One of the really fun parts of this adventure is managing the daily tasks of getting this whole thing off the ground and managing all of the dynamic aspects while I alone am the chief, cook and bottle washer. I know I am not alone with this aspect of the entrepreneurial world, but it feels like it at times when you are chest deep. I will admit there is a whole lot of learning going on while I convert the things I do know how to do into a business. Every little step forward is an incredible reward on the long path to making this real. As always I appreciate your readership and support as I am pushing this along.
Transparency is one of my goals, without giving away what business advantage I may have in the open market, I want you all to have an idea of what is going on, what and why I have things going on, and to do my best to document and share the steps as I move along. If it were not for the others who have gone before me, and shared their experience this would be a much darker path. I look back at old Rivendell readers and see Richard Sachs helping Grant out with packing parts, Grant openly sharing his challenges, bicycle builder forums where the masters of the craft openly share much of the technology and technique that they developed over the years, and then the overwhelming amount of information available outside of our niche from the entrepreneurs that have come before and continue to blaze trails. This blog will always be my outlet for photography, a little bit of advocacy and a place to share the challenges and news aspects of the business. I hope that my documentation may someday be part of the better map that the next guy is putting together. The key is pulling all the desperate pieces into a unique and cohesive plan. I believe that widening the pond is a good thing for all of us, and the other end of the spectrum, ladder pulling, will only lead to stagnation in the market place.
Getting back to the biggest project in the pan at the moment, the name “Masu” is sticking in my mind more than the others. For now that is what the sport touring bike will be called. I have my first round of color chips, some are close, others were way off, and I should have it narrowed down enough to share in a week or two. For now I can say that it will be a dark blue, a true red and a dark yellow. All will have a fine metallic flake of some sort, that part will be worked out as I hone in on the base colors. There will be a head badge, it will look something like my previous draft art, and I am doing everything I can to make this work with a U.S. vendor. Like wise the decals are also coming from a U.S. vendor, and I am working on the final art revisions now.
I have been talking with many builders and engineers that I trust while I re-evaluate my original math and tubing design spec. I can say that there will be a running change to a slightly thicker tube set for the smaller sizes. This is a result of balancing the variables of production cost, bike durability and the overall performance of the bike for the designed task and market. My target remains a fast and light sport bike, made in the US and delivered at a reasonable price. When I make these changes I will let you know in a new post, update the product page with the most current data, and annotate the old post as changed, but leave it up for a historical record of my progress. I want you all to see where I was and how I made it where I am, no smoke and mirrors. You can expect to see the changes in this part of the project in the next few days.
Time to pick up the munchikin, I hope you all are finding time to ride with the mild winter. It has been tough on the Ski business, but easier on the winter bike commuter
Rob:
Re: the yellow color – see if you can track down Porsche’s “signal yellow” from the late 60s / early 70s (900 series era). It’s a really striking yellow, quite deep, with more red than common automotive yellows. Much deeper than say lemon or the current yellow of the Corvette. Worth a look.
dougP
Tanks for the pointer, that is pretty close to the yellow color sample I have in my hand. It is called sunflower, a bright yellow orange with a fine gold silver metallic. Very close to the yellow in the rugby shirts I have been wearing or a newish caltrans yellow road sign. Color matching through all the standards is an interesting experience, particularly once the color you see on a computer screen comes into the comparison. I can get a rough estimate to share from a BikeCAD rendering, but there is no great way to share a sample over the web. Pictures of the bike will still fall short as you know from looking at your Atlantis as opposed to pics on the internet. Even the samples from the Powder Coat company are marginally in the ball park of what they post up on the web. None the less I should have some sort of renderings up later today.