Shut Up and Build Bikes Podcast

Devin Bodony runs Lichen Precision -- a CNC machine shop just outside of Seattle, Washington. Devin started building full suspension bikes and eventually transitioned his work primarily toward CNC machining. He has a product line including bike framebuilding components and a disc brake mount fixture. We discussed his story, CNC machining, automation, the bike industry and more. Follow along on instagram and check out the Lichen Precision website.

Corey Kruchkowski of Kruch Custom Bicycles in Calgary, Alberta Canada is making cool bikes and in this episode we share his story.

We share Hern's story getting into the custom bike biz. We discuss his area of expertise - carbon fiber framebuilding and frame repair.

This week I share my interview with Rob English of English Cycles in Eugene, Oregon. We talk about Rob's history in the bike industry, his own business, and we ended up talking a lot about lean manufacturing at the end.

Aaron Stinner has been building bikes for over a decade and we talk all about it. Our discussion gravitated toward running a business, the importance of paint, and a whole lot more.

This week I share my Interview with Em of WZRD Bikes in Vancouver Island, Canada. We talk about fillet brazing, bike geo, Laser cutting parts, paint work, and a whole lot more. Enjoy.

This week we interview Nick Kuszyk AKA Garbaggio in Queens, New York. We talk about the Huffer, his story, and why bikes rule generally.

Tom builds fillet brazed and TIG welded steel bicycle frames from his small shop in Philadelphia, PA. With roots in BMX, Fixed Gear Freestyle, and MTB, Tom builds some really excellent bikes. We talk about his story, construction methods, tooling, his machines, and the difficulty of finding suitable workspace as a builder living in a major city. Follow Tom on Instagram and check out his website.

This week I'm talking to Adam "Prosauce" Prosise of REEB Cycles in Lyons, Colorado. Adam machines and welds a ton of beautiful bicycles at Reeb, while riding like a maniac and still managing to run his own side hustle - Prosise Metal Works. He is a much stronger MTB rider than most framebuilders and we discuss how his riding and racing inform his fabrication and design work. We talked a lot about how a job he held for 5 years prior to REEB prepared him for success. I'm always interested in the Full Suspension bike design discussion and that was no disappointment either. Buckle up, it's a long one! Check out REEB, Prosise Metal Works, and Adam's personal accounts.

Zach Small runs Amigo Frameworks in Nashville, Tennessee. In this episode we talk about his story, from working with Rob Roberson and Joe Bell in San Diego, CA, to Comrade Cycles in Chicago, and the bikes he has built along the way. We discuss his time in trade school and how it relates to making bikes. Zach tells us about Champ Ramps, his venture in the works to make sick, cnc-cut bike ramps. Check out his website and follow him on Instagram.

Mike Flanigan has been in the framebuilding world for decades, starting at Fat City Cycles in the late 80s, being a founding member of Independent Fabrications in the mid-90s, and going solo with Alternative Needs Transportation in the early 2000s. We talk about the different places he’s worked, the emphasis he brings to “transportation” bicycles, and the classes he has taught. We also discuss the perspectives he’s adopted about this work and tips he has for making it all work in spite of the challenges.Follow Mike on Instagram and check out his website.

This week I’m interviewing Sean Handerhan in Pittsburgh, PA. Sean works as a prototyping CNC machinist and has been building steel bike frames in the corner of that shop for the past few years. We talk about his career, about the framebuilding community, about his bikes and his cool wishbone seatstays, about Pittsburgh’s cycling culture, and other perspectives surrounding these things.Follow Sean on Instagram and check out his website.

