Last time we looked at the total number of handmade bike builders in the U.S....which turns out to be a pretty big number. Turning to output and value, estimation is even more challenging; without direct observation, we must rely largely on informed-insider opinion and observation. The following, then, is intended only as a "thinking out loud" … Continue reading How Big is the Handbuilt Bike Segment? Part III →

Last time we worked through the bike picture outline of the bike trade in the U.S. The really short story is that a lot of bikes are sold overall ("a lot" - that is - if you only took "bike shops" as your frame of reference), most of them for kids, most of them comparatively … Continue reading How Big is the Handbuilt Bike Segment? Part II →

How do the handbuilders fit into the larger bicycle industry?While it is clear to even a casual observer that the U.S.-made, hand built and/or custom bike segment is small, just how small is difficult to establish with any certainty. This is to some extent just a fact of the size - it is difficult to … Continue reading How Big is the Handbuilt Bike Segment? Part I →

Quick update to preview a bit of a change of pace. Thus far I've been bogged down in project framing here on the blog...but that is all, fundamentally, throat clearing until I can get to the "meat" of what I envisioned with a project blog: a place to toss up bits of work in progress … Continue reading Change of Pace →

Last time (and, yes, it was ages ago, but I can get this out before the 1-year anniversary of the blog!), I began by trying to frame my motivation for this project in the broadest possible terms. I was doing so through reference to the large scale socio-ecological crisis humanity faces with climate change. Thinking … Continue reading Framing the Project: Shifting Scales & the Reorganization of Capitalism →

Last time I talked about the notion of "framing" and the ways I might situate and justify this project. The best metaphor might be matryoshka dolls (you know, these things), for we can see this as a series of nested concerns that ultimately lead to narrower questions. Concerns are things that motivate the project: what it speaks to, but certainly … Continue reading Framing the Project: The Socio-Ecological Crisis of Capitalism →

Why study handmade bike builders? To be sure, they occupy a niche. There aren't all that many of them. Many that are working now weren't working a few years ago...and many of them now won't be working much a few years from now. They don't produce a lot of output. They don't seem to make a lot … Continue reading Framing the Project: The Big Picture →

As the blog's subtitle - "handbuilt bikes and global value chains" - tries to indicate, in its widest sense this new project will center on handmade bike builders and how they are situated within the global bicycle trade. That alone is a tall order...but the real ambition is even broader: to use the position of … Continue reading (Hand)Building Value: What’s In a Name? →

First post here at the new blog, though it's not going to be monumental in the least! Though I've been blogging elsewhere - very sporadically - over the years, I'm using the advent of a new project as a moment to make a fresh start on the blogging. I need and want to be writing … Continue reading Getting Started →