some thoughts on thanksgiving - not about the holiday, just thoughts.

getting ready to go out and do some work before we go to dan's house to be festive. really trying to get denise's bike done, closing in on it, and trying to get the polishing and some of the brazeons done today. sooo......some of you may or may not have noticed that prices on frames have gone up. well, everything i use to make bikes is going up. i the almost six years since i started building full time, the silver i use to apply brazeons has DOUBLED. brass has went up a third, and steel, luckily, being one of the most common elements on earth {and one of the most easily recycled} has gone up, but not as substantially as other metals. check out titanium prices - that stuff has gone through the roof! a pair of ti s-bend chainstays are selling for $165.00!!! ouch! and, shipping to and fro has gone up. i know that you, the end consumer of my frames pays the shipping to YOU, but i pay for the shipping of materials to me, and to and back from paint. i ship most of my frames to santa rosa, california to get the quality finishes that make me happy, and it costs. also, i spent over $6000.00 in tooling this year to build better frames quicker and easier so you can get them sooner. headbadges went up. and, unlike most of the industry, i don't upcharge for brazeons and doo-dads. also, after all these years, i'm just trying to make a reasonable weekly wage. plain and simple. i think an "average" frame takes me about 30 hours with my hand bent seatstays and all the hand finishing. almost all of the polishing on my fillets are being done by hand again. they are coming out so smooth from the torch that power tools seem overkill. i am proud of this, as it shows quality and craftsmanship that only time and thousands of repetitions can produce. and, it is personally gratifying. i have added lugged forks to my line. i feel that a lugged fork is a beautiful, strong, graceful thing. the silver brazing process is both light and strong, and i feel that the set geometries of the forks i wish to make do not require fillet brazing. and, we may add stems soon.......so, for now, frames are $1500.00. they may go up again after the handmade bike show in feb. standing orders are not affected by price changes. as of this post, i have 30 bikes on order, and as always, i want to thank everyone for their ongoing Patience. happy holidaze, i'm gonna leave you with a pic paul sent me of his coconino from the front range, it's been ridin' trails and doing endurance races for at least four years now......it looks happy! steve.