Richard Sachs Cycles

[e-RICHIE]

Why Love Matters

It’s important to love your work, to love what you make. To love the ones that go sideways and the others that come close but fall short but get invoiced regardless. To love it all. It’s a leaping off point for others to join you. So they can love it. If nothing else, it’s a chance for them to understand the struggle, easy as it may seem from the shop window. There’s no way to overcome it. The lines move weekly. Sometimes they move before the metal cools. Thing is, you have to accept it. What’s served up. The craftsman thing. The control thing. These will only take you so far. The answer. An answer. Find intimacy between you and the material. It’s nothing but a pile of stuff until you pick it up. Before that vision you have for it becomes closer to real once you grab some tools. But even when the material talks back to you, nod in agreement – and keep going forward despite all of it. The work comes from you alone. Love it. And love it more. And then let others love it.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

Unpopular Culture

Grief is a game played hard, and to win. And always front of a crowd, never alone. You can’t practice it. But you’ll know the match has begun when you realize your number is somehow miraculously already pinned on. How do I know? I just do. Try as I might, I suck at the game. There’s this inner voice I expected to hear so that my time on the field would be superb. The stuff of legends. I mean, who doesn’t grieve? Who can’t do grief well? That’s me. I just benched myself.

Death and loss and grief are so commingled in our culture that I almost feel bad for not understanding it. Two of the more powerful, important, and loved creatures in my life went away less than seven weeks ago. I expected to feel, well – to at least feel differently. To be a Varsity Team level griever. But alas.

I’ve looked at it through many lenses and come away believing grief is for the audience. For the ticket holders watching the game. So that they think they’re getting their money’s worth while you wriggle and cry and face massive losses for words about those who’ve gone to that room upstairs. Note the Chauncey Gardiner reference. Is grief a game faked like the WWF? Is the outcome predictable no matter what happens before the buzzer sounds? Dunno.

I miss Bobbe and Rich beyond words. And yeah I’ve cried quite a bit. And also carry that incredulity streak that they’re no longer on God’s green earth for all of us to touch, to engage, to share laughs with, and to love – and to be loved in return. After all the searching and pondering in the intervening weeks, I’m left believing that I gave as good as I got, and did it all in real time. While they were here. With me. When it mattered.

If grief is about showing others you’re sad, then perhaps I missed the playbook. More than anything, I’m happy. I had a chance to connect with two souls who meant something to me. Who shaped my life. For whom I never waited a moment too long to let know how much their lives enriched mine, and how much I loved them. After all of this, the letting go part was, well – it was quite easy.

[lumpy]

Why Love Matters

It’s important to love your work, to love what you make. To love the ones that go sideways and the others that come close but fall short but get invoiced regardless. To love it all. It’s a leaping off point for others to join you. So they can love it. If nothing else, it’s a chance for them to understand the struggle, easy as it may seem from the shop window. There’s no way to overcome it. The lines move weekly. Sometimes they move before the metal cools. Thing is, you have to accept it. What’s served up. The craftsman thing. The control thing. These will only take you so far. The answer. An answer. Find intimacy between you and the material. It’s nothing but a pile of stuff until you pick it up. Before that vision you have for it becomes closer to real once you grab some tools. But even when the material talks back to you, nod in agreement – and keep going forward despite all of it. The work comes from you alone. Love it. And love it more. And then let others love it.

Thanks. This is timely. I'm at a messy desk doing abstruse stuff that's dragging on too long and all coming down at the same time. I want all my work to be soulcraft and this is a good reminder that I'm the only one who can make it that way.

[ron l edmiston]

-- within i grieve for my father -- i did not "give what i got.."

we never communicated.., bwtf he provided well and taught me to be
strong & pick a life's path.., maybe the wrong path.., but a path that i later changed..
he kept me alive in the paddies of rice.., "i'll show him what i am made of..."
i'm made of nothing.., but the desire to live, show him and keep others alive kept me
looking forward.., not back..
i grieve that i can't look at him now and say.., "we don't agree and never will agree..,
but i love you dad and we're ok.."

so much more than a bike & thinking good thoughts..,
ronnie with a smile

[e-RICHIE]

He Said She Said

I’ve been interviewed and have answered questions for over 45 years and said a lot of things to many journalists and with rare exception some of it maybe much of it got into print even though much of it or maybe just some of it got rearranged by an editor or assistant, but I’m more than very used to it. So when I read about others and what they’re purported to have said or see a quote attributed to them or just see a forum thread about what someone does based on an article published (in the old days I might have written “printed”) somewhere I pause. I pause because I know or at least I accept that the news or the article or the words or all of it AS WELL AS the pictures that are used to sweeten it up – all of it is a currency that those with the pens and pads and mics and recorders use to make their own mark on the world. We do what we do. We make things. They ask us all sorts of questions about what we do. And make. And then the parcel of intellect we hand over becomes their property to bundle and present as content. Content. Then after all of this the receiver digests it in his own inimitable and unique way and decides based on reading skills and attention span and most of all depth – he decides what it is we said. It doesn’t matter what we said. Because that part of the equation is already gone.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

