I currently have three bikes in the works, though they're all staying "in the family".
A
balance bike for my youngest daughter, though it's stalled for wheels
that are back-ordered, is the first in line. The main frame is mostly
finished, and the rear "triangle" is waiting on the wheels (to make sure
the axle spacing is set correctly).
The second is an all-road
bike for my wife. Tire clearance, disc brakes, stable geometry, and
comfortable are the main plays on this one. Built on 24" wheels (507 ISO
for those who speak that language), it'll have ample room with no
compromises for tube tweaking or negative-rise stems. This is in the
very early stages of the build at this point.
Then is a bike for myself, essentially a cyclocrosser with disc brakes, or a disc-brake road bike
with clearance to wide (like 42mm) tires. Tubes are in the box for this one -- no actual building has taken place yet.
Next
will be time trial bike for a good friend of mine. And that brings me
to the the "building the build biz" part -- insurance and suppliers.
It's
been quite the education researching the needs for a frame-building
business. Even a very low-volume hobby level business has many of the
same requirements as the bigger custom builders. You have to not only
protect yourself in a product liability sense, but your customers as
well.
Insurance is the key. It's not cheap, but it's worth it. I
would never pass along a product that I thought was sub-standard or
remotely unsafe. But, as in all things, stuff (or that other s-word)
happens, and I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror at night if
I knew that one of my products drastically changed some one's life for
the worse without the ability to somehow make it
right.
And once one of my bikes leaves my own household, that
protection needs to be there (I would think that my wife or daughter
wouldn't sue me... right?).
Suppliers need to have proof of that
insurance as well, if their products will be resold onto a finished
product. They also want to make sure they're not just undercutting their
existing dealer network by supplying wholesale to the hobbyist.
So the list grows. Licenses, tax IDs, insurance, tooling (though I have most of that covered), supply contracts...
The nature of any business -- running the business is not secondary to the products you make.
