mothers --- the cornerstone...
a smiling face always in the right place..
really enjoyed -- thank you for sharing ...
ronnie
Printable View
mothers --- the cornerstone...
a smiling face always in the right place..
really enjoyed -- thank you for sharing ...
ronnie
the interview contained in the above two links continues in print atmo -
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/...a05f22d2_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5299/...5d6f6c2f_b.jpg
Cool, nice picture of my frame ;)
i shot my ghetto this a.m. and loaded some images on to a flickr set atmo.
here are some teasers -
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/...b25ab646_o.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5099/...f6986ac6_o.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5054/...78666a69_o.jpg
where are all the harpoon ipa empties atmo?
Congratulations! First on the list!
Bike Europe - News: First Brands Receive UCI Label Frames and Forks
I love reading your scribe! Nice piece. -Chris
there are reasons i work alone, and in silence. and with the not so recent move to franklin county, they have become more apparent than ever before. my life has always been in transition even if the work i do appears to have a consistent theme and aesthetic. i have read where folks say what i do hasn't changed much and, even when the work is commended, i question and disagree with their premise. i have never made the same bicycle twice, nor would i care to. but this is less about the bicycles i make and more about paying attention. the net has made it very easy to send out messages and opinions. like so many others, i have been caught in it too. i have always been self-absorbed and focused on my work, what drives me, and the results that i am looking for. watching and reading as life is played out online can be like candy for a diabetic. it's all there to search for, and a lot of it is served up with no need to look at all. you only need to be online, and the rest can find you, end up in a thread you're reading, or as a message sent via facebook, through forum software, via email, or similar. with all of these distractions, being alone becomes work.
whatever ease i tiptoed through life with up until that fateful day my first dell inspiron arrived is now a memory. filters are needed where none existed before. i think about actions and words (as well as alliances) now because everything is cached. for as much benefit as my business has received in the internet era, there has also been a toll to pay for becoming part of its cast of characters.
when i transitioned from chester to warwick, it was all part of a plan to simplify life and also to live it more fully. the move itself was more of an ordeal than i could imagine. forgetting about real estate agents, lawyers, lenders, and potential buyers for a moment, the very task of taking 35+ years worth of yourself from one place and dropping it off in another place is one which still is being carried out to this day. if there's a way to load stuff on a truck on friday, move it over the weekend, and resume life on monday, i certainly missed the memo. we arrived in autumn of 2009. i waited until mid winter of 2010 for the zoning permits, the architect's plans, and the contractors to all come and go so i could finally have studio space all to myself. that alone is five months i'll never have back.
i often joke that i left attitude for solitude. and, for a brief moment last spring i was actually working again, in silence, on a regular basis. by summer though, i learned about life, lemons, and lemonade, and have had to develop new filters for things that weren't planned for. since then, and for another moment - however long a moment stretches - i live within these parameters. as winter comes to an end and the ice on the pond here melts, it's a good time reflect on the pace of things and know - or should i say, realize - that it all happens for a reason. after almost two years on a dead end, dirt road with almost no personal interaction unless we go down the mountain, i see this transition as being nearly complete. whatever comes next, believe me, i'll be better prepared.
there's a reason i work alone. it suits me. i prefer to stay within my own boundaries rather than widen them and compromise by working with and for others. whenever i let anyone or anything into my cocoon-like existence, i feel like i am giving up a part of myself for them or whatever problems we are collectively trying to solve. it may work for others, but it's not how i am wired. the concept may have merit, but in practice it loses all appeal. for all the half-baked attempts as well as genuinely honest efforts made to work in collaboration, behind the scenes, in private forums, on closed cc field email strings, and in dark corners of the internet, i knew all along that working alone is its best reward. to do good work, and to do it without seeking the affirmation of anyone else, is a gift you give to yourself. i lit a few matches along the way, and i burned some too.
march has been a long month for me. i have spent less than four days at home since NAHBS. this is the weekend i go through all the mail, open all the cartons left on the porch, pay some bills, prepare to ship some long overdue parcels to clients in waiting, and also fantasize about getting to that place where i can say - finally - i have a routine again. there's no better feeling than that of being impenetrable; to be able to take what you want from the world and give a big eff to whatever else would only be excess baggage anyway. the latter is my way of describing noise, and also why i work better in silence. trading attitude for solitude...
