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the time has at long last arrived, the first run of Alumaliths are now being prepped and polished to ship. Last Monday I took the 2.3 hour drive north on I91 to Frank’s shop — something I’d only done in my dreams — but there is a fine line between dreams and reality these days for this 90s MTB kid –with all the tool and manufacturers that can be enlisted locally and through friend networks. this frameset is a very shiny polished aluminum example of such.

frank and I maid quick friends during this build process, yet we’d only met over the phone — was great to meet in person and get the tour of his massive facility. would imagine this is one of the largest collection of machines in the US for this sort of thing. frank is a master manufacturer at this point in his career— starting with mongoose in the late 70s welding 130 forks a day!

I had a hard time focusing on photography — and forget about video! I was overwhelmed and we had a lot of chatting to do — not to mention 55 frames to inspect. oh the stories too — what a friendly wealth of knowledge and niche industry information.

I really could have spent multiple days here. I have seen a good deal of frame shops in my day at this point, but ive never seen anything like this.

frank has done it all over the years, and I am so pleased to have him lending that experience as I take the steps into doing more of this sort of thing.

after a good amount of yamming, we began loading up the bikes and taking care of business. we also began designing another bike. at the end of the convo I revealed I was heading to Arizona in a month and he said — I can build you a sample next week. dreams.

this previously secret van we’ve had for 5 years now really came in handy for this sort of thing! 55 frames and forks locked and loaded!

I knew it was going to be a long day, but thats fine every once in a while. I made it to our factory in waterbury at about 7pm where Jay was waiting to help me unload.

now we are prepping and polishing these frames to ship to YOU!