Saying Boo

Ya to be clear, I’ve said a lot of things and opined regularly since 1997. Before that I never said boo to anyone about anything. But that’s another story according to my opinion. Thing is, I’d take none of it back. In some instances, I wish I’d waited longer to say it. Other times, I regret not dealing with it sooner. And in both examples, sometimes the words could have been broadcasted to a wider audience and had more impact. Or the messages could have been articulated differently. Or better. I’ll own it all, no matter. But the point remains – people start too soon, or are untrained for the task, or almost worse, are undertrained. That last part means that they know a little, from a book, or course, or maybe from asking a bunch of questions on the Not Framebuilders Page and the replies, also from the untrained or undertrained sector, become the foundation they build upon. That’s. Fucking. Scary.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

Red Scents

The last seven frames to come back from the paint shop have been some version of red. I won’t give it much more thought. If they made it to Spring Valley at all it means each commission passed the RS smell test on enough levels so that I’d feel comfortable delivering the bicycle to a waiting client, that it would fit superbly, work according to my belief system, and look bitchin’. If there’s any one theme that ties all of this together it’s the consistency with which inconsistencies are part of the process.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

Update

I’m on a bit of a tear. This is my third frame since last Monday. PegoRichie. Richie-Issimo. Piccoli Gioielli. House Rules. Special sauce. Two pickles. Side of coleslaw. Typical RS recipe. Better yet, I learned how to load multiple images on IG. This is DR57. It’s going to be a nice 56cm road bicycle with level top tube, normal design elements from end to end, and probably – based on recent history – some kinda’ red paint. These are some early process shots.

In other news, I started the rest of my life last week. That’s the kind of story normally buried beneath the fold. But what’s private these days? I’ve had a tumultuous autumn, preceded by some eight tumultuous years of their own. So I made a pact with myself in January that on the 28th, I’d walk across the threshold. It’s no small coincidence that it would have been Bobbe’s 89th birthday. Or it was the day we drove home from Rich’s memorial in Wilmington. Thing is, I was ready to move ahead and take my love for all of it, for all of them, and for TLD and our little Buddy, and for my work, and for our new routine in Deep River – I was ready to, well – I was just ready. So here I am.

All This By Hand

5, February 2018

[progetto]

Richard, Have you looked into the future and drawn a line in the sand and chiselled in a date to call it quits or is it a day by day prospect?

[e-RICHIE]

Richard, Have you looked into the future and drawn a line in the sand and chiselled in a date to call it quits or is it a day by day prospect?

No not at all.
Finish current list then hit reset button.

[e-RICHIE]

In Sync

Here’s a random shot culling from Monday. For the frame I started Sunday. Every day I learn something new. Today it’s that taking 400 images and selecting only ten is harder than making a bicycle. I also learned that capturing the work I do at the bench stores energy I wasn’t aware existed. My research tells me that for every six pictures taken, my Nikon will live the equivalent of one week longer in the future than had I left it on the table unattended, So my research tells me that the work I did (the aforementioned 400 images) will drive my camera’s shelf life roughly sixty six days into the future. It’s like planing, but for photography. I’m in sync with my D7200. Quel dommage. That’s French for “what cheese“. Kinda’.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

Next One

I finished this one Tuesday but got bored with the Nikon so will only post one. And a bonus image. (Cardinal Egan: “Which doesn’t belong and why?”) The rest, if I get motivated, will go up tomorrow. The thing about making things is that, if you make them long enough they begin to run into each other. To overlap. The last three start reminding you of the last nine. But your head is always on the next two. Or that gem you’re getting ready to throw into the science oven in March when you’re head’s cleared and you’re 200% centered. But and everyone has a big but – you still have the daily suffer. The one on your bench that’s 9/10ths done and you really need to nail it shut because you know the client is following your every 1s and 0s move. So you do – you do finish it. You box it up. Call @bikeflights. Let JB know what color it’s gonna be. Give him the serial number. And start thinking about the next client and what’s needed for his three days of your life’s work.​​

I’m almost finished too with my list. I expect to nail that one shut by early 2019. If I stay hungry. And motivated. And then, after all these years, I can fully dissemble the machinery, deconstruct the operating system, take four days off, maybe a full week, spend some time at the electric beach, get some color and work on the tan lines, and get ready to hit the reset button. That. Will. Be. So. Swell.

All This By Hand

7, February 2018

[Lionel]

I’m almost finished too with my list. I expect to nail that one shut by early 2019. If I stay hungry. And motivated. And then, after all these years, I can fully dissemble the machinery, deconstruct the operating system, take four days off, maybe a full week, spend some time at the electric beach, get some color and work on the tan lines, and get ready to hit the reset button. That. Will. Be. So. Swell.

