Framebuilders: Where's your first?

[anthonymaietta]

The Maietta frame with serial number 1 is sitting in the living room of my house right now and its my all around road bike. It status as a daily driver will be replaced with a frame that will be shown at NAHBS this year. My first frame to a customer is in NYC and is still ridden regularly.

My number 1 and 2 are pretty easy to trace, but I'd like to hear whether or not you know where your first frame is. Any cool reunion stories?

Tony

[suspectdevice]

The first bike I ever designed from the ground up for myself is in 4 pieces. The mystery-metal-matrix-composite main tubes are covered with stickers and in a shelf and the 7005 rear end has been sitting in my parent's garage since '99 waiting to get welded to a new new front end.
The darn thing was great until the fancy-ass tubeset of unknown origin and composition turned the front end into a Slingshot. The geometry came out perfectly though, so I was hooked.

[edoz]

My first is in a dark corner of the shop, robbed of parts and dropouts to build another bike. I built a fork and stem with it, and they're serving temporary duty on my new cross bike.

[e-RICHIE]

my first RS is in mexico, and my sixth is in the bay area. the seventh was on ebay last week. and the 177th is on ebay now. it
was originally made as a private label unit built in 1978 or so but repainted as an RS atmo. i know of perhaps two others from
the first batch of twenty.

i think billy round's little brother mikey has my first ever frame from the england era.

[Dave Kirk]

My #1 is hanging in the basement. It was put together right quick for a feature article in the short lived magazine "Asphalt". Once it was done with that task I used it as a test mule for different ideas including the Terraplane stays. Now it looks like charred wreckage having had so many thing attached and ripped back off again.

But there it sits - just in case. In case of what I don't know but it's there.

dave

[Eric Estlund]

The first UBI build is in my entry way.
The first bikes I professionally built (Bike Fridays) are scattered to the winds-
First contract rig is in Japan.
First Winter sale is in Chicago.

[steve garro]

#1 is on the wall, I built it at UBI - it is sound, ugly and rode kinda poorly, which did not keep me from thrashing it for a year until it fell off a cliff & caved in a seat stay...........#2 is at collage in CO with a kid I gave it to. #3 which was sold just came by the other day. #4 broke & was warrentied. #5 was on ebay for $1000.00 & it cost the peep $500.00, all it was worth. Nice bike though. the rest are out there somewhere. Just passed eight yrs. as "Coconino" - Garro.

[EricKeller]

My first has never been ridden, it had too many problems that I didn't have the tools to fix at the time. I'm actually finishing it now, 35 years later. Wouldn't mind having my second back if I had any idea where it was. I always wondered what happened to the first Trek I made, the guy before me quit mid-bb shell braze the day before. I showed up to the work station and there was a frame on a jig with a brazing rod stuck out the side.

[Zimmermanbicycle]

my first one has about 10,000 miles on it.heck I may ride it today. #2 I still see tooling around Venice occasionally.
-Eric

[Curt Goodrich]

First frame I ever built for myself was a Rodriguez and last I hear it was still on the road in Seattle. First Rivendell I built for myself is in Minneapolis and still ridden. First CG I built is in Minneapolis. Has been ridden across the US once, up & down both coasts and continues to be ridden. First CG I built for myself is sitting here in the shop still covered in mud from the last cross race of this season.

[WadePatton]

cool q.

and i'm still not anybody, a personality but.

my work has only just begun. i'm quite pleased with how the first two ride, but the atb has some ugliness (when viewed with FB eyes-which is what matters). moretocome.

[Andrew R Stewart]

My first was really two. Built side by side. The customer's was never built up from what I heard later (to deflect the coming comments, maybe that was best as a frame built for another with so little experience under my files). The sibling for myself was crashed 3 months later. I did learn how interestingly head lug tangs bend inwards when you hit the side of a car. (But no cracks or other joint failure occured). I should have cut it up but threw it away in my disgust. Andy.