Sam Whittingham has been building Naked Bicycles for over 20 years in Western Canada. We talk mainly about the career phases of a framebuilder and the huge lessons he learned about where his business fits in the landscape of the bike industry. I think this discussion is one of the best I’ve ever had on this show. We also had a super valuable discussion about forward geometry mountain bikes.Check out his website and follow him on Instagram

Paul Brodie built frames for Rocky Mountain Bikes before starting Brodie Bikes. He built Brodie bikes for over a decade before selling the brand and moving into custom motorcycles. After making some truly incredible vintage motorcycle replicas he began to teach bicycle framebuilding in 2010 and has continued until recently. These days he is making some excellent youtube videos on bike framebuilding. We also discussed his book.Check out Paul’s website and follow him on Instagram

Brad has a long and interesting history in the handmade bike world and we discuss his story. From the days when he made Nemesis Cycles until more recently as he has transitioned the work to the W.H. Bradford brand, we talk about what inspired him and what the challenges were.Follow Brad on Instagram and on his website.

Georgena Terry started building custom bicycles in her basement in the 80s and in the following decades built one of the most impactful businesses in cycling. Her bikes addressed fit issues of shorter riders and eventually her company was re-named to Terry Precision Bicycles for Women - specifically addressing needs of women riders. Terry also famously has produced saddles with a cut out and lots of other cycling apparel. More recently Georgena has left Terry Precision to get back to the custom bike world, though she now focuses on design and customer relationships and has the bicycles manufactured at Waterford Precision Cycles.Check out her website and follow her on Instagram.

This week’s guest is Paul Burford/Burf of BTR Fabrications in Froome, UK. We talk about the history of his company and how he got started. We discussed what the framebuilding community is like in the UK and his time teaching at The Bicycle Academy. We also talked about the partnership business model vs working alone, the importance/frustration of good and bad supply lines, his trail tools and how his mountain bikes are really meant to be tools, and finally we talked about making Youtube content.Check out the BTR website and follow him on Instagram.

I interview Andrew Cooper of Bike Fab Supply in Phoenix, Arizona about his framebuilding supply business. BFS is always growing and adding new product offerings with an emphasis on customer service. It’s interesting to get Andrew’s perspective on how to build a business like his and what cool product offerings he has coming next.Check out Bike Fab Supply and follow Andrew on Instagram.

Nao Tomii builds beautiful bikes in Austin, TX. We talk about how he got interested in framebuilding, how he learned, and what informs his build process. We talked about his hand-hammered bells, beautiful paint jobs, and hand-worked details.Check out Nao’s website and follow him on Instagram.

Eric Tomczak builds Myth Cycles in Durango Colorado. Eric had the opportunity to work with Ron Andrews of King Cage for years before starting Myth Cycles, which is where he learned a lot about bike framebuilding. I wanted to discuss what that relationship was like and how it helped him get started. We also talked about when having complete control of the building process is ideal or even necessary. Eric told us about his recent full suspension frame build and what was involved.Check out the Myth Cycles Website and follow on Instagram

This week we talk to Tyler Reiswig of Btchn Bikes in Chico California. Tyler’s work is ambitious and interesting. We talk about how he grew up with a TIG torch in his hand and how he learned to build bicycles more recently - how parts of it were easy and parts of it were not because of this background. We talk about a bunch of specific projects he has done, like a carbon fiber rando fork and the dropouts he builds. I really wanted to talk to Tyler about the value of community and how helpful it must be to be in Chico with the Paul Component crew, ex-Mountain Goat workers, and having recently had a shop near Mitch Pryor of MAP Bicycles before the tragic fire burned it down. We also discussed CAD software and its application to framebuilding and design.

This week I share my interview with Mark Combs of Chumba USA. We talk about what it’s like to run a solo framebuilding shop like he used to do with Majaco Cycles vs operating a partnership like he does now with Vince Colvin making Chumba USA. We also talk about the satisfaction of making bikes and seeing the rider’s first ride, about the cool dragsters his dad used to build, and about finding viable shop space.Follow Mark on Instagram and check out Chumba USA.

Tom Porter builds Porter Cycles in Brooklyn, NY. His bikes typically involve fabricated, hand-carved lugs and other labor-intensive details. Tom won the best new builder award at the NAHBS 2019 show and it’s no surprise why. In this episode we discuss framebuilding, imposter syndrome, covid 19, and bike touring.

