Richard Sachs Cycles

[e-RICHIE]

pookums atmo -

[WayneJ]

here are the cliffs notes atmo -
some of us are racing T-38s straight out of the catalog, and some of us (me...) are on a revised pair (i.e. prototype) of them that have a 23mm width
across the top to give added bond security between the base tape and the mastik glue atmo. the default wheel of the rs 'cross team continues to be
the T-25 tubulars that are the wheels most often seen in pictures of us racing. the goal is to make that wheel with a 22-23mm width as well for all the
same reasons, and with hope, some of these will be a reality after the first of the year. we have two seasons on cole wheels without a broken spoke,
a wheel needing truing, or a bike change in the pit because of the wheel atmo. righteous.

I'm riding on T-25 wheels that were previously raced by the team. I've put them through the ringer and they're still round and true. Never put a spoke wrench to them yet.

[e-RICHIE]

mined from facebook atmo -

[anon.]

Mr. Sachs - Thanks for the lovely chainstays. They work really, really well.

[e-RICHIE]

last 2010 verge/UCI series weekend.
packing now atmo -

[e-RICHIE]

.....

[Badonkadonk]

Wait, does Barron's have the scoop that Richard Sachs Cycles is back in CT and taking orders from new customers again!?! 55-ish pls, any way you think would work. Pls make it look nicer than whatever Darren has.

[e-RICHIE]

this, after 2 glasses of red, a HUGE bowl of pasta with fennel and sausage, a liter of san pellegrino,
a cupcake that was 4-5 inches across and at least 4 inches high, and a latte that i could swim in the
vessel was so vast atmo -

[e-RICHIE]

though i'm unable to mine the images, i can still link atmo.
here is the 7th ever RS branded frame made (circa 1976) and it's listed on ebay:

click me huh

some day i'd love to see one of these really old ones again. i met the man who owns number 6 while at
nahbs 2.0 and he had no idea it was the sixth. upon realizing it, he retired it form being his daily user. i
thought i had images posted on flickr, but cannot locate the set. meanwhile, i did find pictures of frame
number 11 atmo.

touch me there huh

[DCT]

so very cool. where is frame #1?

[e-RICHIE]

so very cool. where is frame #1?

the first RS frame to ever be made and sold went to a man in mexico named jaime garza.i had made 8 frames for my booth at th the international cycle show which was held at the coliseum near columbus circle (nyc) each february. mister garza bought it straight from my display and left with it the sunday night when we broke down to leave. i don't recall if it was the first frame ever but it was one of the first 8, and he was my first paying client. if i recall, the price for a frame and fork back then was $195 atmo. and this very man who became the first ever RS owner was also in the industry; his firm built the high end benottos in mexico city that were (then, at least) esily mistaken for italian derosas. jaime's son, raul, spent time in cusano milanino learning at derosa and the details for the benottos they made were in the same image. my retention skills for that era are mostly gone, but i seem to recall that ian alsop (he being a GB track rider who was chosen for the olympic team in mexico city 1968 and moved there afterward) also was part of the framebuilding operation that the garza owned atmo.

[roguedog]

hey richie,

when you see these older frames what are you thinking and feeling? "wow, things have changed" "man, why did i do that?" "i see how much i've improved" "dude, that was awesome. i'd forgotten bout those. i gotta do that one my next bike"

do you classify (informally or formally) your bikes into eras or periods?

do you think your bikes are much better now than they were 20 years ago.. or just different?

tks

[e-RICHIE]

hey richie,

when you see these older frames what are you thinking and feeling? "wow, things have changed" "man, why did i do that?" "i see how much i've improved" "dude, that was awesome. i'd forgotten bout those. i gotta do that one my next bike"

i don't attach any emotion or self-examination to these old bicycles, or even to the ones i made last year atmo. they're all just things i did along the way. i'd be lying if i didn't say i notice the seeds planted and the evolution of the style(s) over the years. but that's about it. i have logged in all but mebbe 20-30 of them, so if a serial number is supplied i can find out when i made a particular unit. it's often telling when i see the names attached to each order, as well as the names above and below it. more than the frame specs, the pages of my composition books resonate as markers of the time passed. all of the f'building can eventually run together into one big stew, as in - this is what i have done with my life. but the fact that nearly every last one has a personal connection attached is much more significant a memory atmo.

do you classify (informally or formally) your bikes into eras or periods?

my life and approach to my bench routine definitely changed after my first of 5-6 trips to italy in 1979. when i saw what i saw, and juxtaposed it all against what i had expected (rose colored glasses, and all that...). it was a humbling experience. i am glad i witnessed what i did when i did because it enabled me to work towards being much more detached from the romance so many (including my young self) folks assign to this trade. so, yeah - my pre italy frames and my post italy ones definitely can be said to be where a line in my life's sand is drawn. and since then, many more lines have been drawn, crossed, and never stepped back across atmo. ps this sounds like a larry king live answer, huh.

