hey everybody we're here at swamp Fest and it's kind of a reunion for me because I found Alex the
pack my buddy and last time we saw Alex he talked about his was that mid what era would you say that
was your bikes um mid-school and old school yeah so we did a tour of all his mid and old school
bikes and when I met him he was talking about you'd made the frame you were riding that's great
and is this the same one still okay so since then he has made several other frames and I kind of
just want to learn more about all this so first of all can you just give me the rundown on like
what you got going on I think this was [Music] written I thought building a frame would be
I'm not saying it's easy but I thought it would be a learning curve and when this one came together
it really was just supposed to go together and not really be ridden and then it went together
great so I was obviously riding it now but it's I couldn't find anything with geometry that I liked
because I have a bad knee so I my top two hits it but I like a trail style frame but
they're all tall so this is all weird numbers but like odd numbers but it's 7.875 standover
eleven five bottom bracket 20.875 top tube and 14.125 slam rear end and I like the older a lot
of the older frames like a sort of paid a little homage to the McNeil Reuben with the pierced top
tube but I went a little flatter in the back sort of like the STA 500 and then I like the old school
looking wishbones so I put a wishbone on there and I I hate on my bike removable tabs so everything's
welded make the brake solid welded mounts and uh and 3 8 axles because I I hate running adapters so
it's kind of weird and you have a background in Welding which is kind of why it was a easy
thing to transition to that's correct I'm a I'm a union pipefitter or steam fitter by trade and
the welding is different than what I'm used to we do heavy wall x-ray welding and a lot of walking
the cup anybody who's a welder will know you put the torch down and roll the cup back and forth and
you push a lot of metal where this is dipping and pulsing and you know going real slow we're in more
of a production speed setting but the quality was there so it was just the change in welding from
heavy to thin and most of the thin wall we did was you know Fusion welding stainless very thin
you don't add wire you just fuse it together and penetrate through the back and uh so it's
a little different than what I'm used to so it was an easy it was an easy transition to do that yeah
guys like
like a mic with Dutch bikes and Mike Laird everybody knows you know these guys are very good
welders and you watch them and their welds are looking great and it's uh you know mine are smooth
and they're good quality but they're not quite a mic layered weld yet but every frame it gets
better because it's a learning curve so I think I have a I built two Street frames for some guys
with weird geometry rello bikes Danny at frello helped me out with some to build my fixtures and
he's a he's a machinist and he made heat sinks for me so it made it possible so I built him a
frame and um I don't have any I don't think any of those guys are here but so and another thing
I wanted to get to too was like the how do you do stuff like the head tube and the bottom bracket
and stuff I actually heard purchase those because I'm not a machinist so um Aaron it's solid he
he still sells you know solid doesn't make bikes anymore but they make head tubes bottom brackets
drop outs just random bike making parts and also s m makes them but I I go through solid
because you know Aaron from back in the day and you know I like their it is a shark fin
in the in the bottom bracket so it's just an extra piece in the center just stipping it up
keep it strong but light so I purchased them from him I have somebody who's going to start
making them locally that I know but as far as it wouldn't be efficient for me to make them
do you do any kind of like heat treating to them at all or anything no a lot of the tubing um bike
manufacturers with their tubing like whether it's Vera wall or Velo spec or Columbus any of
those Reynolds they design their tubing so that when it's welded it essentially does not need a
which is weird because the chromoly we did in industrial it would get welded and then stress
relieved and then it would be good where bike frames I was kind of baffled to hear
the weld wire that they use you know 70s wire on a chromoly tubing that's you know
it's the lower grade which is odd to me and then there's also like weld mold wire
there's different types of weld wire that you can use Reynolds I know has a bunch of different stuff
for they're different too tubes but I don't do anything treating on them I just I build them and
keep them in the jig while they're getting built but I built the rear ends those pieces weld them
out and then put them into the jig so there's not a whole lot of stress and then they're mitered to
sit right on so there's essentially they drop in and then you just weld them out it's kind of neat
been getting more and more efficient as I build more I think there's another frame out we could
look at that at my buddy Dan he's a street guy built him a custom frame it's rated five pounds
and Matt Copeland I just built him a frame with light Reynolds tubing and his is like four point
like 4.2 pounds or something like that four pounds two ounces I can't remember but it's
you know Matt wanted a light bike so I'm like okay we'll we'll try it yeah and I mean what's
so significant about the whole Matt Copeland thing and Alex has already heard this story a million
times but Matt's been riding the exact same frame but just different iterations of it like new ones
he stocked up basically and I think it was all fbm frames he stocked up on at the exact same custom
fbm room for however many years I mean it was a long time so like part of the reason I wanted to
talk with Alex is not only because he's awesome but because he built the frame that Matt Copeland
moved to after 10 or however many years of fbms and that's like that's kind of a significant thing
in my eyes because I thought it was cool when Matt is like oh yeah you know I thought he was
joking wanting a frame and it was awesome because I think Matt's been hooking me up with you know
give me a good deal on profile stuff riding a lot the Grassroots you know team or getting hooked up
with stuff so Matt's been hooking me up since I was like 16 and I'm 38 now so it's been quite a
bit of time and you know always looking up to Matt so it was it was exciting to build him a frame you
know and ride with him all the time Matt's awesome can't really you know anybody who knows Matt knows
yeah they know I mean he's just a very awesome person who's also really particular about what
he's putting on his bike and when I heard they he had you make a frame I was like wow that's amazing
Matt had very specific dimensions and he said they they all all the frames were the same and he had
Crandall making them for him and him and Crandall are real tight and uh and he's like I don't know
what I'm gonna do you know when fbm stopped making bikes he's like you know he's like I don't know
