Richard Sachs Cycles

[e-RICHIE]

Bike Guy

This was fun. The Bike Guy birthday ride. Bike Guy is Bill Humphreys, a friend I’ve had since 1972. We met when I was working at The Ski Rack in Burlington. Bill rolled in from the north. Just like that woman in Chocolat. He was on a final leg cycling cross country from San Diego to his family home in Connecticut. Sidelined with a mechanical, Bike Guy found the little shop we were hiding in. And just like the character in the film, he stayed longer than expected AND had a lasting influence on us. That’s Bill’s way.

That friendship and influence have caught many in its net through the decades. Only a handful are shown here. Many more are standing there in spirit.

Bill collects us annually to do as many miles as he’s been alive. Er – but we do kilometers now. And when we’re done, we go back to his house, some folks jump in his lake and splash around, and then we eat and tell stories.

All This By Hand

[jonjonbobi]

Hello, I am new to the forum. My neighbor is elderly and bought a Richard Sachs bicycle in the 70's. He can't ride it anymore, and is ready to pass it on to someone else. I was wondering if I could get help identifying the model/type and history of the bike. Also a rough idea of the value. It appears the serial number is: 5675.

Here are some pics: Dropbox - Bike Pics - Simplify your life

Thank you.

[e-RICHIE]

Made in 1980 for Toga Bike Shop for a client of theirs.

[e-RICHIE]

Cyclocross Is Family™

[e-RICHIE]

[ashwa64]

you brought the truth in that red kite interview, nice job.

new website looks good, too.

[e-RICHIE]

you brought the truth in that red kite interview, nice job.

new website looks good, too.

Thank you Michael.

[Gattonero]

Hello, I am new to the forum. My neighbor is elderly and bought a Richard Sachs bicycle in the 70's. He can't ride it anymore, and is ready to pass it on to someone else. I was wondering if I could get help identifying the model/type and history of the bike. Also a rough idea of the value. It appears the serial number is: 5675.

Here are some pics: Dropbox - Bike Pics - Simplify your life

Thank you.

If that frame fits you, ride the hell out it!

[e-RICHIE]

9.24.18

There will always be the undecided. And those not ready. Never ready. But today I stare at a stack of orders over two inches thick. And in all the words, the second guessing, the dimensions, the color choices, and the revised color choices, these papers represent the seven people to whom I am obligated. After that, everything changes for the first time since this started. I look at the pile, the forms, the edits, the specs, the colors, and the names written on them and I think. It’s not the end I’m trying to reach as much as it is the beginning.

[e-RICHIE]

9.25.18

Making is chaos work is chaos – it’s always been this way (for me) – the real world at the bench is me tossing my balls around mostly above my head and keeping them from hitting the ground – but when I ponder all this I see a clean white space where nothing and no one can invade – but when I get back to Earth the chaos resumes and that’s why my fantasy about making and work and what I do lives its own life – I get paid to keep my balls in the air – my downtime is about letting them fall.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

9.28.18

I’ve held these tools since I was nineteen. Not these tools. Tools like them. They wear out and get replaced often. It wasn’t until I was a full-fledged adult with decades of making that I finally accepted that the tools I select and swing daily are my body. They are my life. As a young man, I romanticized about file strokes and wooden handles and sharp saw blades. I tried to channel experiences I didn’t have but wanted badly. But it doesn’t come that way. And it came. Eventually. After many many years and thousands of bicycles. My tools are I are of the same mind. We know how hard to push. When to stop. How to finesse. How to self-right the ship we’re steering. And we never go over the edge. Because we know (now) where it is and what looms on the other side.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

.
.
light and dark each play a role
both give a chance to see

partners in a larger whole
at least they are for me

the lines between are never straight
their lengths they vary too

light comes early dark stays late
how long it's up to you

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

Day One. 2019. At the bench. The next commission was started last year. Yesterday. Here I am. Again. So many orders and names and piles of material. They run together. They all know each other. As if each off-cut of metal from one start remembers the leftover abrasives used decades ago. And all the broken drill bits. They're part of this. As I reach the last line, and fantasize - because that's what it is, fantasy - about next. I'm reminded that the bicycle isn't what I hand over for money. These crumbs are the bicycle too. Is my task to remove things. Or is it to add them. All of this lives together, with me, in my workroom.

All This By Hand

[Mark Walberg]

"....when Italians ruled the roost."

Hey Richard, I recall back in the early 70s when I was learning how to braze and put bike frames together in Pittsburgh, I saw you ads in Bike World or Competitive Cycling or the old Velo News. I thought, Wow !!!, he has big balls, trying to make it building bike frames in the US, competing with DeRosa and Colnago. I loved riding and a bit of racing, and I loved my start at building bike frames. I went on to something else, keeping the bikes in my life. But, you really did it man! You changed the world of cycling in the US. I am very happy that you have succeeded at this. Cool, indeed. I still build bikes, but only for me and family. (You can't learn what frame geometry does until you play with it.) My look at the end of my list is a whole lot different than yours. I think I could have done it if I'd gone in full bore. But I didn't. Didn't have the guts. Didn't think that the market was there. But you did it. Awesome, man !!!

[e-RICHIE]

W.B.H.

An upper head lug from a set of three. WB is Bill Hurlow. W.B. Hurlow from Herne Bay, Kent. A gift to me from his estate.

I had three Hurlow frames before I ever put my name on those I’d eventually make in New England.

I saved all the letters and even some invoices. Many were handwritten on that old time-y lightweight and crinkley blue paper once reserved for Air Mail correspondence.

To say those early years as paying customer imprinted me would be an understatement. At various moments in my young life I wanted to be this man.

All This By Hand

[ashwa64]

richard: have you still never ridden the nagasawa?

[e-RICHIE]

richard: have you still never ridden the nagasawa?

No, I haven't.

[Lionel]

No, I haven't.

garage queen :)

[MikeS]

No, I haven't.

I had a Nagasawa (gold flake) and rode the hell out of it down at Hellyer. It's the only bike I regret selling. Richard, I'd love to see a pic of yours.

Edit: "heck out of it down in Hellyer"

[e-RICHIE]

I had a Nagasawa (gold flake) and rode the hell out of it down at Hellyer. It's the only bike I regret selling. Richard, I'd love to see a pic of yours.

Edit: "heck out of it down in Hellyer"

They're on my Flickr Albums pages.