if you have any thoughts of doing the environmentally & socially good thing in business. you think buy ,buy small. so when i have been looking for the best materials to build bikes out of. i have been keeping this in the back of my mind. kind of a guiding principle . henry james is the paragon of this idea. they have only usa made items. true temper tubes & henry james lugs. they stick to their guns & walk their talk. how many of us can say that
the only problem with that is it limits what i can do with frames. the possibilities are not so good. columbus & reynolds makes some great tubesets. kirk pacenti makes some other cool lugs. his new mtb & randoneering fork crown lugs are a frame builders dream. so do i limit myself to usa only . do i find someone to make them in america & design them myself? do i have the time to do all that & make frames? pacenti , richard sachs , & rivendel has their lugs made in Taiwan. is it a choice they made based on cost? or ease of finding someone who would make something like this.? i don’t know. at least for the titanium bikes i have planned ,i can get usa made ti that is the best par none.
well i’m thinking that my frames will be primaraly usa & local materials. if someone want’s a pacenti fork crown i will do it no problem. but i will search out usa made parts even if they will cost a little more. i think i will need to get into the lug making or finding someone kansas city who can make lugs. a good lugset for cross & mtb with a cross & mtb fork crown is so needed to a frame builder that i may need to design my own.
the balance between being a craftsman who wants to make the very best & a socialy responsible human can happen.
big grin…joel
dream beautiful dreams
the mad genuis of grincycles 