Foresta Frames

[Craig Ryan]

Craig,
Do you feel that your art background has been helpful in the transition to working with metal?

DW

I think this is huge Don, at least for getting me started. Early on I had to keep reminding myself I'd better get a ruler out and stop eyeballing everything. I still tend to just eyeball a bit too much. Your experience has probably enabled you to eyeball it quite well, but mine gets me in trouble. With that said, there are plenty of times I do something like drill a hole too big, or round a point wrong, and then realize it afterward because I don't have the experience base yet. Like the one I'm riding now. I don't like some of my choices with the lugs and stay caps at all, but it's a really nice frame underneath it all. I'm hoping I'll get better with this. For paint and my graphics the art background just gave me the guts to do it.
Thanks! Craig

[Craig Ryan]

Craig,

Great work. I was wondering if you would use the same materials to learn on if you had to do it all over again? I notice that your second frame was spirit with nuovorichie lugs. That's tough stuff! And expensive... But I also wonder if there are things that you learn from exotic thin steel that straight gauge 4130 in stamped lugs might not teach?

Good observation! I wish I'd spent more money on 8/5/8 crmo. But it's purely a money thing. If it weren't for the money I'd use the good stuff every time! It's nice to work with, and you'll learn torch control quicker with it. No coldsetting allowed either. You have to do it right. I recently bought some thicker stuff and have found it hard to go back to. I think it's probably best to build the first few with thicker material. I found no real difference dealing with the harder tubes. It's just a little harder, no biggie here.
Thanks for the great question!
Craig

[steve garro]

Foresta: Craig Ryan


Most people don't know I have Rheumatoid Arthritis. It's not good, and it's been a battle I've had to overcome. I have joint damage in my hands and feet, but I work around it and my meds control it. It's just one of those life things we all face sooner or later.


.

I am sorry, Craig. that sucks. living in constant pain is a big stone around your neck. I know. Please quit cutting up those pretty bikes you put so much into. - Garro.

[zank]

Hi Craig,
This might be similar to Richard's question, but with a different spin. I often think about the timing and circumstances of some of my a-ha moments. I bake my noodle wondering if it would have happened on that day if I had simply decided to go into the shop an hour earlier or later. Can you think of a specific moment or discovery where it seemed like the planets aligned and you came away with something that day that you feared may not have happened otherwise under different conditions?

Thanks for sharing!

[Curt Goodrich]

Craig,

I applaud you for having the stones to take on painting too. Has painting affected or shaped how you look at your metal work?

[Craig Ryan]

Craig,

I applaud you for having the stones to take on painting too. Has painting affected or shaped how you look at your metal work?

Wow! Big time. Every builder should should paint one, or be there the entire way through. I've learned some little things, like I need to bore my brake bolt holes just a wee bit larger, and make sure my axles aren't tight. And I think painting helps to rethink the whole unity of the product. I think it's great you made the choice to do your own.
Thank you!
Craig

[Craig Ryan]

I am sorry, Craig. that sucks. living in constant pain is a big stone around your neck. I know. Please quit cutting up those pretty bikes you put so much into. - Garro.

Thanks Steve, you are more responsible for all this than you might think! I remember when I was first starting out I questioned if it was maybe more than I should attempt. You came right back with a "go for it."

Craig

[Craig Ryan]

Hi Craig,
This might be similar to Richard's question, but with a different spin. I often think about the timing and circumstances of some of my a-ha moments. I bake my noodle wondering if it would have happened on that day if I had simply decided to go into the shop an hour earlier or later. Can you think of a specific moment or discovery where it seemed like the planets aligned and you came away with something that day that you feared may not have happened otherwise under different conditions?

Thanks for sharing!

Mike, this is one I've tried to think about, and it's hard. One big one was when I was brazing a head tube early on. I was feeding the silver in and all of a sudden I saw it coming out the other end of the lug, bridging the miter so to speak. Totally unexpected and it about made me drop the rod. It was something I'd only heard about happening. But that was a moment, and I think the bigger moment was the realization I could build them straight repeatedly. To know the frame matches the drawing is the beginning. General progress is always two steps forward, one step back, those moments you remember are fleeting.
Thanks Mike!
Craig

[rphetteplace]

Foresta: Craig Ryan

While in college at Beloit I rode the roads of Southern Wisconsin with buddies and am proud to have been a part of Zucchini Bike Shop. Back in the day I was one with my Emily K's and riding was my life.

