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Quite literally, do it for the kids

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,157
359
Roanoke, VA
Anyone who buys these


(there's one more)...
for us will receive the first production Mothership FS mountain frame, with custom geometry as soon as this added production capacity will make it a reality. And heck, if ya'll want to form a nice orderly line of deposits for other ****, like the Slalom Superbike, that's been rattling around between various engineers Solidworks folder for the last 3 years, it's hardtail trailbike accompaniment, The frikking nutso DH bike projects, and even some flexy-flier soft-tail carbon/scandium custom 29'r softail frames.

Having these machines, at this amazing price, will literally ensure that my company will be not just in business, but profitable by the end of 2010.

It will create 6 new jobs here in Easthampton, and it will mean 2 thousand more bicycles made in the USA by 2011. By 2012 it will mean an additional 8 jobs here, and at least a 15% increase in the tax base in this bankrupt and beautiful and failing city full of hardworking blue collar families.

Your dollars will directly impact every child in Easthampton, and every one who considers the TRUE values that they consumer goods they buy represent.

Speak up for America. Before it's too late.

Mickey Denoncourt, 29 years old, full of passion, and president and one of 4 full time employees of Spooky Bikes, a nearly successful metalworking factory, proudly from Easthampton, Massachusetts, United States of America.





(Also, if you are thinking about buying a production frameset or complete from Spooky any time soon, please, do it now. Who the hell knows when everything else will be done...)

This is the time people. Now is the Moment.
Be a history-maker.​
 
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RUFUS

e-douche of the year
Dec 1, 2006
3,480
1
Denver, CO
I can drop some coin to get you at least one. Don't have $800 floating around right now. Give me a few weeks and I can hook you up.
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,157
359
Roanoke, VA
Warning this may be a stupid question:

Im just wondering why you are interested in 3 Horizontal mills and not Vertical mills?
Horizontal mills are more space efficient, and for the hard-tooled production fixtures we will be using with them, their ease of fixturing, overkill rigidity, impeccable service record, and mechanical 4 axis stops and powerfeeds make them perfect for medium scale bicycle manufacturing. When you add in the motorcycle style clutch and shiftlever and the ease of adding electrical DRO controls will allow us the fastest possible cut rates.
The integrated coolant tray and pump and their place as a design masterpiece of the golden-era of American Precision are but mere perks in what, quite literally is a machine designed to make bicycles, and machine dies for stamping armor panels for the M4 Sherman tank that defeated the Nazis.

If you hate Nazis, buy a road bike.

(if you remove the overhead support arm, the main spindle uses a Cat50 taper)
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,157
359
Roanoke, VA
Im guessing that you are planing to do more then notch tubes with them. What kind of parts are you going to be making with them?

I work as a CNC programmer so this really kind of interest me.

These are the finest machines in the world to cut tubes in a bike factory... The precision way we are running them, their intuitive and automatic adjustable feeds and speeds and the 5 adjustable stops per axis limit give us the ultimate- supreme rigidity, near infinite duty-cycle. This means that these 60-70 year old machines that were scrapped 4 decades ago by modern American industry can cut bike tubes 10 hours a day 300 days a year for another 20-40 years with nearly-free maintenance and simple, re-manufacturable parts.

America is no longer an industrial nation- only by devolving to more primitive methods and lower-overhead cooperative industrial production will we be able to preserve the ability to make things here.

Effectively, it's the dawn of the Machine Age all over again, and we can already be ahead of the curve by cannibalizing the corpses laid waist around the country by the failures of American economic ideas and policy. A fundamental failure caused by a culture perverted so deeply that It only sees Value as a matter of currency or property.
 
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RD

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
688
0
Boston, MA
This is bascially our conversation form this afternoon. Did you record it? ;)

For anyone interested in the 'nuts and bolts' of how we acquire manufacturing capacity and attempt to build our local economy, bike scene, and people getting rad on bikes, please email me. I'm more that happy to elaborate on the subject and show pictures of the fruits of our labor.