This week I talked to Paul Price about his company Paul Component Engineering, which just celebrated 30 years in business. We talk about how he got to where he is today, the ups and downs along the way, projects that came and went, some of the bikes he’s built, and what it looked like in the early days of Paul. We also discussed the current state of affairs with covid 19 and its effect on business.

John Caletti has been building custom bicycles in Santa Cruz, California since 2004. In this episode, we talk about John’s journey to where he is today and the work that he does. We discussed the live/work space he is in, the importance of good paint on bike frames and the state of the bike painting industry, and the importance of passing the torch and helping others learn.Follow John on Instagram and check out his website.

Ross Schafer founded and built Salsa Cycles in 1982. Ross ran the company for 15 years and built it into a fun and important cycling brand before selling it to QBP in 1997. We talk about what made Salsa unique and successful and some of the stories from back in the day. Since then he has done a variety of things in metalwork and beyond that we discuss. Lately Ross works for Sierra Steels making pedal steel guitars. Fricking cool.Check out the Sierra Steels website, Youtube channel and follow Ross on Instagram.

Eric Weis has been organizing the New England Builder’s Ball for nearly a decade. I interviewed him about the show’s history, what makes it unique, and how it has evolved.Go to the website and follow on instagram.

Austin Russell of Russell Makes isn’t our typical guest on this show. He has taken a framebuilding class and built a bike frame, but more notably, he has built thousands of wheelsets at Velocity USA and for the last few years he has been running the rim factory. Austin has rolled every Velocity rim that has come out of the Grand Rapids, Michigan facility and his job has him covering all parts of the rim manufacturing process from rolling, cutting, drilling, machining, and on to anodizing. Austin also bought my old CNC milling machine and has been making really cool things with it. We also talk about some of his fun bike projects like the Skim Bike Competition and Wheelie Wanderer.Check out Austin’s website, follow him on Instagram, and definitely check out Wheelie Wanderer.

This week I share my interview with Dale Marchand of Rolling Dale Cycles. Dale is relatively newer to framebuilding, but his work is really very strong. We talk about his class with Paul Brodie, the framebuilding scene in Canada, and how he has built up his shop for frame fabrication.Follow Dale on Instagram.

Mark Hester builds custom bikes in Fairfield Australia. Mark studied mechanical engineering in college and worked in motorsports for a while before taking a framebuilding course at The Bicycle Academy in 2015. Since the class, Mark has been building bikes in Australia. Mark incorporates Stainless Steel, Titanium, and Composite materials. I find his use of 3D printed materials to be particularly remarkable.Check out the Prova Cycles website and follow along on Instagram.

Jeff Tiedeken of Monkey Likes Shiny in Richmond, CA does a wide variety of machining and fabrication for aerospace, medical, and even weirdo art stuff. He’s been in and around the bike world for ages including making several absurd concept bikes and bike-related products like a U-Lock wrench.Follow Jeff on Instagram

Brad Bingham has a unique story in the framebuilding world. Brad built his first bike frame out of utility - he kept breaking his Cannondales and he loved machining and fabrication. From there he took a titanium framebuilding class at the United Bicycle Institute, worked in production at Moots for over ten years, and then started to work with Kent Eriksen. Brad has now taken over operations at Eriksen Cycles and rebranded it to Bingham Built.Brad’s TIG welding is out of this world, as you might expect for someone who worked in production for so many years. He is also a very talented machinist and his shop-made tools are excellent. Another thing that sets Brad’s bikes apart is the full suspension frames which have a lot of engineering and custom- machined components.Sit back and enjoy the story.Check out his website and follow his instagram.

Mark Norstad started Paragon Machine Works in his parents' basement in 1983. I interview Mark about his history in the bike industry, and about how things have changed.

Dave is a TIG welding, framebuilding legend in the BMX world and well beyond. This week's episode is a special treat as we dive into his history with Spooky Cycles, FBM, and Pedal Driven Cycles.

