Ten Years – part 2.

I don’t know about other people but once I decide to do something I get pretty darn focused and that was certainly the case when it came time to get organized and start my own business. The hard part was knowing what actually had to be done. I knew how to build frames having built thousands of them by this point but I had no idea what I needed to do to allow me to start making and selling them legally. Some things were pretty obvious and others less so but I got good advice from my lawyer and friends and stuff started coming together.

One of the first things I needed was a logo and frame decals to be printed. When it came time to design the logo I kept coming back to a logo I designed and used in high school when I made skateboards. I changed it a bit to suit the size requirements of a bike frame and then took the sketches to a local graphic artist that took my color pencil drawings and turned them into electronic files the folks at Screen Specialty Shop could use to print them.

While waiting for the decals to be printed I bought some tools that I was missing as well as a surface plate that I would use to fixture frames as well as check their alignment. With this out of the way I built the first two frames — one for Karin and one for myself. They were both made of Reynolds 725 tubing and were both ‘all road’ type bikes for back road use around Bozeman.

Karin set up a simple website (her first) and word got out that I was building under my own name. It was about then that I got a call from Patrick Brady asking if I would be interested in having a profile done about me and my work in his new magazine – Asphalt. Of course I did and the only catch was that I didn’t have a bike to send him. I had a bike but it didn’t have paint or decals so it was of little good. I gently pressed the good folks at Screen Specialty and they turned around the order very quickly. I had the frame in a box and ready to send off to Cycle Fantasy for paint and once the decals arrived I was expecting to take a set, put them in the frame box and send it out ASAP. Best laid plans as they say………….the decals looked great but they were not the size I was expecting. In fact they were pretty darn small. Panicked, I called the printer, sorted out the miscommunication, and some new correct size versions were printed in just a day or two and then red labeled out to me.

The frame went off to Cycle Fantasy and came back very quickly thanks to Dave and Colleen’s hard work and it went right off to Mr. Brady. There was only one small hitch. There was a ‘made in Montana’ decal on the seat tube with an outline in the shape of the state and the painters, like most people, didn’t recognize the shape and turned it 90° so the state was on its side. Oh well — shit happens. Patrick said he’d try not to take any photos showing that decal. One fact that I wish I could have corrected in the article was that I was credited for cutting the first Tour de France lugs while working at Serotta. While I cut a bunch of those lugs over the years at Serotta I did not design the cut, nor was I the first one to make them — that was all Kelly Bedford’s work and that seat lug might be the best example of minimal elegance ever in the bike world. After the article came out I wrote in about the mistake but unfortunately it was never printed as the magazine folded after just a few issues.

While this was all happening I became incorporated in the state of Montana on June 4th, 2003 — I was now legal. A few more small tools and the purchase of liability insurance and I was 100% ready to take orders.

The first order came in during early July of 2003 from a very cool guy named Dave T. from Washington State. We talked a number of times on the phone and had, what in retrospect, was a funny conversation — sort of a “who’s on first” kind of thing. Dave asked me if his frame would be the first I built and not wanting him to think I was learning how to build with his frame I of course told him ‘no’. But what he was really asking was would he get the first Kirk frame and with it serial number one. “Nope — don’t worry, I’ve made plenty of frames……….”. We went round and round with this for some time before I figured out what he was really asking. Once through with that awkward dance Dave made plans to come visit me in Bozeman where we rode together and had great steaks and wine that Dave brought with him. What a great way to start. Dave got serial number 03 — Karin and I got number 1 and 2.

Things took off pretty quickly and I was a bit overwhelmed to be honest. I built 16 frames in the second ½ of 2003 and I was off and rolling. I had work and happy customers and wasn’t even loosing money so things were going better than I expected.

Next week — 2004.

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