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I've fielded a few questions about why I quit framebuilding recently (post a bunch of shit for sale and you'll get that), and I thought I'd explain a bit here.
I built as a nights-and-weekends thing from early 2006 through the end of 2008, while I was managing a construction project in Northern CA. When that project competed, I went all in on bikes, moving back to the East Coast and starting a proper shop.
I "built frames" full time for three years, from early 2008 through early 2011. I put that in scarequotes because so much of my time was spent researching, practicing, and setting up a machine shop. I learned a lot during the process - shout out to Don Ferris, Jamie Swan, and everybody here/on Frameforum/the mailing lists/Flickr for the *tons* of guidance I received along the way. But it was an intensely lonely experience. I was working and living alone, and was single for most of that time period too. I was being creative, sure, but even that was dampened by the fact that much of the time I was just trying to do things that would *work*, with bonus points given for making a little money.
In early 2011, I got a job offer running a new prototyping machine shop for a company building high end windows and doors. I had put a ton of effort into developing a wide range of fabrication skills, and I had done a bit of 3D design (albeit in Sketchup) too, and anyway I'm a hustler. It was hard putting framebuilding aside, but ultimately I knew that I wanted more of a community around me - and for a variety of reasons (all my fault) that just wasn't happening. I took the job, and then transitioned from a machinist into a mechanical/industrial designer + procurement specialist in short order.
I stayed at that job for two years, in which period I designed and managed the development & installation of a system of robotic sliding doors. I transferred most of my machine shop to my former employer, but I held onto most of the bike stuff.
For the past year now I've been living in Brooklyn & doing independent and freelance work. The freelance stuff is mostly 3D design, some light embedded systems work. My independent projects are similarly varied. A large portion of my past six months has been spent developing an FM radio, which is entering a final prototyping stage in the next few days. I've also spent a lot of time researching a range of advanced manufacturing techniques, specifically DMLS, and my initial designs are all bike related. I also have a handful of smaller projects, some of which I've posted about here.
The reason for the recent tooling & supplies dump is partly pragmatic (I'm not actively building frames) and partly logistical (my independent projects require capital to get started). It's hard to see it all go, but I know that I can come back to it if I want to - and anyway, I hate to see tools go unused.
A few months ago, I spent a while thinking about my time framebuilding, and wrote up a long post that goes into a lot more (and more personal) detail about why I stopped framebuilding. If anyone's interested, you can read it here.
Anyway, I hope that clarifies my disappearance/reappearance. I appreciate all the advice, conversation and community that I've gotten in the framebuilding world - and just because I'm selling my tools doesn't mean I plan on vanishing completely :)
Spencer Wright
(Once of) Traffic Cycle Design
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