Chris Chance has been building bikes for decades, first at Whitcomb USA, then as Chris Chance Cycles, then Fat City Cycles, and after a hiatus, he’s back with Fat Chance Bikes. We talk about how he got started and how he built a brand that made so many huge fans.

Jessica Bratus is an expert bike fitter and the host of the Ann Arbor handmade bike show each year in the spring. We talk about bike fit, how it relates to custom bicycles, and we talk about the Ann Arbor handmade bike show.

Before I was making and selling Cobra Framebuilding Tooling to the public, I was an aspiring framebuildier for a handful of years. This week I tell the story of how I got into framebuilding, how I learned, my first shops, the processes I used, the tools I made, and how I ended up transitioning into making tools.

Mike Desalvo has been building steel and titanium custom bicycles for 20 years in Ashland, Oregon. We talk about teaching at the United Bicycle Institute, learning and mastering TIG welding, and how the industry has changed over the years.

Stephen Bilenky cut his teeth making huge numbers of tandem bikes through the 80s and 90s. He also has made a ton of commuter and touring bikes among others, he has done tons of modifications and retrofits on bikes, and he's known as a master of fillet brazing. This week I asked him how the industry was different then vs now, and how he got started before you could take a class or so-readily learn from peers online. We also talk about the history of the Philly Bike Expo that he started in 2008.

Sean Chaney builds very detail-oriented and expertly-executed mountain bikes in titanium in his shop in Portland, Oregon. We talk about why Titanium, how he got started, what he’s been up to with making some guitars, and more.

Isen Workshop makes unique and beautiful bicycles in the UK and this week I share my interview with Matt, one of the founding members. Isen Workshop is based on Matt’s work with Talbot Cycles and Caren Hartley’s work with Hartley Cycles. Together, and with the help of some others, they do Isen Workshop. We talk about the dynamic of a business model like this. We also talk some about what it’s like being a framebuilder in the UK.

In this episode I share my interview with Chris Bishop of Bishop Bikes in Baltimore Maryland. Chris is a master of refinement and detail in the classic steel bike frame. We talk about what inspires him and how he got started in bike framebuilding.

Bike CAD is Computer Aided Design software for the custom bike framebuilding industry. Brent’s software is an integral part of what makes the industry function. We talk about the history of Bike CAD and some of the bikes he has made.

Royal H Cycles and Hollingsworth Cycles are the two brands that Bryan builds bikes under. They’re modern and classic brands, respectively. In this interview we talk about what Bryan is after and what inspires him in steel framebuilding. We also talk about how he learned to make bikes and how working alongside others at Seven Cycles was really helpful.

Whit gives us the scoop on his framebuilding past and perspectives

I talk to Adam Sklar about his history with framebuilding, how he learned to build bikes without taking a class, how he came to be very interested in running his business, how his background in Mechanical Engineering sometimes can come into play with the bikes he builds, and of course we talk about #danglebongs.

Pete Olivetti makes steel bikes in Boulder, Co. Pete tells us the history of how he got started in framebuilding and where he’s taken it.

Drew Guldalian is one of my favorite bike framebuilders and he makes some super-remarkable bicycles. We discuss what drives the direction of the work he does and why he doesn’t like to accept any compromises in his process.

This week I share my interview with Bina Bilenky of the Philly Bike Expo. This is the show’s tenth year and Bina does a great job organizing it. We talk about the show’s history, how it has changed over the years, about the value of networking, the afterparties, and the seminars.

Brian Chapman of Chapman Cycles builds classic bicycles with artistry and mastery. I ask Brian about his history with framebuiding, what it’s like to work with others vs working alone, and about his advice for new builders.Brian is known for building with classic techniques and aesthetic, and he makes super terrific bicycles.Check out his website and follow him on Instagram.

Erik Noren is a different stripe of framebuilder. He’s #workingbrand and #realminneapolis.