Richard Sachs Cycles

[e-RICHIE]

One day after about thirty years of living with a color, I woke up and decided to walk away. The red and white Richard Sachs paint scheme, selected almost by accident when I had to match bicycles I was making for my racing team - matching them to clothing already produced by the apparel supplier Le Coq Sportif - a pattern that has had more tonal changes, ink revisions, decal sizes and placement combos, but has remained essentially red and white since 1982, is now part of my past.

For the last several seasons I looked at what I had and considered the project done - mature. But mature in the sense that I couldn't change another detail and still feel content, or that I was going forward with fine design. The current version has been the same since 2009 and I had nothing left I wanted to give to it.

With that as a sentiment, I thought about what's next. In the time it takes to strike a key, my plan became clear. I wanted a wholesale departure from my past so that I could cross a line on a certain day and step into my future. There was only one place my trust would be placed for such a leap: @houseindustries.

I contacted @richroat, expressed a fantasy for a Queer Eye For The Atmo Guy ordeal for my identity program, and asked that he and his staff guide me. The hash marks were simple; I wanted to bury the red and white think, lose as many connections to the look that I had worked around and with all these years, and emerge with something uniquely House Industries For Richard Sachs.

After some twenty months, we are walking up to that line and crossing it together. Rich, and all at House Industries, have created my future, and it begins this fall. The Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team with start the season and show off the creations that House has designed. Graphics. Colors. Racing kits. Accessories. Maybe even stickers. Well, maybe not.

The year 1982 was my foray into race sponsorship, and I've managed teams ever since. That won't change, but everything you see will.

The above ^ my 2013 summation of Operation Reskin. Rich wanted me to tee off on his idea that, “…this project was financed by the currency of mutual respect and regard.”

[e-RICHIE]

comment responsibly

[robin3mj]

Is this real? Who brewed it and can I find some in Virginia?

[e-RICHIE]

Is this real? Who brewed it and can I find some in Virginia?

Shoot a message over to -
https://cantina-cantina.com/

[e-RICHIE]

RSCX 2021

[e-RICHIE]

Yakkin’ with Padraig.


https://cyclingindependent.com/the-crash-richard-sachs/

[e-RICHIE]

[Ras72]

pretty rad.

[e-RICHIE]

my time as a sixty something includes another 14 months, plus or minus. at some point i decided this decade would be spent feng shui-ing my life (so far.)

i view this 10 year period as my time to arrange all the disorder (until now) and ready for that proverbial forth quarter. it’s been a work in progress. a struggle.

in addition to always working at the bench i’m also cognizant of trying to stay organized. it’s all practice. i make the bicycles and also try to knoll as i go.

i’m worried that my goal of an organized life is a fantasy. fantasies are okay, right? nod. i’m also an affirmation junkie and need a fix. tell me clutter isn’t the enemy.

richard daley said, “the policeman isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.” politics and eras aside, he’s describing me.

All This By Hand

[Clean39T]

my time as a sixty something includes another 14 months, plus or minus. at some point i decided this decade would be spent feng shui-ing my life (so far.)

i view this 10 year period as my time to arrange all the disorder (until now) and ready for that proverbial forth quarter. it’s been a work in progress. a struggle.

in addition to always working at the bench i’m also cognizant of trying to stay organized. it’s all practice. i make the bicycles and also try to knoll as i go.

i’m worried that my goal of an organized life is a fantasy. fantasies are okay, right? nod. i’m also an affirmation junkie and need a fix. tell me clutter isn’t the enemy.

richard daley said, “the policeman isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.” politics and eras aside, he’s describing me.

All This By Hand

I've never seen a picture of your workshop - or one of your bikes - and thought ".....that doesn't belong.."

For me, that's hitting the appropriate balance of functional minimalism vs. performative minimalism.

Your workshop - and Mr. Hampco's - always strike me as being just-so, in the wabi-sabi sense - some form of perfection gained through organic iteration, not a determined view of what a workshop should look like..

I think my brain would full-scale rebel if forced to operate in an anti-septic Park Tools service-course.

IMG_2296-panorama.jpg

Maybe that's not what you had in mind with your post.

Arranging life, arranging things - most probably do one the same as the other.

[Peter Polack]

It's better to not see how the sausage is made.

[e-RICHIE]

people who make things by hand are often obsessed with the work.
but not so much to complete the task and hand over the object as
much as to pick up the parts, swing the tools, and figure out the puzzle.
and then to recreate it. again.

All This By Hand

[Mark Walberg]

A very pretty braze.
Doing one like this is one of life's great pleasures !

[e-RICHIE]

45FD78C1-36DF-46C3-89CE-36100D962CE3.jpg

[Mark Walberg]

I've learned that one does not need to invest all that money in stuff to build bikes if your are just making a few or not selling them. You just need some thought, some tubes, lugs and fittings, and time and a strait edge, a torch and good flux and some silver or brass. It is a whole different matter to make a saleable product. I never did that. But, I've made some nice riding bikes.

[e-RICHIE]

[e-RICHIE]

[e-RICHIE]

Some spy shots of Taylor from her second season this season, this one in Belgium. TKW is in Europe for a block of racing that includes two World Cup events. Follow her at https://instagram.com/shrimpmofongojaberdashery

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]

There’s this moment I fixate on. The apprentices are scurrying around trying to prove their worth. Showing they’ve paid attention. One of them might be next. One of them will be next. The camera pans back and we see more. The voiceover, courtesy of José Ferrer, continues to speak. The audience gets a wide view.

Someone from among these students will be the next yaro-kabuki. Describing the scene, Ferrer utters the words, “To surpass the master is to repay the debt.” I’m smitten. The film is National Geographic’s Living Treasures of Japan. The airing is 1981. I think. My life changes in a moment. Suddenly, I’m on a new path.

Bicycles mean precious little to me. My industry even less. For as long as I can remember, for longer than I care to remember, it’s a bunch of commodified crap. Every new thing has been distilled down to a SKU. And each comes with a tagline describing how much better your life would be if you just bought it.

I think about where it’s going. I’ve worried about it too. But less as seasons pass. We each get a turn at the plate. How we take the swing is up to us. Since 1981, and certainly since hearing Ferrer’s words while watching that film, I’m less inclined to take a pitch from anyone. I’m not here to hit the ball, but rather the whole game.

All This By Hand

[e-RICHIE]