do you think your bikes are much better now than they were 20 years ago.. or just different?
tks

without question atmo. not only are they exponentially better as well as exponentially different, i am too in many regards. i am still a ISFP and will always be one, but when the years tick by and you find yourself with a body of work, the richness of it alone is hard to ignore. the ebay frame and subsequent chat about some of the early frames is an interesting exercise in self-indulgence. it allows me to be a voyeur on my own past, a past that i don't peek at with any regularity. the real test for me is to let it all go so i'm not trapped by it. for the most part, it's quite easy to ignore, but it's always there if/when i slip off the vanity wagon. its best served in short doses so that one (me, or you...) is not tempted to glorify it, or worse, assume all was better than today atmo.

[e-RICHIE]

not for sale atmo -
we were one half lap away from a season complete with NO casualties .

[velocolour]

i am not an artiste

Says you, snipped from a post a few back.
I think you are Atmo. It is in the way you understand and conceptualize what and why you do what you do. The thoughtfulness regarding the context within which you work. I have a huge amount of respect for you because of this, because you make beautiful frames, and because of what you have done and continue to do for the rest of us.

Thinking on some questions but I am slow.
Until then, thanks.
noah

[anthonymaietta]

not for sale atmo -
we were one half lap away from a season complete with NO casualties .

Wait, why does that fixie with the really cool steep head tube angle have gears and such a raked out seat tube?

[bryand]

hey ritchie,

seeing your posts with frames that are now for sale sparked a question for me... how do you feel about having a frame that you built for one individual now being ridden by somebody else? i guess what i mean is that if you have selected tubes and dimensions to fit one cyclist, are you concerned about how the bike will be perceived by the next owner? (assuming that the frame is meant to be ridden of course, not collected).

thanks for the insight!

[e-RICHIE]

hey ritchie,

seeing your posts with frames that are now for sale sparked a question for me... how do you feel about having a frame that you built for one individual now being ridden by somebody else? i guess what i mean is that if you have selected tubes and dimensions to fit one cyclist, are you concerned about how the bike will be perceived by the next owner? (assuming that the frame is meant to be ridden of course, not collected).

thanks for the insight!

hi - i am more than fine with it atmo. from just a design and rider contact standpoint alone, most similar sized frames are not that different from each other. the custom part of our niche is more about orders preceding the build than it is us making one bicycle for one rider and it will fit no one else but. if you get past the when was it built and do i like the color stuff, the geometries endure. while i have no real connection to the second or third user, if they're happy, i'm happy atmo. one caveat is that folks should realize that the learning curve is always there, even IF it's more a straight line now than it was in the beginning. my skills and sensibility going back to the left side of the time-line were not what they are now, so to score a barn find or a low miles user from the carter era may not offer the fulfillment some might be looking for. the industry has changed parts and interface specs too often and too haphazardly, and getting an 80s frame (for example) and trying to dial in a 10 speed group with integrated shifting and all sorts of newer features will quite often end in disappointment. i recommend keeping all frames assembled with components from the era it was built in atmo.

[e-RICHIE]

hey ritchie,

seeing your posts with frames that are now for sale sparked a question for me... how do you feel about having a frame that you built for one individual now being ridden by somebody else? i guess what i mean is that if you have selected tubes and dimensions to fit one cyclist, are you concerned about how the bike will be perceived by the next owner? (assuming that the frame is meant to be ridden of course, not collected).

thanks for the insight!

oh and ps - i wish i could get paid each time the frame is transferred. i mean, nearly all of the second and third hand transactions find my radar and i am once again pressed into service to find a spec, tell a story about the frame's origins, xerox the original order form, and similar. this stuff takes time and can be soul robbing atmo. the money would help. i just haven't found the correct labor rates to charge!

[rydesteel]

Richie, How long do you keep records? All the way back to the beginning? My family has owned a small construction company for 20 years and finally had to start purging files because of changes in manufactures supplies, ie colors and styles have been discontinued do to companies merging folding ect, and the huge volume of paperwork associated with it. We keep the prior 7 years paperwork and purge the rest knowing that a color match for the siding, shingles is not possible. As a sole Owner-Operator it would seem to be a rather daunting task to keep files going back to the beginning. Thanks,

Frank

P.S.
Is the rider of the damaged frame ok? That frame looks like it hit something hard, and it wasn't JRA on a car top was it, someone took a pretty hard spill. Hope all are ok.