Richard DeFrancisco


rd@spookybikes.com
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,157
359
Roanoke, VA
The generosity of some people amazes me!
I used to be a Cary Grant sorta guy, but maybe I should give Capra and Stewart a little love this holiday...

Instead of "donating" you could also considering purchasing some softgoods on the website, or putting your money toward a new frameset- It's freeing up capital (especially during what is in our line of a work, a slow holiday season) that allows us to move forward, getting us closer to being able to build the stuff that we really want to ride and help our friends have a job that is fulfilling...

If you want to send some paypal dinero, loot@spookybikes.com is the address.
For some Secret-Santa-Style Paperchase action-
Our mailing Addy;
Spooky Bikes
116 Pleasant St
#58
Easthampton, MA
01027


Thanks so much!
-m

Also, um, churches and actual non-profits, the arts, and every other small business in America could use a hand too. Stop drinking Dunkin Donuts, buy your de-icer from the slightly more expensive local hardware store and choose the Stella over the Chimay a few times to give the local kids some sparkling grapejuice to toast the New Year with.

Here is a hearty effing cheer to all the frikkin nice people who have made such a big difference in less than 2 hours. Hell, just a few thousand more, and we can CNC all the parts!

Oh yeah, Ridemonkey admins- where do I send the check? What a swell buncha fine human beings...
 
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ire

Turbo Monkey
Aug 6, 2007
6,196
4
Are you that hard up for cash? Reality check for the monkeys, if you buy him gear and the company tanks before you get your frame, you're out of luck. There is risk involved. I would have be interested in picking up a road and cross frame from you, but with the way you act on this board there is no way I would buy a product from you, nor would I encourage anyone to. Every bridge you burn counts.
 
Jun 20, 2007
349
9
Are you that hard up for cash? Reality check for the monkeys, if you buy him gear and the company tanks before you get your frame, you're out of luck. There is risk involved. I would have be interested in picking up a road and cross frame from you, but with the way you act on this board there is no way I would buy a product from you, nor would I encourage anyone to. Every bridge you burn counts.
:rofl:
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,573
24,191
media blackout
Are you that hard up for cash? Reality check for the monkeys, if you buy him gear and the company tanks before you get your frame, you're out of luck. There is risk involved. I would have be interested in picking up a road and cross frame from you, but with the way you act on this board there is no way I would buy a product from you, nor would I encourage anyone to. Every bridge you burn counts.
There's inherent risk with any business venture. There is also a difference between funds needed to expand a business and funds needed to keep a business afloat.
 

dan-o

Turbo Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
6,499
2,805
If you can't pull $800 together, between 4 employees, for essential tooling you are ****ed. What next, boy scouts going door to door for tubeset donations?

Not trying to be a hater. I own a business with 8 employees (14 total mouths to feed including kids) and know the struggle well but, jesus, $800 is nothing. Bus tables at night or something, anything, before groveling on the web to your customer base.
 

Cant Climb

Turbo Monkey
May 9, 2004
2,683
10
FWIW.

If i was still single and needed a new bike i'd help you. Hope you find a way to get them...
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,157
359
Roanoke, VA
If you can't pull $800 together, between 4 employees, for essential tooling you are ****ed. What next, boy scouts going door to door for tubeset donations?

Not trying to be a hater. I own a business with 8 employees (14 total mouths to feed including kids) and know the struggle well but, jesus, $800 is nothing. Bus tables at night or something, anything, before groveling on the web to your customer base.


Dude,
I dig what you are saying- Rigging is going to be a solid grand- We just dropped another $6500 on tooling last week that wee need to rig out here- It takes a lot to run this sort of ****. It's not groveling, it's using the power of the internet- and mostly, it's a way of starting a discussion about the sad state of manufacturing in this country.