what I'm gonna ride but he had he keeps he gets a new bike every year because he doesn't like the
stress on him but for one of the smoothest Riders around there's very little stress on a map bike
you know he's everything he does is just perfect so yeah so how long have you been riding that one
way longer than you should ride a frame I guess now that I actually think about it and build them
and see how thin the tubes actually are but this is over over two years on this Frame it doesn't
really look like it but the powder coat is really good and um I use a good outer coater for what I
my normal job and uh so it's held up really good it's just now starting to look like I
beat on it you know but two years not very bad absolutely and uh do you have plans to like
open this up to do them more I I do and do and don't um you know I we were talking about it
um a friend of mine Dan we're gonna start we're not really sure what it is yet but
Alta Cruise just anything just everybody having a good time on whatever just cruising on a bike
skateboards it doesn't matter and then probably a branch off company would be you know running
batch frames you know and try to keep the price down you know there's not a lot of
there's not a lot of profit in a frame made in the States but you know it's more or less a labor of
love so we we'd build some frames and run a batch of frames or something you know just made in the
states and at a price point you know that's about the same as regular frames because the
tubing getting you know you know I see all these guys get big batches of tubing and it's like gold
you know some of these top tubes are like forty dollars you know just for a top tube and it's like
if you actually think about it you're like wow there's really nothing you're not making
anything you know you may get eight dollars an hour to build a frame you know so that's uh it's
it'd be pretty cool but a custom frames I'm doing them just for like guys I know and you know there
are a lot of guys that I'm at and I don't want anybody to take this bad that I know but a lot of
guys I'm stoked on or really enjoy riding with and I'd like to build everyone a frame that I
know you know what I mean but a lot of guys I'm I got a few guys on the list that were building
frames for so it's just you know whether they're old friends or just people who were shredders I
didn't want it to become a job but it's like now that I see more people on my frames it's
it's rewarding you know I can only imagine like like uh the guys you know the Big Frame Builders
like I said Dutch layered ejd they uh or Ted James like how those guys feel seeing their
bikes like on TV you know Daniel Dares going crazy or you know whoever it may be you know what I mean
like pretty sure most of the Olympic Riders ride layered frames you know what I mean so it's like
it's got to be an awesome feeling to see that so like the more I see my frames out there people
riding them the more excited I get to build more and I I geek out on the jigs so like I you know
I think on Matt's frame it took me a month to build it because my jigs weren't efficient so
I'd like go down a rabbit hole and then realize I didn't do anything at all all day except for build
Jigs and then and you know just getting a milling machine and a nice Mill I I like old tooling and
equipment and my bridge boards from like 62 or 63 or something like that and uh so I just fall into
the rabbit hole with tooling and making stuff and then getting sidetracked but when it's not
your job it's it's cool because you could you get sidetracked and enjoy it more than having to just
go to the grind and you know knock them all out yeah hopefully we get some more coming out but I
want to build like a batch or a run and you know maybe I'd like to build more Street frames because
I feel like a lot of them are Park frames and the street guys they don't really have
many custom bikes you know I custom ordered some down tubes 049 wall thickness and uh inch and a
half not too big you know and um they seem to not really Dent which is a perk when we were
street riding and I tried to you know a little out of shape tried to Pedal pick this tall Rail
and slammed my down tube and everybody oh there's the first step you know ran their hand down it and
no dents and they're like I want that down too you know and it was just like all right you
know most bike tube for like 035 is you know and everybody but some really crazy thin and
so a lot of Street guys really doesn't appeal to them but I had to custom ordered tubing from
from Velo spec uh 049 so you gotta order a bunch of tubing just to get that because it's
not a real desirable but I think a five pound range frame you know like plus or minus an
ounce or so is a good weight you know it seems durable you can get real life but
you know what I mean with without younger generation is now if you break something
then it's like oh that was garbage but it's you know it's going the brakes everything
now if you broke it and it was my fault then I'd be like oh wow
hey yeah this is my fault but I'm pretty sure every brain Builder knows you know
what what could have been their fault or a material failure and it's things
that are out of their control you know but do whatever you can to make it right Yeah man so
if you ever do a batch or anything like that where could somebody stay tuned to see that um
the Graham and start posting
I just didn't know if I wanted to do it under the the lpk name the name's the hard part that's
really what uh what we're doing because I didn't want it lpk came as a joke we were riding the
ramp and the guys were like oh where's the lpk frame at and then it was funny because
you know I didn't have a name for my own business so it's like lpk you know but it's my last name is
l-e-p-a-k so I just lpk you know but I didn't want to I'm not that I don't want to call anybody vayne
or anything by any means but I I don't want to see my name you know I put this lpk bridge on here as
a joke and it was just kind of funny to see if I could do it and then I didn't even expect it to
hold up because this bridge is put together like garbage and it's not very structurally strong but
it's got the pierced top tube and um you know so that makes it a little more rigid I'm pretty
sure that's the only reason it's lasted but two years and you know I think it's only held together
this little tiny bit so it's really or I just underestimate chromalia one or the other you know
it'll be out there hopefully we could have a something out and I can get that to you but I
think the name is the hard part so we're going to start out the cruise and get some shirts going and
uh we're going to design some sprockets and get some Dash guards a couple ideas you know nothing
not Reinventing the wheel but just something cool you know what I mean
maybe people can get behind awesome man well it's cool I love seeing this stuff so Alex thank you
this is a really cool chat thanks for showing everybody and talking about your bike
thanks for watching Everybody check out Alex's
stuff it's really cool subscribe here if you're having we'll see you tomorrow