Welcome home.
my favorate life reading ---
"walden pond" david henry thoreau
"hastings pond" richard sachs
coincidental ...
ronnie
Richie:
Great thread and great idea for this Smoked out.
When I came up for my fitting, you mentioned that ery few customers made the trip to (then) Chester..............Hae you been surprised by that?
You also talked about making each frame a little better than the last.........Have you ever had a frame you thought was as close to perfect as you could get? What hapened to that frame?
Say hi to Deb for me.
Len
thanks, len. great to see you here atmo.
not realy. i opened the brand in 1975 some thirty feet from where we sat that day and, from the beginning, less than 10 clients a year did the face time thing. the ratio has remained the same.Quote:
When I came up for my fitting, you mentioned that ery few customers made the trip to (then) Chester..............Hae you been surprised by that?
yes. when that stops, i'll stop. but in reality, the learning curve became a straight line kinda sorta and the moments between the killer epiphanies seem wider apart. that should be expected.Quote:
You also talked about making each frame a little better than the last.........
very, very few. less than a dozen is a good guess.Quote:
Have you ever had a frame you thought was as close to perfect as you could get?
they're out there. when i get that close, i wanna make time stop. but my business model requires that i keep going. so after a while, i remember parts of parts of sub-assemblies on certain frames. the rest - well, i try to stay detached so that i can focus on the next one rather than wax nostalgic for what preceded it.Quote:
What hapened to that frame?
anyway, i am not sure i can answer your question, but i have no problems replying. the ever-reaching for the zero defect frame was once an obsession and the concept drove me for decades. but it's elusive. and so much focus on what boils down to percentages that can hardly be measured, much less felt, also costs. i think that for all the changes, and a-ha moments, and improvements, perceived or real - for all of it, i'm glad that i took that road. in more recent years, i have reconciled with what should have been obvious from day one: no matter what i know, or hard hard i try, or how centered i am on a given day, some frames will always be better than others. it's so simultaneously simple and confounding. the hard part is remembering that you're known for all of the work, not just the best of it, or the latest version.
will do.Quote:
Say hi to Deb for me.
Len
thanks atmo.
whenever i don't ride, or lose fitness, i question most everything, especially my self-confidence. since my own racing, my team, and the sport itself are so intertwined with my identity, when seasons end and there's no driving reason to maintain a training schedule, i become someone else. my last event was the national championships this past december. the venue was in bend, oregon since the host city normally retains a bid for a two year period. my 2010 season was okay at best. but in 2009, i was on rails. i won five events, and my season long consistency netted me the top rung on the usac ladder of all age graded racers participating that season. in all, my name was listed above over one thousand others. heck - as a racer i'm okay and all that. on a good day i can get out of my own way and persevere for an hour or so of competition. but to end a season ranked first made all the training and focus worth it. but that was then! i had a hard time remembering all the lessons in the pain cave this past autumn as i struggled for top five finishes. i wanted good results for myself, and for my confidence, but - most of all, i think - i wanted them in order to maintain some level of respectability in public. the team i manage and race with is a high profile one and we're used to being in the spotlight by dint of so many podium finishes every weekend. while my team mates are all in the elite class, i limit my racing to the masters category. but racing is racing, and as long as two people show up, i will have a target and someone to beat up on. while it doesn't always work out that i can be the hammer (rather than the nail), the racing i do each weekend in the fall months helps complete me as a person. yeah - i do try as hard as i can (except for that pathetic effort on day one in new gloucester, maine last october when i stopped pedaling after the first lap...). i ride every race to win, but the truth is, while i felt like king shit in 2009, i had a darned hard time of it last season. when the last race in bend came around i was almost relieved that my 27th start for 2010 would be my last.
i rarely do well in national championship events, an 11th in 2008 being my best so far. maybe it's the long seasons and the traveling. maybe i get intimidated by competing against folks whose names i know from race results but only see in person once each season. despite racing with the same forty to fifty cats all the time here in the east, there's a comfort zone in knowing who you can trust to miss a root, which guys you can lean on in a corner, who hates muddy days, which riders are always going to have a mechanical no matter what, and all things in between. the nats are a different story. it's one race with guys you don't really know, and then you fly home and wait seven months for the entire ordeal to resume. this past december, i was riding the race in bend with half my head someplace else (why did 2009 ever have to end?) and was pleased beyond words when my front tire flatted with a lap to go. alas, no matter how bad i felt, or how good i looked in the race pictures, when the results would be published i knew i had an excuse to use to explain away my miserable finish.
