Design Philosophy
The Approach
I'll be honest, I got into building frames because I wanted to see if I could. If you have the desire, I highly recommend doing the same! That said, I knew from day one that if I was going to take the plunge, I wanted to ensure that I was bringing something new to the craft. I'm driven by pushing boundaries, whether personal (my skillset) or industry-wide (maybe my hubris), and I want my work to reflect that.
I've tried to distill my design principles into a few key tenets that I reserve the right to break at any time, but hopefully serve as a way to differentiate between what I think makes Big Block unique amongst a sea of options.
Metal Bikes Can be Modern
I love bikes, full stop. The most precious bike I have is the old 70s lugged frame that got me here, but I also love to rip in a group on a full carbon featherweight. All materials are the sum of their tradeoffs, I'm not afraid of any of them- I build with them all because I believe they all serve different purposes. We shouldn't have to give up a forward-looking design that takes advantage of all the ways modern bikes are beautiful and improved just because of the material it was made from.
No Marginal Gain is Worth a Bad Fit
I'm a tall guy, and I spent decades on bikes that had to stretch to meet me where I am. A monocoque carbon fiber frameset is a true feat of engineering, but the nature of its construction limits you to fixed dimensions that have to be corrected per person. If you're like me, those default dimensions have a lot more to do with someone who pins a number on for a living. With the advent of 3D printing, I can build a frame to your exact position with no compromises. I promise that a perfectly fit custom frame will give you more ability to push watts than a wind tunnel tested top tube ever would save you.
When One Person Does it All, It's All for You
The nature of production at scale is compromise. With massive design teams and factory ramp-ups, bikes need to be designed to appeal a little bit to everyone. I see framebuilding as a wonderful combination of engineering and art, and art is made better when the edges aren't filed off by focus groups. I own the whole process, from design, fit, fabrication, and paint, to make sure your crazy vision makes it all the way through loud and clear. A single origin coffee is interesting not for its consistency but rather what makes it unique, and I think custom bikes allow a way to collaborate between builder and user in a way that each rider can be felt through the end product.
