The Pull

This week, my guest is Steve Hampsten, the man behind Hampsten Cycles. While Hampsten Cycles may draw its fame from Steve’s brother Andy, the only American winner of the Giro d’Italia and Tour de Suisse, Steve has been in the bike industry for more than 30 years. He has worked in and around framebuilding for at least 20 years. While Andy’s role in the company has been to help conceive of models and dial in geometry, Steve is the workhouse behind the brand. In addition to personally dealing with all clients, he oversees production, sources the contractors who build their bikes and even packs the bikes when they are ready to head to their forever homes. Because he has forged alliances with everyone from Co-Motion to Moots to Parlee, his reach in the industry is deep, and his reputation is sterling.

In the second part of my conversation with photographer Brian Vernor, we talk about storytelling through photography as well as photography when it is in service to a written feature. We also discuss the difference between commercial work and editorial work and how storytelling is a more compelling way to reach people than just marketing a product. Prior to flying to Japan to work on the "88 Temples" feature for Bicycling, Brian and I spent considerable time on the phone and I revealed things to him that I hadn't admitted to my closest friends. We discuss how those revelations informed the way he shot the feature. We also explore how there’s more to Brian’s work than photography alone.

On this week’s show, my guest is photographer, writer and filmmaker Brian Vernor. For many cycling aficionados, Brian Vernor came to prominence as a result of his work with Rapha here in the U.S. His photography seemed to capture the experience of being a cyclist and doing the hard miles to be fit in a way almost no one else had. To this day, his work often has a sense of the viewer being a protagonist, that his photos are inside the action, rather than of the action. That first-person sensibility has given his work a credibility that is difficult to earn and he is one of very few creatives in cycling who has capably shown himself able to shoot cycling, write about cycling and even create films about cycling. While we had met and I was aware of his work, Brian and I really got to know each other as a result of his work shooting my feature, “88 Temples” for Bicycling Magazine. We shared a room for much of the trip and he is one of those guys with whom I can talk for hours, or simple hang out without talking. Either is comfortable with him. I’ve been interested to get inside of his creative process ever since I saw what he shot on that trip.

In the second part of my interview with veteran framebuilder Dave Kirk, we talk about the last phase of his career with Serotta, and then his move west to Bozeman, Montana, where he opened his own shop. This interview takes a really deep dive into fillet brazing and the finer points of one framebuilding's most under-appreciated techniques. We begin with a discussion of the patented DKS suspension he invented for Serotta and was used in the Hors Categorie frame.

On this week’s show, my guest is Dave Kirk, the man behind Kirk Frameworks. The path to becoming a skilled framebuilder isn't set. I've met masters who apprenticed under legends. I've met geniuses who chafed under menial tasks at big productions houses and left to figure it out for themselves. I've met stars who took a class at UBI. Any of those routes can work.

However, if I was to write the fictional resume of a fictional rock star framebuilder, a Jimmy Page of the torch, that is, a guy who apprenticed under the equivalent of the Yardbirds and as a studio muscian before striking out on his own, it would look something like the resume of Dave Kirk. He got his start as a framebuilder working for Ben Serotta in South Glenns Falls and later Saratoga Springs, New York, where he learned every inch of the craft, from filing lugs to brazing bottom brackets, from making tools to inventing suspension. Okay, those last two are maybe not traditional parts of the job description. He spent years at Serotta, becoming one of their most skilled craftsmen and then headed west to Bozeman, Mont. There, he went to work for Carl Strong of Strong Frameworks before doing a little contract work for Serotta. When that ended, he decided to hang out his own shingle, Kirk Frameworks.

His work is simple, austere and damn close to flawless. He's easily one of the most skilled fillet-brazers in the industry. And he's our guest this week.

Our conversation was so long and rich that I've split it into two episodes; part one focuses on his time at Serotta and part two will cover his career since then. 

