Bohemian Framebuilding School
Have you always loved bicycles? Just been interested in how they are built? Maybe you want to build a life long fulfilling hobby or even maybe hang your shingle someday?
For those of you that dream about this I offer a framebuilding course. Who am I? My name is David Bohm of Bohemian Bicycles. I have been a professional framebuilder since 1994. I am most well known for elaborate lug work and one of the original new guard of framebuilders that brought a new sensibility and style to the framebuilding world.
For you, the potential student I bring all that I have learned to help you achieve your goals. My course consists of two weeks of instruction, utilizing one of the most extensively equipped shops in the business.
I only teach one student at a time 4-6 times a year based on my current backlog of frames. I will do as little or as much as you would like to have done so if there are elements which are beyond the beginner, but you would still like to have them I can accommodate you.
We go over all aspects of frame building extensively.
1. Design
2. Fitting
3. Steering Geometry
4. Metallurgy and tubing choice
5. Welding theory
6. Various welding/brazing practice based on need
7. Fabrication/ fit up
8. Brazing, alignment, build procedures
9. Proper finishing and preparation for paint
10 .Basic paint/powder overview
At the end of the course you can take home your new prize or I can paint it here for you and ship it to you when finished.
How much is Tuition and what does it include?
Do I need to know anything before I come for your course?
What is your course schedule?
How do I get there?
Is room and board included?
What are working hours in your shop?
Do you offer a 3-day TIG only seminar?
Do you offer a 3-day Lug Brazing or Fillet brazing course.
Will you teach me what I need to know to be a Pro?
Do you also offer courses for experienced framebuilders?
Do you teach fork and stem fabrication?
What kind of tubing and lugs do we use?
Can I learn how to TIG weld?
Is it possible to learn all three welding methods Lug, Fillet Braze, and TIG?
Should I build a lugged frame?
Will time allow to fabricate or carve moderately custom lugs?
Can I work with Stainless Steel lugs?
Can I paint the frame under your supervision?
Can I build a touring frame in your course.
Can I build a frame utilizing S & S couplings?
Can I build a recumbent in your course?
Can I build a downhill bike with Gagomonsterzilla tires, a jackshaft and 14 inches of travel?
Tuition is 3000.00 and includes all necessary frame materials, practice materials, educational materials and included frame design software. I also offer frame painting services if you wish to take advantage of it. Unless something very exotic is used or a major mistake occurs that requires me to replace large amounts of tubing there are no additional fees. Yes, my course costs more than any other option but here are the benefits.
1. One on one instruction 100% attention.
2. Attendance dates are fluid to work best into YOUR schedule.
3. Tucson easier and cheaper to get to than the other purveyors of framebuilding courses (that is if you have to get on a plane anyways)
4. Full use of shop, no waiting for other students.
5. Can build anything within reason and my shop is extremely well equipped.
6. No extras to deal with, no finding a painter, or paying for odd bits while you are here.
7. Amazing deals on frame kits and parts for students only.
8. Lots of great take home stuff, including proprietary frame design software.
9. The weather in Tucson fall, spring and winter is almost always amazing. Treat yourself and get out of the cold.
10. Killer road and MTB riding!
You do not need any prior experience to participate in our course. I will teach you all you need to know to use basic hand tools and the safe and efficient use of the various welding and brazing techniques. If you are experienced in various techniques before the course we can move ahead in these subjects and spend more time on other things. I have found that beginners can learn just as quickly because they have no pre-conceived notions of how the techniques work and are open to learning.
I give 3-5 classes a year. A Spring,Fall and Winter course. The exact dates can be modified but generally fall as follows. Jan/Feb-April May-Oct/Nov.
Tucson is a medium sized city of about half a million. We have an international airport here and flights are frequent. Often it can be cheaper to fly into Phoenix Arizona which is a major flight hub and take the shuttle down to Tucson. The shuttles last stop is .5 mile from my house and it costs about 22 bucks. I will pick you up either at the airport when you arrive or at the shuttle stop location. I do have to say that although many people seem to choose an educational experience based on what is closest to them. Tucson is much easier to get to than any other option if you have to fly anyways.
No, I am sorry but room and board are not included. I do provide coffee and pastry every morning. There are many local supermarkets (including Trader Joes) within walking distance and you are welcome to brown bag it for lunch everyday.
The class typically runs from 7:30-8:00am to 5:30 in the evening. With a .5 to 1 hour lunch break. Nine hours a day on the average. More than this and it becomes evident that students generally become much less productive and may even become unsafe if overly tired.