the race ended. i rode straight through the finish line and to the rental van. i changed out of my racing kit for the last time that season. the bicycles, mud, flat front tire, frayed cables and all, went into roger's trailer for the drive home after the weekend. i wouldn't see them for another three weeks until we would meet at a local post season event and i'd collect them for good. the two racing bicycles made a brief appearance at the NABHS show in february where they served as a cornerstone of my booth's display. then they came back to warwick to rest.
me? i guess i have been resting since that last lap ended. to be honest, maybe i was resting most of the season because i don't have many great race day memories to hang my hat on. in contrast to the year before, 2010 was forgettable, as least as far as my efforts are concerned. no matter how many 70 minute trips i made to the endorphinage (that's code for training) i couldn't get my name on the scoreboard. until six days ago, i hadn't pedaled a bicycle since that fateful day in oregon. with spring here, and my self esteem taking a hit every time i pull on the pants or get near a scale, i started riding again this week. whatever i had is gone, and whatever i was using to do it with has atrophied. the feeling of riding is familiar because it's in my dna, but the feeling of riding like someone so closely tied to the sport is not there.
i won't have a race to enter for another six months. since there's no base in my legs, no muscle tone, and certainly no tan lines, i will question everything. why do we have to do this, or that restaurant is too far to drive to, or i'm too tired - why can't we stay home, yada yada blah blah blah. i don't know when in my life the racing and the fitness became so tethered to my happiness and self-worth, but it certainly gained a level or three during and after my 2009 campaign. i want to be that person forever. i want to spend all week with names and faces in my cross hairs, and then show them all who's boss twice a weekend. until you know that feeling, that of winning (or, at least, being in control) you'll wonder why anyone would care about it at all. for now, with less than five rides in my legs, very little will matter, make me happy, or drive me, until i can get the confidence back.
Your two recent posts made me think of these W.W. lines:
I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.
There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.
be'n a farmboy --- i learned that if ya want yo purebread top dairy producer to continue:
gota clean the" birth after," delivery end -- to cleanse for with even better / "richer" future production..
honesty and self cleansing -- atmo virtues ..
just a say'n,
ronnie
The move to Warwick
One of the team mate has a season-ending injury
Another pulls out last-minute
Only so much Capt'n ATMO can absorb in addition to the normal stress of running a top-caliber team.
Mental freshness is key.
2011 will be better. F-you 2010!
Atmo reMission Statement
Every bicycle begins with a carefully selected blend of steel tubes: rider and frame-builder working together toward a unity of beauty and functionality. Each frame is built to the customer’s specifications, as well as my high standard of quality. I wouldn't build anything I wouldn't ride. I build bicycle frames because of the unlimited potential of travel, design, lifestyle, craftsmanship and the view from the handlebars. They are all a result of a love affair with the bicycle as a tool for discovery, a vehicle of efficiency and one of the most elegant machines that man has ever made. My goals in frame building are simple good riding bikes. Bicycles are for riding. Each tube is hand-selected for the rider and type of bike being made and then hand mitered and fitted for the perfect weld site. I use time-proven, traditional construction methods, but this does not mean these are old world, heavy non-performance oriented bikes. The frames are pinned together (which is a skill no longer used) brazed in a vice and then filed to give you the handmade bicycle. I use silver to bond my lugs and tubes. Silver has a very low melting temperature. When a steel frame is built with silver, the matrix of the steel is left virtually unchanged and its strength unaffected. The goal at is to create unique bikes that makes your pulse race. A visually simple design is often surprisingly difficult to execute. Every buyer starts out by filling out a comprehensive questionnaire intended give me a general idea of what type of cyclist you are, and uncover any special needs or desires you might have. To create your frameset, I combine the finest modern steel alloy tubing with strong and beautiful lugged joints—producing a stunning, one-of-a-kind frame built just for you. I am the sole builder, so each frame is hand cut and mitered by me. I make each frame with the minimal amount of fixtures. My goal as a builder is simple: it is to deliver an outstanding bicycle that will make you want to get out and ride. Yes, the end product is stunning but the beauty is integral, functional - more than just a shiny head badge. Each frame strikes a balance between weight and stiffness while still keeping that steel ride that is unrivaled. It is my passion to combine traditional methods and materials with a contemporary view towards building bicycles that are above all useful, elegant, and timeless.
