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Road to PBE16 BoB Interview: Richard Sachs interviewed by Erik Noren

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Photo by Carlos Alejandro

Builder-on-Builder (BoB) interviews are designed for builders to question other builders on the topics they find most relevant and interesting. 

Richard Sachs really needs no introduction. You probably not only know him by name but you’re also likely to have an established opinion about the polarizing builder. In his work, he challenges the cycling industry at large as well as the small builder community by eschewing new trends in style, product, and process. He builds a very specific product using a process that he has honed and mastered (though, he would never claim that) over decades. It’s this obsessive focus and relentless nature that puts him on the highest pedestal for his superfans and allows more experimental and conceptual builders and their fans to dismiss him.

But Richard is a force on many fronts. While many builders (or makers, as he would call them) stick to building, Richard has been active in efforts to grow and improve the community through helping to develop shows like NAHBS, professional entities such as The Framebuilders’ Collective, and forums such as Velocipede Salon. Aside from building frames, Richard is probably most known through his writing. While many have found his opinion pieces difficult to swallow (especially new builders), they come from a constructive, if sometimes brutally honest, place. Few people have put in as much time, thought, and effort into developing and fortifying the craft and community of frame building.

Questions by Erik Noren of Peacock Groove, Introduction by Anna Schwinn

ERIK: So, what does e-RICHIE stand for, mean?

RICHARD: In 2000 after I had been online for nearly a year, I adapted the screen name, e-RICHIE. I had noticed how some commercial brands used the e thing. Charles Schwab Corporation had e-Schwab, as an example. And then there was E-TRADE, and others like this. Mine was a descendant of these ideas.

Photo by Katie Busick
Photo by Katie Busick

ERIK: Looking back on your career, is there anything that you did that you wish you could just go back and tell yourself DON’T DO THAT? If so, what?

RICHARD: I have no regrets and wouldn’t unring any of the bells along the way. I would do one thing, and only one thing differently – and I say this with the benefit of an imaginary rear view mirror. I’d only take one order at a time. When it was complete, the next person to commit would receive the next bicycle. The list thing, the queue thing, being the steward for deposits and the saver of information until that fateful day that the commission rises to the top of the pile – I believe it’s a flawed system for people who do this type of work. Too many changes in the interim. Too many emails that have to be culled and archived. People’s lives have their own ebbs and flows that force them to rethink their earlier commitments. All of this, plus life itself, has delivered me to a point that I think that we’re better off living near the edge, and believing that the orders will come assuming we do good work. Reserving seats at the table months and years forward can be a recipe for peril. Mind you, it took me 40+ years to come to this realization, and I share it with every frame maker I mentor. Regardless, many see the waiting period as some badge of honor, a way to keep score if you will. I don’t. And I’m relentless in letting others know this.

philly-bike-expo_richard-sachs_3 philly-bike-expo_richard-sachs_4

ERIK: If someone asked you to put disc mounts on a road bike of yours, would you?

RICHARD: No.

ERIK: Have you ever had to “fire” a customer, or have you ever had a nightmare customer?

RICHARD: No, I have never “fired” a customer. Over the decades, several have hit the wall (lost a job, or needed money for a tuition payment, and one even got lost in the email forest we inhabit and never acknowledged my requests for details so I could begin the assembly) – at times like these the only solution is to cut bait and send back the deposit and paperwork.

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Photo by Richard Sachs

ERIK: I read somewhere not long ago that you were considering going back to written, typed, correspondence? Are you serious or just dreaming?

RICHARD: That’s a work in progress. All orders HAVE to be generated with email, as do any edits that a client sends. It’s my default method for checks and balances. The thank you notes, and related correspondence – these are longhand. No typing here though.

philly-bike-expo_richard-sachs_9
Photo by Richard Sachs

ERIK: Have you ever finished a frame, and just decided it just wasn’t good enough to get out there in the real world, and not let it out?

RICHARD: Of course. If I think back to when I began, the number is in the hundreds, that is the false starts and subsequent hack-sawed units that never became frames for sale.

ERIK: What are the new trends that really bother you? Or do you not let them bother you?

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Photo by Wil Matthews

RICHARD: My corner of the industry was once the lab, the creative mind, the design collective for all to follow. Specifically, I’m referring to the niche being the highest level of the nutritional food pyramid that feeds or informs all bicycles sold at all prices. I’m of the mind that the sport is the proving ground for everything else related to bicycles, even what works well in general use, touring and commuting included. That ship sailed a LONG time ago. I’ve seen a wholesale switch away from this to what we have now. It’s a system in which the mass-makers, the bigger brands (Trek, Cannonade, Giant, and that ilk) create the tune and then independent (and especially newer and under experienced) frame makers dance to it.

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Photo by Richard Sachs

For the record, it’s an observation, not a criticism. The future happens. And what we have is the result. None of it bothers me. I have mine. I hope those in the fray now get theirs.

