I recently had the opportunity to take a ride with Jason Babcock the owner of Shuksan Cycles . He is a local frame builder, commuter, racer, and teacher in Bellingham. We talked custom frames, riding, and cycling stuff in general. I didn't know much about the custom frame world and my talk with him was very enlightening. I hope you enjoy it. Tim Reinholtz Tell us about yourself. This is a tough lead in…I’ll try to express who I am in the questions to follow. I could always write things like, “I like long walks on the beaches, puppies, sunsets…” How and why did you get into building custom frames. I worked in number of different bike shops over the past 15 years in Pennsylvania and Colorado. When I moved out to Washington I was looking to return to working with bikes but you can only sell so many factory built bikes before you start sounding like a tape recorder. You have to educate the buyer about seats, tires, types of bikes, different component levels, etc. You try to find differences between a Trek, Giant, and a Specialized that are all the same price and have the same Shimano components. This gets old after 10 years and you start enjoying the interactions with riders (not necessarily racers) who get out regularly and know the basics. Discussions about tire selections for chip seal or great road rides in the area mean that the “customer” is educating the “salesperson” just as much as the “salesperson” educates the “customer”. It’s learning new stuff that keeps it interesting and that wasn’t happening in retail sales. Framebuilding offers this opportunity to interact with like minded individuals while offering a product to local enthusiasts that does not exist in the Bellingham area. Additionally, Bellingham is a national leader in the buy local movement and while there are bike shops that advocate buying locally, they are selling products made in China. I was looking to small niche builders and wondering why there weren’t any in such a cycling friendly, “buy local” area as Bellingham. What does the process look like, how do I know if I want a custom frame. The process starts with a phone call. If you’re local it may look more like a ride together. We’ll discuss what exactly you are looking for in a bike and the bikes you’ve had in the past. If you’re a racer, this may lead to a fit session where we look at such things as your seat setback, head tube angles, and the components you plan on using. If you are a commuter, we may discuss what sorts of fenders you are going to use, how far you’ll be commuting, the times of day you ride and lighting requirements that reflect that usage. From the design stage I order tubing and weld up the frame and fork. We dialogue throughout the build process as we determine factor like braze-ons and paint schemes. I look to the application and design the bike around that application then work with the customer through the build process. As for determining if you want a custom frame, most customers will have been riding a long time and are looking to find something unique and tailored to their needs. I offer a customized, locally built option that is an alternative to what is being offered. It’s a custom experience and centers around a relationship between the builder and the rider. Most customers will have a number of bikes as cycling is their chosen hobby. They see value in the craft of framebuilding the way others see craftsmanship in luxury cars, custom kitchen cabinets, fine china, or nice luggage. Others are not quite satisfied with what they are finding in the marketplace locally and are looking towards custom options to find a bike that meets their needs. What kind of riding do you do. I ride all types of bikes. At the moment I’m on a rigid single speed 29er at Galbraith. It takes me back to the early 90’s when I was just learning to ride. My cross bike has full fenders, lights, a rack, and a ENO hub to become a fixed gear commuter this winter. I’ve also got a road racing bike that is put away for the season but will come out when the weather is nicer and the days are longer.  What is your favorite cycling website.
I enjoy the dialogue in a number of the forums online. The Serotta forum has more intelligent individuals and less spray/trolling than any other cycling forum on the web. Cyclingforums, MTBR, and roadbikereview are okay but there is a lot of nonsense. There are some of the best builders, shop owners, and racers in the country participating in discussions and while there are often off topic posts, the chafe gets sorted out rather quickly. Cyclingnews.com is my favorite for race results. As for other builders, Vanilla, Kirk frameworks, Richard Sachs, Spectrum Cycles…they all have sites worth visiting. Bike commuting has become more and more popular, do you bike commute? I ride to and from a teaching job in Bellingham. It’s just shy of 40 miles round trip and I shoot for 3 days a week. I’m lucky in that I have fantastic country roads to commute on. What makes for good commuter bike. #1 is fenders, #2…fenders, #3 is fenders again. For anyone in the area commuting without fenders, you are missing out! After getting water under control, lighting is a concern. Where are you going to put lights and are racks, seat bags, etc. going to block your light from view? Some people love dry bags and/or backpacks, others prefer panniers. I for one love panniers but that’s a decision for the rider. If you aren’t sure, rack mounts can be very discrete and can be added in case you change your mind at a later date. When it comes to how the rider sits on the bike, I would have to know how long the commute is and how much the rider rides when not commuting. A racer wants a commuter that rides like their race bike. Others usually want something more comfortable. What are some of your favorite rides (without divulging secrets). I live up on the South Pass Road so I’ve got some great ones just out the front door. Riding up to Baker is a 90+ mile out and back that I don’t get tired of. Heading East on the South Pass takes me past Silver Lake on a nice 25 mile loop. Reese Hill is just down the road if I want a 15 mile loop. I tent to try to find rides with elevation changes and enjoyable aesthetics. I used to live in Lynden and the roads there can be a bit mundane if you don’t select your route carefully…flat and straight with tons of wind. Can a custom bike be affordable? It all depends on perspective. I know that any cyclist has had people question why they spend a few hundred dollars on a bike when there are bikes at Wal Mart for $99. I look at a $9000 Parlee frameset or a 7-series BMW and think that it is too expensive. We all set our own values and decide what is “worth it” to us. I personally think that spending $2-3,000 on a commuter that gets used regularly is worth it because it negates the expense of a car and gives fitness benefits that are tough to acquire elsewhere. A $4-5,000 road bike is worth it to me the same way a $40-50,000 ski boat is worth it to someone else. I spend over 250 hours sitting on a bike each year. It’s what I do. If I sat on my couch watching television, I might invest in Direct TV and a plasma screen (for what it’s worth, I have rabbit ears that get one foggy Canadian station and a 19” tube TV). What do you do to try to combat the long winter blues here in the NW. Ski, Set up a long Netflix cue, run, XC-ski, mountain bike, ride a fixed gear, hike, anything. This is an issue for anyone who lives here because it’s so easy to go to bet at 8:00 without working out. The key to staying fit around here during the winter is in being an athlete, not necessarily a cyclist. If you can ride, more power too you. Many of us can’t. Commuting makes the best of a bad situation and I would recommend it for anyone who goes through withdraw when they can’t ride. I know you like to race cyclocross, what draws you to the sport. First, the racers are a close knit community. It really reminds me of what mountain bike racing was like when it was getting started. There aren’t many people cursing each other out like you oftentimes find in road racing. Second, it makes me get out and ride when I would otherwise try to stay inside and get fat. Fall is the time of year we all cut back on our mileage and it’s real easy to stay inside when it’s wet, cold, and muddy. Cross racing makes all of those things positives because they add to the fun of a race. The falling doesn’t hurt because it’s like a giant slip and slide and everyone falls. Anyone who came out to Lynden for Ryan Rickert’s Cyclocrazed race…the mud pit was a perfect example of how cyclocross changes your perspective. There were 6-8” of mud as you rode through the arena. Any sane person would look at the mud and run the other way…a pack of cross racers charged in one after the other and had a blast getting muddy, soaked, trashing their bikes…it was like being a kid again. The run up looked like a vertical wall but there went rider after rider scrambling up the thing. I want to thank Jason for taking the time to get out and spin around with me. I learned a lot about the hand built bicycle world and had a great ride. 
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