even ronnie won't like that.
like, hell --- with a smile, in the world i came from ---:
ya communicate your mission to create a special product, for a special need from a special technology -- race proven for yo everyday driving --- "better than it has to be.."
your sku established, marketing in tune / right synchronized marketing gears and word of mouth..
don't play the "mega boy" game of voulme and relegate yourself to a commodity..
"Percieved Value.." "Lower Volume.." & escalate your selling price $'s..
ronnie
i'll move the post over to this thread when i am done drinking atmo.
long day here.
I might just cut this and paste to the 'fridge in an effort to help my wife and kids understand me a little bit better...or at least that person that I am just before and during racing season.
Glad to hear the fire is still lit for you and that if we play our cards right we can all still have at least a few good seasons left in us.
i posted about this once but am unable to locate it, so i'll start again.
here was the text -
This is the 566th RS branded frame atmo and was made circa 1981. See the line in the rule book for further details. It was one of two frames I made for a couple, and this was the smaller one. To the far right of the specs (near to the serial number) you'll see the word "weird" in the area normally reserved for the paint selection. Yeah - even back then I was an opinionated eff.
The bicycle has been in regular use lo all these years until recently when it met its fate in a garage versus Yakima rack moment. I'll replace the fork blades, send it all to the paint shop, and get this bad girl back on the highway atmo.
PS This is an all original paint scheme. Imagine seeing the matching pair on your next ride?
i added some updated pictures to the flickr set as JB delivered the repaint today.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/...4a59f3e9_b.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/...fe5e0cb2_b.jpg
my pal tom officer, a pal snce 1974, and one of the most successful U.S. racers from that era. he's had at least four of
my frames over the years, most recently during a comeback 4-5 seasons ago when, after vowed to lose some 60 pounds
of himself, came all the way back to put the hurt on cats once again - in Pro 1+2 events as well. this pic is from 2008 atmo.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5061/...61b8f67f_o.jpg
Where do ideas come from - and where do mine originate? With so much of my life spent with and around bicycles, as well as being a maker of them, I wonder about this. I arrived on the industry's doorstep by accident and very ill prepared, and have managed to eke out nearly four decades of a career from it all. Some of it could be attributed to beginner's luck. But those early, innocent days of the 1970s are long gone and I am not. I’m here, still enjoying the trade, the lifestyle, and all things that come with making, riding, and racing bicycles. What cards did I play right to make the cut?
Bicycles don't ever really change much. There are the wheels. A drive train. Some components that make it all easier to pedal forward and to stop. And the most important component - a rider. As the years pass, the industry finds ways to make newer, lighter, and sexier bicycles, but they're still just bicycles. When I first became enthused with riding, I almost simultaneously embraced the bicycle too. The activity as well as the tool for it drew me in. But I was only 17 or so and had no real cycling related influences. There was no catalyst to invite me further into this new hobby. I liked it, and it made me feel good. Was this enough of a reason to let the needle in? Perhaps it's the best reason to do anything at all.
When I set out to make bicycles, the first steps involved finding a way to England so I could follow someone else's path. I didn't really want to make bicycles, or learn about making bicycles; the time line began when I was beside myself with disappointment. A position for a bicycle mechanic appeared in the Village Voice. Without so much as calling the number or pondering the scenario, I left the Port Authority terminal on 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue with a one way ticket on a Greyhound bus to get a job in Vermont. I didn't get it. To avenge the situation, somehow I decided that making bicycles trumped fixing them, and I was going to show these cats (the ones who ran the classified in a newspaper circulating some seven hours south, I might add...) that I mattered. I compiled a list of known bicycle makers in England and wrote to each expressing a desire to learn the trade in return for (my) free labor. I ended up in London within a year of first boarding that bus.