Why yes I do! you can add this to the end of your lugged/fillet brazing course or take this independently from the other two if you wish. The cost is $600.00 dollars.
Why yes I do! If you are in the area and would just like a extensive primer into lug brazing or fillet brazing I can help. Nothing can speed the learning process faster than a trained eye to look at what and how you are doing and make recommendations. If you have no experience, I am willing to help also. Cost is $600.00 dollars.
Yes and no. If your intention is to someday be a professional I will structure the course a little differently so we cover ground on fixture design, necessary tools and more importantly the nature of this business, including marketing, production, tools, insurance etc. You cannot expect to take a two week course and be anywhere near good enough to sell frames. It takes time. I am positive about the future of framebuilding in the U.S. but in this respect I am opinionated. For instance, if your idea is to make hyper expensive stainless urban fixed gear bicycles , I am going to tell you there is no market in that and to save your money. The best way to approach this is to build it as a hobby. Enjoy yourself. Make it fun, make it great and if you still love it and people are clamoring to get your product, don't quit your day job and test the waters.
Surely, If your goals are just to learn a little more about detailed lug work. Pick up fillet brazing or TIG welding or just about anything else you can come up with, I can tailor a course for what you want to learn in the amount of time you have.
A fork is the first thing that we build as it reviews almost all the skills and techniques that we will use on our frame and is a great introduction in a small, manageable package. Building a stem would be fairly straightforward for anyone who had completed the class and I have the equipment but so far nobody would have been able to complete a fork/frame and stem in the time allotted and ones welding/brazing must be extremely competent as this part is under high loads and of course failure of a stem equals serious injury whereas many other parts of the frame do not.
This is a half day discussion and is part of the curriculum. I will say we use the best available tubing and parts for the job at hand. I have used tubing and parts from just about every manufacturer there is today. Part of the course is actually choosing your tube set and parts from my extensive inventory and discussing the merits of them while we choose. Very light tubing most of the time is not a suitable choice for someone who may have no experience before. If the design warrants it and you have the requisite experience we can use some of the light, heat treated stuff.
Yes you can, but we have to structure the course differently. TIG welding is by far the most difficult of the three welding/brazing techniques (lug brazing, fillet brazing and Tungsten inert gas) The course is much more welding related and much less is spent actually constructing a frame. Personally I think more would be gleamed from taking a lug brazing or fillet brazing course and then a 3-day TIG seminar.
The biggest limitation is time. All in all about 100 hours are dedicated to the course work in my class. So far that has shown to be barely enough time to finish a frame and fork for the majority of students packing in three welding procedures and practicing them each enough to be proficient and then make a frame is most likely too lofty a goal to make sure we complete it. If you build a lugged frame we do practice some basic fillet brazing and bronze brazing as some of the features require this method. A fillet brazed class would be predominately fillet brazing of course with some light silver brazing for the sleeves and things that are necessary. TIG welding takes a lot longer to get proficient at
Whether to build a lugged frame or not is up to you. I do believe that building a lugged frame or partially lugged frame gives one the best primer for eventually building other types of frames. In that I mean a person who had only built a TIG welded frame would have a very difficult time building their first lugged bikes. A person who was proficient in lugged building, once they learned how to weld well would have no issue producing a TIG welded bike. The skill set is wider for a lugged bicycle frame.
Most students realize pretty quickly why lugged frames are so much more time intensive than TIG welded frames and most of this is the lug prep and cleanup. One of the advantages of my course is that I really want to show the student how to properly prepare, file and clean up lug work that other courses may not address but it is very easy for many hours to fly by modifying lugs and fall behind in the building procedures. So, the answer is yes, you can make simple modifications to lugs and prepare them well for brazing but heavy modification and or fabrication is not within the time constraints of this class. Add to that the extra difficulty of brazing and cleaning of such lugs and really it would be better to become skilled at basic lug work and then come back for a short primer and practice session on complicated work.
Stainless steel can be a difficult material to work with. It is much harder to cut and file than standard steels and brazing it requires more heat and a faster hand. If a mistake is made with stainless it won't be evident right away but will create a joint that will fail catastrophically. Unless one shows a lot of prior experience, or you would like me to do this portion for you stainless steel lugs are not part of this course.
I may offer paint courses someday. Currently I have only been painting myself for four years or so and do not feel confident enough to teach another person appropriately. On the note of what equipment is best. I can give a general overview of the equipment and materials, if we have time not to exceed half a day.
Can I build a touring frame in your course?
Absolutely you can. I have found though that all the braze-ons that a touring bike needs adds a substantial amount of time to the build. This takes nearly a day for most students. This means we have to either hustle a little bit during the rest of it to give enough time for completion. I may make suggestions to ease the building process as to facilitate this.