All This By Hand

Good for you Richard and congrats on such a long and successful "career". How do see life after reset ?

[e-RICHIE]

Good for you Richard and congrats on such a long and successful "career". How do see life after reset ?

Making bicycles.

[e-RICHIE]

Lil’ Pepper

Next up a mini-version of what I do at the bench. It’ll be a lot smaller than the picture suggests. A 49cm frame for someone needing a 66cm saddle height dimension. All the measurements will be scaled down to make this work. The top tube 52cm. A reach from a 28cm length saddle nose the ‘bars in the 50cm range. So far we’re up to 196cm and I haven’t even thought about the fork. But I will. The head tube on this one is 1.5cm taller than it would be with a horizontal top tube. I lifted it because I didn’t want it to get confused with a salt shaker. Anyway – I’m gonna make this look absolutely puss and the client will be über happy (that’s German for immeasurably satisfied). If you’ve read this far and wondered about the frame in the last 2-3 posts, it’s on a FedEx truck on its way to JB’s. I’ve already forgotten about it. All that matters now is the wee one on my bench. I’ll get it into the science oven by late Thursday.

All This By Hand

9, February 2018

[King Of Dirk]

If you’ve read this far and wondered about the frame in the last 2-3 posts, it’s on a FedEx truck on its way to JB’s. I’ve already forgotten about it.

[NYCfixie]

...Next up a mini-version of what I do at the bench. It’ll be a lot smaller than the picture suggests. A 49cm frame for someone needing a 66cm saddle height dimension. All the measurements will be scaled down to make this work. The top tube 52cm. A reach from a 28cm length saddle nose the ‘bars in the 50cm range. So far we’re up to 196cm and I haven’t even thought about the fork. But I will. The head tube on this one is 1.5cm taller than it would be with a horizontal top tube. I lifted it because I didn’t want it to get confused with a salt shaker....

This means that hope is still alive. If the list ever opens again, I might get that 50x53, 68cm saddle height, and headtube extension frame that would fit my abnormal proportions (assuming that is what I am told I need).

[e-RICHIE]

Last Steps

The last thing I do before a frame is entered into the RS census book – that step is decorating the seat lug area. By the time I arrive here, every other assembly procedure, task, quality assurance check, and related correspondence with the client has been put to bed. I’m now twenty minutes from done-dom. There are several pins to knock off and burnish down. The entry port for the seat post has to look good. And sharp. And all RS-y and shit. And the last part of the final section of the last and final thing I do is to whale on the seat stay plugs so that they look better than they did for the previous two plus days. There’s the shape and the radii and the curve and the symmetry, and all of it has to look swell from above and from the rear. The side views matter less because it’s not easy to sight one and then quickly sight the other to see if they look alike. Data point: They. Never. Do. I stopped trying, or caring about this when Bush One was in office. Oh heck maybe a lot further back than that. Probably when Marshall Crenshaw was still hot. Thing is, when I get to this area, these details, my head is miles (that’s American for kilometers) away from the work I’m finishing and already two hours or more into whatever I’m planning next. But I do have to eke out some beauty some elegance so that JB has a target to hit when he loads the paint. But to say I sweat matching the rights and lefts would be a lie. I try. Muscle memory drives this bus. I try. But not that hard.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

In The Shadows

Finished this ‘lil one yesterday before sunset. The shadow is telling. My studio space gives good shadow atmo. This gem is 48cm by 50cm with a 12cm setback. The head tube is 1cm taller at the top because I didn’t feel like wrestling with the parts and turning the area into a salt shaker. Wait. I already used that line two days ago. Eagle eyes will notice the PegoRichie Ne Plus Ultra™©® chain stays, made specifically for each frame on demand when and where needed (?). This allows, for example, the RS Piccoli Gioielli 64 degree dropouts to play nicely in a space that’s actually 66 degrees. Always thinking. Always thinking.

All This By Hand

13, February 2018

[e-RICHIE]

Switch

I started the next commission before the ink on that last one was dry. It’s been a long while since I’ve worked so much and been as productive. Feels good. This one is a 61cm road frame. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except in contrast to the last five, it’s for someone whose taller than 6′. Frames of a certain size range seem to go together easier and also build themselves. I’ve felt that way since 1973. Before that, I didn’t have a clue since I was still looking for any crumbs left from the wisdom of others. Those first several years were about watching American Bandstand and wondering what parts I gotta shake to look that cool when the music played. I gotta tell ya’ – the rhythm thing is an acquired taste. Maybe it’s a feel. But when it finally comes, you hear the sound more crisply and react in ways that should be banned. Making things is like that. You wanna make, but you don’t know. So you watch and watch and try to find that inner switch that works the osmosis machinery. I thought I found mine early. But was only fooling myself. And others. In the recent weeks it’s come back in spades. The switch is flicked on.

All This By Hand