It wasn't as if I had an industry background, or a body of work, or some inkling that I, Richard, could possibly bring something new to the table. I was raw. I was beyond raw. I spent my formative years in classrooms and on campuses, rather than learning trades or taking classes at a vocational school. When I arrived in southeast London to begin a bicycle maker's life, I really had no idea I was doing such a thing at all.
In the years since, I wonder how I made it last. I once mentioned that my life was like a balloon that the wind blew around, and then around some more. I am also on record as saying that one of the reasons I never drifted away was because I was too stupid to see the warning signs. And I meant that. But all in all, I like making, riding, and racing bicycles, and the pleasure it all gives me feels good.
But do love and good feelings comprise enough of a cushion to ride out one's entire adulthood (so far)? Is this a formula for not just happiness but commercial success as well? As with my humble and almost accidental entrance to the trade, the years that followed were also uncharted. Despite that I enjoy making bicycles and have felt this way all along, it's fortunate that others also liked the ones I make. Almost from day one, I had clients, an order queue, and no shortage of media coverage. It all works well in harmony to sustain a business and to make a guy like me feel affirmed in his choices. The truth is, though, I never felt as if I was doing anything different. I am nothing if not the receiver of all of my earlier experiences, all the secrets I was told, all the processes I saw at the workbenches of the folks who showed me, as well all the lessons taught in the classrooms I've sat. Everything I do, or introduce into my brand's vocabulary, has roots somewhere. Am I a borrower - a stealer? I don’t knowingly push a boundary or bring something to the market that I can cite as the work of another person. Nothing comes from a place I can recall ever having visited. Ideas just flow and I go with them. Are these the rearranged plans and secrets of those who came before me? Most likely, yes. At what point do they become mine? I wrestle with this.
Appropriation is a word I love. It speaks to me because it's a kinder, gentler word to use when borrowing, copying, and stealing would send the wrong message (or maybe the right message in some instances...). I think the act of appropriating best explains why my brand has endured, and also why my lifestyle has too. My bicycles and how I have presented (and represented) them have roots in all that came before me. My influences, choices, and biases are a result of my path and the teachers I have met on it. Family, friends, rabbis, professors, fellow workers, classmates, and every visual that has ever made my radar - I tap this deep well whenever a new idea comes to mind. I can't think of any gems that didn't come from somewhere else. Nothing is original.
This brings me to another thought about my life and my bicycles. Fashion designer Marc Jacobs added the following caption to a photograph that appeared in the style section of the Sunday New York Times. The text resonates so much with me that I find myself clinging to it often.
"Appropriation is a totally and actual way of creating. Every field works to a certain extent in that way, and I think one is absolved of being a thief or a fraud when one fesses up to what informs one's work. I always get this quote from Chanel wrong, but the gist of it is that he who insists on his own creativity has no memory. I don't think it's necessary to say how fantastically original one is, and if one does, one only has to dig in the past to find out who came up with that idea. Innovation is an evolutionary process, so it's not necessary to be radical all the time."
I am not Richard; I am all the people I have met and all the events that have shaped me, especially the ones that put the air in my balloon. I have taken from all of you.
Nice way to define Art man,
It would have taken me years to pin those thoughts down
After I finished reading it I couldn’t help but think of the sense of urgency I feel when an Idea pops into my head. I don’t think its just in my head but more that its in the collective consciousness so to speak and my head happened to kind of bump into it on its way to other heads.
Believing that really pushes me to make the things I think of come to life before the next…
well you know
Just thinking out loud really
Thanks for posting that
BTW I’m going to steal that MJ quote. Its brilliant. Just wanted to put that out there.
nanos gigantium humeris insidentes
IF: nanos gigantium hureris insidentes + Sic Transit Gloria = Max Fisher + Ronny Blume
Then: Ben and Jerry + plane vanilla must =
a recent interview in peloton, originally split between its site and its third print issue, now lives in its entirety here atmo -
Artisans: Richard Sachs | RICHARD SACHS CYCLES
.
G-10 macromania atmo -
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5066/...ace6a0a1_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/...412a1029_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5183/...c839eba1_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/...3ef33bb0_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5141/...557aca95_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5146/...7564a5be_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5184/...75bdace2_b.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/...8884b034_b.jpg
frames waiting to be built up atmo -
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/...1eafc3aa_b.jpg
richard
hows the training for the vsaon ballers ride coming?