Jeremy SyCip is a real-life fantasy. He began college with an eye toward industrial design but quickly realized he wanted to be more hands-on. So he took a course in framebuilding at United Bicycle Institute. His teacher for the class? None other than Albert Eisentraut, arguably the most important builder ever in the U.S. and maybe the most important teacher of framebuilders in history. His next stop was no less amazing: he apprenticed with Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster. Once he felt he had enough experience to hang out a shingle, with his brother Jay, the SyCips opened SyCip Designs and began offering road and mountain frames. These days, Jeremy SyCip works alone and counts steel, aluminum and titanium as materials in his repertoire. He's a mainstay of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and has picked up a few awards along the way. I talked to Jeremy at his shop which sits at the edge of Santa Rosa between Annadel State Park and Hood Mountain Regional Park. Because we recorded this in his shop, there's a bit more ambient noise than usual, but the chance to visit his shop was too good to pass up.

On this week's episode, I continue my conversation with Carl Strong. Strong is unusual among framebuilders in that he has constructed bikes in every mainstream material being used in high-performance bikes: steel, aluminum, titanium and now carbon fiber in his new venture, Pursuit by Carl Strong. In our second part Carl talks about forming Pursuit and his partners. It is one of only two companies producing carbon fiber framesets in production runs here in the U.S. Strong put together an impressive team to round out his skill set. Pursuit bikes are made in Strong's shop in Bozeman. They are offered in a limited run each year. The 2018 run sold out quickly, and Pursuit is accepting deposits for the 2019 run. The frames come in four sizes and in only one configuration—for disc brakes. These are modern frames for modern buyers. Pursuit offers either framesets or complete bikes.

On this week’s show, my guest is frame builder Carl Strong. The Bozeman, Montana-based builder behind Strong Frames is best known for the titanium road and gravel frames he makes from titanium, something he’s been doing for more than 20 years. Recently, though, Strong launched a new venture, called Pursuit by Carl Strong. Working with some other bike industry veterans, Pursuit is building monocoque carbon fiber frames, in Bozeman, making them the second operation to build all its frames in the U.S., along with Allied Cycle Works. Strong’s aesthetic is one of classy, if understated, bikes that benefit from a fit that can only be achieved with a custom frame and handling that comes with experience as varied as Strong’s. This interview, like many of the builder interviews I do, runs long. I’ve split it into two parts to make it easier to digest. The first part largely focuses on Strong Frames, while part two will focus on Pursuit.

On this week’s show, my guest is writer and editor Peter Flax. Flax was features editor for the Hollywood Reporter. Flax is also a contributor to CyclingTips where he writes on a wide range of cycling culture topics. He is probably best known to cyclists as the former editor in chief of Bicycling Magazine. I was interested to talk to Flax because he straddles both the world of the writer and the world of the editor, two processes that depend on each other, yet aren’t the least bit similar. And while he lives in Los Angeles, a place where cycling culture is dominated by group rides, his cycling life is spent as a commuter.

Rebecca Rusch has what may be the ultimate nickname not just for a cyclist, but for any endurance athlete. She’s known as the Queen of Pain. And she has more than earned that nickname. She has won the Leadville 100 four times. She set the record for the Kokopelli Trail, and has seven world championships to her name, not to mention being the first woman to climb the 5.11c Bermuda Dunes route up El Capitan in Yosemite, which was also only the second ascent of that route ever. More recently, she has devoted herself to other pursuits that don’t involve standing on the top step of the podium, like her Gold Rusch series of rides which brought more women into mountain biking. Rebecca’s Private Idaho is a gravel ride which she recently expanded to include a stage race, held in her adopted home of Ketchum, Idaho. Arguably, her biggest undertaking ever was riding the whole of the Ho Chih Minh Trail to find the crash site of her father who flew in the Viet Nam war, and working with Red Bull to produce a documentary about the experience. I find Rusch to be a particularly compelling figure because so much of her career has been created from whole cloth. There’s no road map for an athlete’s career outside of training hard to go fast in races. Her relationship with her sponsor, Red Bull, has allowed her to try things that most companies focused on results would never sanction. And Red Bull hasn’t just allowed her to do these things, they’ve mentored her toward her highest self.