ERIK: If you were forced to build either a full suspension mtb or a fatbike, which would you choose? And why?

RICHARD: No. And I don’t believe in being forced.

ERIK: What do you enjoy away from the bench, away from the bike?

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RICHARD: I do my best to appreciate the life I have, my past experiences, and those around me who give me love and friendship.

ERIK: Name that ride, that ride on your first built frame and fork, that you built, that you knew that you nailed it. Do you remember that ride, that bike, that moment? What was that like?

RICHARD: When I nail it. it’ll be the last one. Because after that, there’s no reason for me to repeat it.

RichardSachs.com  and Richard Sachs Instagram

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment of the Bikerumor.com BoB Interview series where Richard Sachs questions Burnsey from Oddity.

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16 Comments
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Chasejj
Chasejj
7 years ago

The man has his standards. Agree with him or not, you have to respect that. Unusual in this sea of sycophants.

satisFACTORYrider
satisFACTORYrider
7 years ago

so close to gettin a cross years ago. damn you ebay!

mudrock
mudrock
7 years ago

He’s not totally retro – I see he likes 1x drivetrains. But he doesn’t like disc brakes? To me that’s just dumb. Using your expensive wheelset as your braking surface, especially in a muddy, sandy environment like cross, is stupid.

Aaron
Aaron
7 years ago
Reply to  mudrock

Stupid as it may be, professional riders are still regularly winning world championships on cantis. But, they’re sponsored pro riders, not having to fork out their hard-earned dough on fancy carbon wheelsets.

The key, then, is to not use an expensive wheelset for cyclocross.

dirtybird
dirtybird
7 years ago
Reply to  Aaron

+1.

CXisFun
CXisFun
7 years ago
Reply to  Aaron

“professional riders are still regularly winning world championships on cantis”

Nope.

Timothy M.
Timothy M.
7 years ago
Reply to  CXisFun

Sven Nys still rides a canti bike. He didn’t win worlds, but he came damn close.

CXisFun
CXisFun
7 years ago
Reply to  Timothy M.

“Sven Nys still rides a canti bike.”

Sometimes, not exclusively. He spent plenty of time on disc at the end of his career. Then again, he’s also retired now.

“He didn’t win worlds, but he came damn close.”

True. But the guy who DID win was on disc. So was the guy who came in second. So was the guy who came in third.

BillB
BillB
7 years ago

Great interview with “Sweet Rich”

Craig
Craig
7 years ago

What a cool interview, I enjoyed reading this

AlexK.
AlexK.
7 years ago

so besides the nice artistic touches, is there anything unique about custom Sachs frame over a custom frame from another builder? I appreciate changing slowly in the bike world so you don’t get caught up in the standards mess, but it sounds like bike building hit its peak in the 1970s and there’s just no reason to move on from there. Is there more to his bikes than just the pro-retro mentality?

blah blah blah
blah blah blah
7 years ago
Reply to  AlexK.

no

Luigi
Luigi
7 years ago
Reply to  AlexK.

No, no difference from something from another top notch builder. But Richard doesn’t pretend that there is. He openly lists the builders he respects and refers people to them on his websites as he is not taking new commissions.

postophetero
postophetero
7 years ago

Anytime I read something about or see an image of R.S or one of his bikes–James Taylor starts playing in my head…

dustytires
7 years ago

Sorry Aaron but not a major CX race has been won on cantilever brakes this season. Personally I did not think this day would come, my trusty hand made frame in the garage with canti brake pads grinding away on tubular rims. But as a racing fan boy I watch the results every weekend from before Cross Vegas till now. Cantis are done. And I must admit that they don’t stop as well as discs, are a pain to set up well and change pads on. My ‘gravel’ bike with force discs proves this. The only performance advantage cantilevers have is weight, but if everyone is on discs it don’t matter to the race. Sorry for derail, back to RS. If I could get a used RS cx race bike I would, the attention to detail is sublime. I want it to ride to work, to ride thru the gopher hole strewn park on a sunny fall day and I don’t care if it stops as well or the BB is as stiff, it is pure frame building art that can be enjoyed in the dirt.

Bigwheel
Bigwheel
7 years ago

“It’s a system in which the mass-makers, the bigger brands (Trek, Cannonade, Giant, and that ilk) create the tune and then independent (and especially newer and under experienced) frame makers dance to it.”

This may be true in the “standards” dept. but any of the developments that actually enhance the riding experience that I have witnessed over the last 35 yrs. have come from the rank and file builders and copied by the mass-makers. I commissioned a RS bike 30 years ago for a customer and it came through in a timely fashion and was as ordered with no fuss or muss. Custom builds can be a crap shoot these days and I agree with his philosophy on order queueing as I have seen that fail and it is not pretty.

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