[zank]

My first is hanging in my dad's shop, the place where it was built.

[conorb]

Garrett is still riding Vendetta #1.

It's his do everything, go everywhere bike.

Conor

[back40]

My first (completed entirely by me) was a Reynolds 853 TIG welded mountain bike hardtail. Built in 1999 it's been in nearly continuous service since and was recently stripped to have rack mounts added (and fix the seat tube WB placement issue it had since day 1). Right now it's touring Thailand under the original owner.

[Thylacine Cycles]

My first as such was done in 1990 back when I was *cough* 19 - a fillet brazed frame, fork and stem I built in conjuction with a local builder. I rode it in a few XC races, crashed it a crapload of times before retiring it. Some of the crazies at the LBS at the time resurrected it and actually raced it at the DH Nationals as a bit of a joke, which it managed to survive somehow (note: Tange Prestige is NOT downhill material, mkay?) before - I'm told - eventually cracking. Lord knows where it is now. Probably in a heap somewhere next to a pair of Profile Durangeo handlebars, Wolber rims, and Suntour XC Pro bits'n'bobs. She had a good life.

The first (second, technically) Thylacine was built by Jim Kish (I think) in 2003 and is in Canada, still going strong. My first customer was not only my first repeat customer, but also my first threepeat customer. My last customer has more Thylacines than I do - 5.

Craziness.

[Dornbox]

At 1 year old, my #1 is still my only road whip. Everything but the HT /DT and TT/HT welds were mint and came out SEXY . So for those reasons, I'd like to build myself another... one that's more indicative of what I do now. But she rides awesome and will always grace the wall of my shop or home. 29er #1 is still ripping through the woods of Maine by a solid BMX style pilot! Fun question Tony. I like the idea of #1 and a where I am now bike! If I don't see you prior, see you at NAHBS!-Chris

[anthonymaietta]

I just found these in an iPhoto album and noticed they weren't on my Flickr. "Paint by Hot Tubes" = me. This is the only frame with my name on the down tube to have lugs, and truth be told it really should have Mike's name on the down tube. He was too humble and gracious to allow me to do so. It eventually had my ambigram logo painted on, and then in 2009 it saw a full repaint (except for the non-drive side chain stay). It is 5 feet to my left as I type this, and will be "replaced" with my new road frame which will be on display in Austin.

[zank]

Cool.

[bulgier]

When I made my first frame in 1978 at Santana Cycles I was so poor I couldn't afford a tubeset to make one for myself, but my roommate had a little cash and I agreed to make him one for fun. He paid for the Reynolds 531, dropouts etc. My "direct report" (Santana shop manager/foreman) was cool with it and provided some advice and hand-holding. Jerry Collier, a SoCal bike biz legend and collector of old bike stuff, gave me a set of '50s or '60s Haden Firefly lugs because he was a nice guy.

Ted the roommate still has it and rides it in NYC. He had a kiddie seat on it for a while, an indignity ill-fitted to my glorious hand-made beauty (Note dripping sarcasm) but then the kid grew up and the bike is back to carrying one person at a time. Ted even had it repainted so I guess it's looking pretty good now.

My second and third, also 1978, were both for me: A crit-oriented racer, and a lugless touring bike with F+R "Herse campeur" style low-rider Cr-Mo racks. Wish I'd kept 'em but I sold them both in times of poverty in my early 20s.

#2 the crit bike went to an ex-racer (Cat.2) who probably doesn't ride it much, but he was very big and strong and didn't break it. I had raced it a bit before selling and I thought it rode very well.

I told the guy that bought the touring bike (#3) that he had a lifetime warranty, because I wanted to know if it ever broke. He claimed he was going to ride it around the world, was gearing up for the trip last I heard of him. I never once got to use those low-rider racks before selling the touring bike, which bugs me to this day. They were as much work to build as a frame and fork, and I didn't get near enough money for 'em.

Poverty sucks, can't say I recommend it.