Offering something rad for the money is way more fun than over-extending the favors our friends and family have given us more than we already have- It's 2009- loans for small bussiness don't exist- Especially ones owned by 29 year olds with no credit history. This is not a profitable bussiness yet- probabally won't be until Q2 next year.
This is 5 peoples childhood dreams, artistic passions and knowledge combined into something pretty rad... $800 is a hard thing to swing sometimes- Theres more than $12k in the bank today. There will be -$600 on Thursday. I'm sure we'll be back up this time next week, that's the nuts and bolts of the startup curve. Direct action, micro lending, whatever the heck you want to call it- That's how America can and will move forward in the current economic and geopolitical climate!

You been to a bank lately to get a loan? If you don't want $25,000 they will send you straight out the door!

It takes a syndicate to run a micro-business right now. Without the kind of friendship based entrepenurial cooperative structure that we already have, even the meager **** we get accomplished right now ain't going to happen.

There are ****, 5? people on Ridemonkey who have put what I'd wager to be thousands of dollars of their own money into doing what we love here. They do what they can do to help from wherever they live- from complex engineering to tooling design and plain-old financing. They believe- They are part of the strugge.e

Bikes are for People.
We Organise to stay alive.
We Organise to radicalize industrial production.
We organise to raise-consciousness among consumers.
We Organise to bring cool products to consumers.

It's fun!

(p.s. hearing back about the mill soon- hoping the scrappers didn't get it first. The damn things are worth about $1500 as scrap- maybe more)

Free speech is commercial speech.
 

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
A plug for Spooky since they are a rad company - buy a shirt, hell I'm a poor college kid and even I can afford one, and help out an upstart business that has a big presence on this site with real passion.
 

SuspectDevice

Turbo Monkey
Aug 23, 2002
4,157
359
Roanoke, VA
Finally have the time to sit down and give the low-down

First- Man, the response was overwhelming positive- people offered, in total waay more money than we needed.

The bad news the scap guys swung in on the machines and their owner with more money than he was asking for before he even had time to think and beat us to the machines!

The Good news is that Marty@Geekhouse found me a mill just like the ones we were trying to get sitting in museum condition in a Cambridge basement, we just need to rig it out.
We are picking that up that + 4 more machines(bridgeport, southbend, a Burke horizontal, fixturing, additional tig) that another builder helped us find for dirt cheap on the 16th. By help, I mean he needed to close up shop and move to Cali to work for the Man because his order book was looking so grim...
It's great that we can find stuff like this at way, way below it's productive value, but it is heart breaking when we are getting machines left and right from failing manufacturing businesses- It's not patriotism or Jingoism- it's just sad. My dad worked in a factory- my grandfather built submarines- Now yuppies like me just work and live in the hulking shells of all these old buildings- some of us making products- but most of my generation isn't even thinking about building or making things to sell to our peers- They are making more than enough money(and more than anyone involved here) writing web-comics, developing Iphone apps and selling used books.

There isn't anything wrong with using your skills to make money in the marketplace- but to me, it's like rail-trails. The true value of rail-trails isn't giving people a car-free place for linear recreation- It's preserving infrastructure and right-of-ways that may be useful in the future.
If we let all of our machines and all of our gigantic, but antiquated factory buildings crumble into oblivion, there is NO reserve capacity for when(not if) it will become desirable to make the things we use closer to home. Cybernated industry and modern planning aren't bull**** Elenaor Roosevelt hyperbole- It's how the Chinnese do it- and it's the way forward for everything just like Kaizen revolutionized US managment in the 80's the project for this century is develop a localized and distributed manufacturing infrastructure that allows producers to control costs more effectively, optimized their work flow and total number of processes and insure the need for a knowledgeable and specialized workforce.


Do you know that there are some models of bikes from some nameless factories in china(they are nice bikes too- lots of people here have and love them) that can't be imported into some countries, like Canada because of anti-dumping regulations?

For all the fine folks that offered to help out- thanks- for the few of you that pay-pal'd money- expect to see it back in your accounts later today.

-m
 

4xBoy

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2006
7,016
2,849
Minneapolis
Finally have the time to sit down and give the low-down

-m

Good to hear.

I agree with what you are saying, working in a tool room I asked someone about building a clock, he asked if I had prints, I said that was the point, most people can make a copy but few can build something, I see it as an art that is not available anymore.