Why Framebones?

My name is Chris Enos and I started Framebones.com as a simple and fun web page to show what I am doing with my hand built steel bicycle frames.

Why am I doing this?

Because I love to bicycle, and one day I went shopping for a new 29'er Mountain Bike, and every shop I went to had the same story. They only seemed to have bikes for people that fit the demographic populous, which is a category I do not fit into. The advice was simple, "Buy this smaller frame and we can make it fit your large, odd, body." I settled on a bike and after a few days it became obvious it didn't fit. Being a welder/fabricator and out of necessity a self-taught design engineer, I decided to heck with it, I will build my own frame to fit my size body, my frame-bones. And thus, Framebones was born out of the most common of reasons -- pure self indulgence.

What else do I love?

My passion for welding and fabrication was stumbled upon in Mr. Watts metals class back when I was a sophomore in high school. One day he allowed me to step into a welding booth, normally reserved for the advanced metals class, and I spent the entire class burning up rod. I loved it! I loved the power I felt from control over fire. It has become a life long love affair with fire and iron. From that day forward I could not get enough. Thirty eight years now and I am still in love with the idea of controlling the fire and asking the iron to bend it's will for me. I say, "ask," because one must understand that steel (iron) has a personality, a life of it's own. To me steel is an unwavering being for which one must respect and not force.

Why Steel?

The most versatile metal I have ever used is Steel. I have created more objects from steel than all other materials I have worked with put together. I owned a company that built concrete mixer drums out of light weight high strength alloy steel, and just out of curiosity I once counted how many mixers I built during a five year period. Knowing the linear inches of weld each took, I calculated that I personally had welded 3.5 million linear inches  of weld during that time. I am at my greatest ease when working with alloyed steels. That is why my choice of steel to build bicycle frames is simply the most logical one for me. Steel is the medium one can most depend on. Steel is one of those greatest creations of human kind which has made the greatest difference in all our lives. Steel is the most recycled material on earth, and eighty percent of all the steel we use today is recycled, and that is another reason I love to use steel. So let's try for one hundred percent recycled steel by sending that old bicycle to a steel scrap yard and not a land fill.

What a great way to recycle.

To me Bicycle = Steel = Recycle!