Richard Sachs is a passionate builder of bikes who builds bikes.  Sachs is perhaps best known for his affinity for cyclocross and cyclocross racing and his commitment to building top quality steel frames.  TheBikeGame dot Com recently "sat down" with Richard Sachs to learn a bit more about the man behind the frames.

BikeGame: How long have you been making aluminum frames?
Richard Sachs: I'll work for lunch money.

BG: How long building steel frames? Where'd you learn?
RS: I went to London in late 72 and lived with the Witcomb
family who owned a framebuilding business. That is where
it all began.

BG: What did you do before bikes and how did you get rolling building bikes...and why steel?
RS:I was a student with an eye on pursuing journalism at a
mighty fine anti-war college in Vermont (Goddard College)
and a not-more-than-casual interest in bicycles saw me
take a fork in the road and go abroad instead.
Why steel? That's silly. I live in a vacuum. The choices I
make as a one man shop are hardly market driven. As
such, when the industry went "away" from steel in order
to survive, I said "see ya'" and continued to do what I know
and feel is best.

BG: Having a one man operated shop with hand made methods, how do you compete with "modern" technology and methods of mass production.
RS: I am the work force. In industry, nearly everything is designed
for a niche or a price point, or both. To that end, decisions
are made with regard to how to get it all done and also show
a decent profit for the factory and the company shareholders.
With a family tree like that, nearly every choice becomes a
compromise of sorts. I'd prefer to think that I make no (or
fewer) compromises compared to the big-box bicycle makers.

 
BG: Worst injury building bikes?  ever lost a finger like a woodworker?
RS: A.D.D.

BG: From the time you began until today, what is the biggest change in how you build bikes and/or conduct business?
RS: Confidence. I spent at least the first two decades enjoying my trade,
racing on the weekends, and spending Monday through Friday wondering
why my skill set was what it was. In other words, I kept thinking about
getting better "at this", yet the epiphanies were few and far between. The
learning curve was more like a straight line after ten or so years. I wrestled
with how to improve at what I do. It wasn't that I lacked confidence, but
I wondered why there was such a fuss attached to my bicycles when all
I could see was that they ought to be better given the time I had under my
belt. I saw the flaws more easily than I could see the salient features. Then,
in some kind of watershed moment in 1998 or so, it occurred to me that I
actually did have a clue, and that my frames were quite good and were so
because all the years of construction, and racing, and keeping my antennae
up had paid off.

RS: Given a choice, it's a grande black-eye at Starbucks, but the
closest Starbuck-like coffee shop is 20 miles away, during the
week I brew my own in a French Press, usually from beans that
folks mail to me after I beg and grovel online. I have at least four
pending clients that are in the coffee industry, and they each keep
me tightened up. Last word - I always drink the coffee in a to-go
container, and with a straw. That's key atmo.

BG: Favorite online bicycle forum?
RS: I like the Serotta forum. I do some of my best work there!
It was an existing online community that began in 2001 (I think)
but was brought under the Serotta umbrella circa 2004. For
the unwashed who may read this, circa means around in Latin.
I also spend time on the Framebuilder forum. It has become
an excellent surrogate class for those wishing to speed up
the learning process, and all the framebuilders that post
are incredibly generous with their time and resources.


BG: How cool is TheBikeGame dot com?
RS: Is that Svatek's site?
[ed--great]


BG: How many national championships have been won on your frames? Most recent?
RS: The team has won nine National Championships in 'Cross, the most recent being
Jon Page's 2002 victory in Napa. In non-'cross disciplines, perhaps another eight
to ten.


BG: What is your least favorite state in the US?
RS: The road season.

 

BG: Some Cross Gamers are going to Carbon Forks.  As a steel guy how does this make you feel?
RS: It must suck to have to make choices based on cost and
the market driven-ness of a product. CF forks are the industry's
way of dumbing down an important item in order to make it
en masse and at a large profit, attach some engineering drivel
to it, and sell it to unsuspecting consumers under that whacked out
new and improved line of bullshit.

[ed--Good point.  In researching this interview we inspected a Richard Sachs steel cross fork.  VERY nice.  Great ride and craftmanship]
 

BG: What is the best movie you have seen recently?
RS: Dear Frankie. It's an Irish film. 

BG: Do you or have you raced?
RS: I'm a Cat 2 on the road and track.
I kinda' suck at 'cross, but I would take my worst-ever
day at 'cross over all the wins and medals I have from
years of road racing.

 
BG: Describe Cross Gaming in three words.
RS: 'CROSS EFFIN RULES.

BG: Do you think that the plugs in Adam Myerson's ears are blue tooth enabled and if they are does this give him an advantage.....are they UCI legal?
RS: Eff you and that sophomoric sense of humor yo. I was at the 'Cross
Worlds in London in 73 and was hooked way back, but the reason
there is a Richard Sachs involvement in 'cross at all is because Adam
approached me in 96 about a sponsorship gig. Owing to the success
of that liaison, it all blossomed in to what followed.

BG: Jon Hamblen huh?  Alicia must be a great asset for Richard Sachs to allow her to drag him into the program, huh?
RS: Alicia's involvement and success in 'cross carried our team for years.
She is a charming girl and we all love her. Her enthusiasm is infectious
atmo. If Jon is good enough for her, then he passes our smell test without
even needing an application. Insert smiley face here ___________ .

 


BG: A lot of southerners believe that the North did not actually win the war and/or that the war has not really been concluded.  As a Yankee, how does this make you feel?
RS: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

 

More Richard Sachs?  Check these links.

blog
http://rscyclocross.blogspot.com/ 
team page
http://www.richardsachs.com/rsachscybc.html
awesome 'cross porn
http://www.volarebikes.com/richie/rgm/
lotsa pics
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/bobbesrs/albums
official team name
RGM WATCHES - RICHARD SACHS - REX CHIU

Richard, thanks a million for taking the time to chat with us!