Hasta La Ideas

Once again, Core77 is pleased to be the media partner for the Bike Cult Show, which will once again bring the very best custom framebuilders in the Northeast region to New York City this month. Set to take place next weekend, August 16–17, at the Knockdown Center in Queens, the second annual Bike Cult Show promises be bigger and better than before. Previously, we heard from Bryan Hollingsworth of Royal H Cycles; here, we have another Brian, the owner and operator of Chapman Cycles.

Text and images courtesy of Brian Chapman.

My fondest bike-related memories are when I started to learn foot jam endos in front of our house in Attleboro with my older brother. That was 30 years ago. I still ride flatland BMX today as it is a way for me to meditate and clear my mind. It is also amazing what it can do for your core muscles! That really doesn’t have a lot to do with framebuilding except that I love bikes. A lot of people love bikes though.

I currently live and work in Rhode Island, about 35 miles from where I was born in New Bedford, MA. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and only utilize a small portion of that. The framebuilding and painting techniques that I learned in my two years of apprenticing were much more important to this craft. Ten years of wrenching at shops helped a lot, too, in regards to fitting and assembly.

I started apprenticing at Circle A Cycles in 2004 and built my first bike in 2005 for my girlfriend at the time. It’s still together even though we aren’t! I learned a lot at Circle A. The first 100 bikes I built were just me ironing out the process to one I felt comfortable with. I have to note here that the structure of the Circle A shop was such that the builder (Chris, or myself, or, way back when, Emily) did the process from fit to assembly (it’s a unique skill set). Nothing was handed over to someone else. So three control freaks could happily work side by side and just being in the same shop, the styles would blend. We’d also be bouncing ideas off of each other or sharing discoveries with tools or paint techniques.

I was there for about nine years—it was a fun time and I miss it sometimes. In 2011, I started building under my own name as an outlet because I wanted to take my building to a new level that was different from what we were making at Circle A. And that’s how Chapman Cycles started. Circle A taught me how to survive as a framebuilder. The eight secrets to making a living as a custom framebuilder (you ready?): Paint your own bikes, live at your shop, eat ramen with peanut butter, learn to lay a perfect fillet, be nice, ride often, cut up your credit cards, meet delivery dates. That’s about all there is to it… sort of.

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