that he left us right before the holidays. I wish we could have him under the tree again but we will have to just remember him and the 15 years of smiles and joy he brought into our house and shared with us and our guests.

I could tell endless stories of how he’d chase dogs out of the yard or how he’s come out to the driveway to greet me when I got home from a ride but I won’t bore you with those personal details. He was a real force to be reckoned with. It’s enough to say he was a big part of our lives and that he will be missed for a very long time to come.

Merry Christmas Old Friend.

Dave

Just yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of doing a phone-in radio interview with Diane Lees of WJCU in Ohio. She has a weekly show called ‘The Outspoken Cyclist’ that deals with all manners of cycling and all her interviews and stories are archived on their site. I’ve really enjoyed going back through the different interviews a and listening to the different builders talking about their work and history. The interview with Steve Garro of Coconino was especially good. That guy kicks ass.

My interview will be broadcast tomorrow, Saturday the 17th, at 5:30 EST and I’m hoping you can tune in and listen live. If you can’t catch it tomorrow it will be there later for you to check out. If you go now the most recent show features interviews with Charles Pelkey of Velonews and the authors of a photo book about cyclists in the Tucson area. Good stuff. The link to my spot will be posted at the top of the page when the time comes. Please check it out – http://www.wjcu.org/media/audio/shows/outspokencyclist

My sincere thanks to Diane Lees and WJCU for allowing me to ramble some – anyone that knows me knows I can ramble with the best of them.

Have a great weekend.

Dave

Here is yet another frameset that is on it’s way to its new home in Canada. This one is a JKS Classic with Terraplane stays and is painted in such a way that it looks dripping wet. Here are a few shots of the bike during the build process and just the other day when it came home from JB’s.

Have a good Monday and thanks for looking,

Dave

I just sent this frameset out to its new Canadian home and wanted to share the before and after paint photos. Kind of cool to look at it this way.

Thanks for looking,

Dave

Hey,

I’ve had a number of bikes go out the door over the past few weeks and thought I’d share some photos of them. This first one is a JKS X that was painted in an homage to an old school Masi and decked out with Campy Super Record, a 3T stem and bars and a Thomson post. You’ll note that the wheels in the photos don’t match – this is because I built the bike up with a rear wheel that the customer sent me and the front wheel used to set up the bike is from Karin’s bike. This saved the owner from having to send both wheels to me for the build.

This JKS X is on it’s way to it’s new home as I type and he should have it soon. I look forward it being there and then getting the ride report from the owner.

Hey Tim – Enjoy the ride!

Dave

It’s an unusual thing to be able to go out for a road ride in late November in Montana but this fall has been stange. It was in the 40′s yesterday and 50° today. I got out and went for a dirt road ride up in the Bridger Mountains and it was wonderful. No wind, warmish and cool light over the valley. This ride is short at about 20 miles but it has a great mix of dirt and pavement and little to no traffic. Leaving the house you climb steadily for about 4 miles until you are at the top of the “Grand View” area and then it rolls up and down for a few miles before heading back into the valley. It’s hard to not stop and take in the view of the valley and surrounding mountain chains when up here.

I brought Karin’s little point & shoot camera along and while none of these photos will win any awards they will give you a bit of a taste of what fall looks like In Bozeman.

Happy Holidays,

Dave