Dude! small world! I live in Janesville! I remember Zucchini and Stella bicycles all too well.

[CyclesNoir]

Smaller world yet. Craig, our times in Beloit must have overlapped. I assume you studied with Michael Simon? I Beloit planned from a '76 to a '77 graduate.

Good story. Nice work that you're doing. Keep it up.

[Craig Ryan]

Smaller world yet. Craig, our times in Beloit must have overlapped. I assume you studied with Michael Simon? I Beloit planned from a '76 to a '77 graduate.

Good story. Nice work that you're doing. Keep it up.

Rich as in, - I'm picturing a Bob Jackson? - Rich? I wondered if that was you! Yes, Michael Simon got me my start. I took his mattboard pinhole camera design, tweaked it, and have had about 3,000 kids build one.
Small world!
Craig

[e-RICHIE]

my wife, aka the lovely deb, went to beloit circa 75 or so.

anyway.

hey craig, i was wondering - what single task or measurement nags at you the
most? a brazing process? an alignment tolerance? something to do with the a
file and metal and hand-eye coordination atmo? and, if you spent an hour in a
career builder's midst, what would you ask him to show you?

[steve garro]

Thanks Steve, you are more responsible for all this than you might think! I remember when I was first starting out I questioned if it was maybe more than I should attempt. You came right back with a "go for it."

Craig

Thanks! i needed that - Garro.

[CyclesNoir]

Yeah, mustard yellow BJ with black HT and seat-tube panel.

Who'd a predicted meeting here?

[Craig Ryan]

my wife, aka the lovely deb, went to beloit circa 75 or so.

anyway.

hey craig, i was wondering - what single task or measurement nags at you the
most? a brazing process? an alignment tolerance? something to do with the a
file and metal and hand-eye coordination atmo? and, if you spent an hour in a
career builder's midst, what would you ask him to show you?

Wow, I was there '72-'77 with the 5 year plan. We'll have to talk next time around.

I know I'd want to watch you the WHOLE way through. ;-) But seriously, I'd like to watch you torch up a headtube from start to stop. The big flame so to speak. It seems to me bb's are easy in comparison. Another process to watch would be the lug fitup. Getting them bent and shaped to rest easy with the tubes. I think many of us beginners tend to start by cramming everything in the jig under pressure. Hoping it all stays put and not realizing things need to be worked more so they are at peace. After a few times it dawns on you the tubes are stressed and it's not going to work that way. Filing is filing, but the little touches each builder does that makes them different would be really cool to watch. And then anyone just starting out would want to watch a pro get the rear end set right. What's rote to you becomes an a-ha moment to another. I think you could go all around the bike and find something to hone in on. And that's all about lugs. I want to see Carl tig a frame into alignment as he goes. Knowing exactly what's going to happen beforehand. I know he does it, Aaron told me so!

One area which has become a pet peeve of mine is the rear brake bridge. I'd love to watch Dave do one in 5 min. like he says. I have trouble getting the little thin support pieces to lay flat and perfect, which it must. Then the miter needs to be seamless, which is hard. If it's not, you never get the crisp edges. Takes me a lot of time to get right.

Thanks Richard,
Craig

I'm off now to spend the night in Chicago, not sure I'll have a connection.

[e-RICHIE]

I'm off now to spend the night in Chicago, not sure I'll have a connection.

hey craig thanks for letting us smoke you out here atmo. this thread will stay live and i hope folks will continue to
poke at you and that you use it to lettuce know any and everything we should about your framebuilding journey.

[Rody]

Craig, ROCK ON dude! It has been a real plesure to watch you learn and grow through the blog. Your unabashed willingness to share the good and bad is tatamount to the teaching process and I'm pleased to see it benefit so many others.

I don't surf a whole lot, so it was nice to stumble across this new section. Good job all.

rody

[WadePatton]

hey craig, great approach and love the a-ha discussion. they're exceedingly common 'round my shop. torches rule.

[Craig Ryan]

hey craig, great approach and love the a-ha discussion. they're exceedingly common 'round my shop. torches rule.

Thanks Wade! Means a lot to me. I've been watching you gear up, keep it coming.

[conorb]

Hey Craig,

I was wondering how you might see your frames/designs evolving given your extensive art background.

Is there a certain aesthetic you're trying to "get to" or is it more on a frame by frame basis?

I guess what I mean is that as you evolve as a builder how do you see tying it all together? Or do you? Is there a need from an design point-of-view to coalesce everything?

I'm probably not making any sense. Sorry.

Conor