[Forum Team]

David Kirk may not be a name that immediately springs to mind when thoughts turn to custom framebuilding, but to those ‘in the know’ Kirk Frameworks is on the crest of the ‘next wave’ of American framebuilders.

Dave's formative framebuilding years came at Serotta. At first, by working and learning in Serotta's production shop he gained an ideal start; every part of the build process is learned then refined by constant repetition before moving on to the next operation. Promotion followed a couple of years later and meant a move into the Serotta custom shop, where builds are completed one at a time, from start to finish at a rate of about 2 a week. This was confirmation by Serotta that Dave's apprenticeship under Master builder Kelly Bedford had given him the requisite skills and, more importantly, that he possesed the necessary passion and burning desire to build frames at the highest level.

A few years later and another promotion came at Serotta; this time he was entrusted with heading the R&D department. As Kirk documents on his website : “It was at this time that I developed some of the products that Serotta is known for, such as the F1 carbon fork, the STS Ti stem, 3D dropouts, the Colorado CST, the 20th and 25th Anniversary frames and the DKS system used on the Hors Category frames. The DKS design was awarded patent number 6,109,637 in August, 2000.”

Any other builder would be happy with that list of achievements and be temped to carry on in a secure and enviable position, but Dave needed to take things to the next level. Kirk is first to acknowledge the debt he owes to his time at Serotta; he speaks of his gratitude to Ben Serotta, thanking him for “providing me with the opportunity to grow, both as a person and as a framebuilder. Ben continues to be one of my most valued friends.”

In 1999, he and wife Karen made the move from New York State to Bozeman, Montana “to live in the mountains and try out a change of pace”, Here, Kirk met with local legend Carl Strong. Working with Strong gave him another slice of invaluable experience and furthered his ambition to strike out on his own. “During the winter of 2003 I decided the time was right to introduce a new level of craftsmanship and customer service in the bicycle business. In keeping with one of my long-held goals, Kirk Frameworks Company was created in June 2003”.

Four years on and what you see now is a builder who has developed a style and technique all of his own, and laid down his own set of exacting standards. Each frame is a masterpiece- and not only after painting by Joe Bell; view one of his frames ’in the raw’ and what you see is a thing of beauty in itself. There are few builders who can display this level of refinement in shaping and finishing lugs or fillets with such consistent high quality.

Kirk will be exhibiting frames both lugged and lugless, including his in-house speciality ‘Terraplane’ design with its elegantly curved, vibration-eating seatstays.

Be sure to take the time to stop by his stand and if you can’t be there, visit the Kirk Frameworks website for a superb gallery of completed and 'in-the-raw' frames plus Dave’s excellent, informative and thought-provoking articles on bike fit and handling.










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Kirk Frameworks Web Page

More later...