[boostindoubles]

“How big do you want me to be?” Simple Bicycle Co. - Brooks England Journal

Simple Bicycle Co. is not a brand you will see very often, as owner Oscar Camarena explains his unorthodox approach to frame building and choosing his clientele.

journal.brooksengland.com

So many A+ quotes in here. Oscar is the man, it's been fun watching his skills and eccentricities develop over the years.

 

[boostindoubles]

“There’s a lot more love involved and I know that sounds kind of cliché, because it is, but there is. There’s definitely a feeling that this bike is representing me, personally. There’s a difference. My welds are a little bit different. The care that I take when I build a Simple is significantly higher than the care I take with somebody else’s. Not because I don’t care about their bikes, but the person that’s buying the bike is buying it because it’s me, not because it’s a company.”

Fuck yeah O-Dogg!

 

[Jm_]

Well, I just got one of those saddles, so it damn well better work for me...

 

[boostindoubles]

Well, I just got one of those saddles, so it damn well better work for me...

Did you put it on your ti Simple?

 

[Jm_]

Did you put it on your ti Simple?

NO

I had been going on the brooks site a bunch over the last few days tho.

 

[rideit]

The first day I showed up for work at Schwinn in Boulder, I wore Simple shoes.
They were a big hit.
That’s all I got.

 

[boostindoubles]

Ok I wish he hadn't put such a long seat tube on it.

 

[boostindoubles]

The first day I showed up for work at Schwinn in Boulder, I wore Simple shoes.
They were a big hit.
That’s all I got.

View attachment 156128

Theres a brand named Simple but they are a bamboo frame made in China (?)

BMX Frame

Build your own BMX with Simple Bikes' BMX Series Bike Frame! Extremely strong and beautifully designed. Customise it to show off your bike and skills.

simple.bike

There was a bmx brand named Simple but I can't seem to find any info newer than 2016. It might be done. They were Euro I think.

 

[rideit]

I would love to see a BMX pro try and destroy a bamboo frame.
minutes?
Hours?
Days?

 

[Westy]

This is all pretty complicated.

 

[rideit]

And needs a soundtrack.

 

[rideit]

 

[boostindoubles]

 

[rideit]

Gettin’ jiggy wid it?

 

[Westy]

View attachment 156131

Some kind of vibration damping platform?

 

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I was putting together a hop pellet bagging line and needed a vibrating table to settle out the bags before boxing. 2x2 tables are relatively cheap but jumping to 4x4 was cost prohibitive. After complaining to Oscar he built this for the cost of the branded 2x2 table. He used some sort of aircraft bushings and a vfd motor with an offset. Still going a decade later.

*Some fruit packing line company put those feet on it and that photo was in their shop. Also, the motor mounts were centered in the table top but it turned out the maximum vibration was over the spinning weight.

 

[boostindoubles]

I would love to see a BMX pro try and destroy a bamboo frame.
minutes?
Hours?
Days?

Getting stabbed by some jagged bamboo as the frame explodes sounds like a great time.

 

[boostindoubles]

“It’s just one of those things where if your math skills aren’t to par, then you’re just going to build beautifully-painted bikes, but they’re going to ride like shit.”

 

[HardtailHack]

Huh, I looked at that and thought "Eeew, hipster puff piece." but that wasn't a bad read.
Weird bike people would be the most annoying type of customer.

 

[Bikael Molton]

dude, I can't imagine...

Weird bike people would be the most annoying type of customer.

 

[HardtailHack]

dude, I can't imagine...

When I ordered my frame from Merino I knew we weren't going to form a life long friendship just coz I wanted a weird frame. Asked a few questions then tried to put the requirements in dot point sorta form rather than forcing the poor people to read through a block of text in a non native language to get all the details.
Replying to emails from dreamers and weirdo customers would take up so much time for frame builders.

I was lucky as I okayed a drawing that was not what I wanted, for my final Bike CAD drawing I slackened the frame off a degree and Marino shot me a drawing back to okay but for some odd reason the back end got shorter and had an IS brake mount and I didn't notice until after they'd started tacking tubes.
I said I'd just sell it and buy another but they sorted it out and made it right, 420mm back end and IS brake mount, that's a bit of welded scrap metal in the shape of a bike frame my eyes, yuk!

 

[boostindoubles]

Huh, I looked at that and thought "Eeew, hipster puff piece." but that wasn't a bad read.
Weird bike people would be the most annoying type of customer.

Oscar is not a hipster puff piece thankfully. I have watched him make hipsters uncomfortable for years though. LOL

 

[dump]

dude, I can't imagine...

If you’re in the custom bike business... custom anything business frankly... it sort of comes with the territory.

 

[boostindoubles]

There were some funny moments when I was visiting him while he was welding Cielo at CK. The fact he lasted so long should be a testament to his machining skills.

 

[buckoW]

dude, I can't imagine...

”that guy” could be anyone of us, haha.

 

[jstuhlman]

”that guy” could be anyone of us, haha.

not me. IDGAF about specifics, .23 degrees and 13mm off here or there, really . . . just give me a bike i can plow down the hill and doesn't explode when i beat the crap out of it with my hacktacularishness and i'm good to go, yo!

 

[dump]

”that guy” could be anyone of us, haha.

I like to think I'm defn not that guy, but maybe I am. I had an experience with FTW years back where I wanted a 3-segment rigid fork, 20mm axle. I wrote to him. I did not hear back. A couple of months later, I wrote again, asking for the same thing, but with a 9mm QR axle. He wrote back and built the fork quick as can be. I learned something from that interaction.

 

[boostindoubles]

First clip of the failed over under is at the trails Oscar started decades ago. Eric still hasn't been back on the bike.

 

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https://www.wildebikes.com/blogs/news/shop-visit-simple-bicycle-co