The short answer to this is yes. Of course, like the other fabrication techniques in this genre (stainless lugs, carving, unusual designs) its really just a matter of time. If you show good skills in silver brazing and have the time then of course you can install S&S couplings with my supervision. To be honest though, I have not had a student yet who would have met these two criteria. Most likely I will have to install them for you after your time here.
No. We cannot build any recumbents or trikes in this course. The variability of these designs preclude them from being built here. I just don't have the fixturing or time to go into it. With that being said, the same techniques used to build a great lugged or lugless frame carry over very well into recumbent designs. We also study steering geometry which is applicable to recumbents. I believe with the information you receive here you could build a recumbent in your own time and know how to do it.
See the above FAQ about recumbents. We can build straightforward MTB's but unusual designs with large clearances and unusual design ideas are outside the scope of this course. It will be all you can do to just build a standard frame. Trust me on this. Once again, the techniques you gain will help you realize your goals at a later time.
Course fine print:
1. I have a fairly extensive shop but you should know that this is my home that I work out of. My wife also works from home and although she is an Angel and very used to my cantankerous banging some people may not feel comfortable working in the home of another. Sometimes, Angela is on the phone and we have to momentarily restrict our noise making or work in the additional shop outside.
2. . Safety is a number one priority around here. No matter the level of experience you may have I require eye and ear protection where appropriate and will go over basic safety procedures and hand tool usage with everyone. No exceptions
3 We have a dog (Chelsea) and a cat ( Meows) Chelsea and Meows are super friendly. If you are allergic to dogs or cats or just find them intolerable this course may not be for you. Otherwise, they would love your attention. They know how to stay out of the way too.
4. Every person has a different viewpoint on how they would like to finish their frame-set. Some people would like to do every little bit themselves. Others do not. Some want perfect lug edging, others are happy with a blob or two. I am here to help. If you want to complete every little bit, just tell me. Taking the frame home with you to complete any work is just fine. Also, if you rather I can complete any finish work or additional work for you as part of the services I offer. I always endeavor to keep everyone on track with a syllabus and daily updates.
Lodging
I have an available guest house where class is held.
This very nice little studio has a kitchenette, a stone fireplace and a bath with whirlpool tub. It is safe and quiet. It is offered at $25.00 a day.
Food and Resturants
Supermarkets, gourmet food stores and resturants abound within walking and riding distance. Within .5 mile there are four major supermarkets along with Trader Joes, coffee and anything else you can think of.
Schedule for 2010
Sold out for 2010. Please inquire if you want to be placed on the waiting list in case of cancelations.
SOLD OUT!!
Schedule for 2011
January:
Feb/March:
April/May:
June:
September:
Oct/Nov:
December:
Sold
Open
Tucson is a city of approximately 525k people located 100 miles south of Phoenix. We have an international airport and Phoenix is a major hub and easy to get to. If you fly directly into Tucson I will pick you up (your first wonderful Mexican food dinner is on me) from the airport and get you situated with the area and your accommodations. If you fly into Phoenix there is a shuttle bus that drops you off .5 miles from your lodgings. I will meet you there also.
The city itself resides in a valley. Mountains surround Tucson. Our tallest is Mt. Lemmon at 9200 ft above sea level. The cycling around here is EPIC. No other words for it. With 360 days of sun a year and an average daily yearly temp of 68 no other framebuilding cycling destination compares (sorry Portland:).
Tucson is typically 100 dollars cheaper for a cross country flight than Portland and no crazy bus routes or multiple transfers needed to get to the esoteric locations of some of the other schools.
Easy to get to with spectacular scenery and ridng, what more can you ask for.
Pricing:
Frame course Deposit
Non-refundable
Two weeks of individualized instruction $ 2995.00
3-day welding/brazing seminar $ 595.00
Lodging $ 25.00 a day
Paint: Starts at $ 325.00
Hobby builders/Pro's. Want to expand your skillset? Daily rates and consulting available.
$500.00
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Girlie T-shirt
$23.50
S/M/L/XL
various colors
just ask
Includes shipping
Tube Blocks
$100.00
Campagnolodelta.com
Bohemian Bicycles
A day by day blow of a student of the bohemian frame course.
Bohemian Blogorama
Bohemian frame course blog
Cycles del Sol
Bohemian Flickr
Previous frame Student
VeloCult visit to shop
Tim Paterek Framebuilding manual
I am not writting a 400+ page book anytime soon Tims is the reference manual. Get it .
