James Stanfill, President of the Professional Bicycle Mechanics Association... not that other guy.

Here we are, with the first of December just around the corner, and there are currently 7,567 "members" of the Facebook PBMA group as of this writing. 7,567 people who share some thought(s), idea(s) or interest(s) in the title discussion - Professional Mechanics.

When this first started out, the audience was far smaller and our team was asked for many things.  We've listened, we've responded, we've produced...but we still have a lot to do and we are ready to do it.

We opened up official membership... you can now join and be an actual member of our association. The current benefit list is already substantial and it's going to keep growing.

We've built a forum that is up, running and it's open to anyone. But our PBMA members receive broader access and a secure discussion space.

We've got surveys!  Take one, take two...even volunteer to help write future efforts.  Your info, your opinion, your knowledge and your numbers will help in providing insight and statistics to the conversations we are having that will impact the entire cycling industry.

Our team is working hard...really hard. Myself and the other board members spend countless hours making calls, attending meetings, mapping out ideas and making things happen. How do we quantify and show what we've been doing for those who need to see it?  Good Question.

It's hard actually to show discussions, conversations, emails and phone calls in a quantitive format.  I suppose printing each email is an option and a phone transaction record but who wants to look at piles and piles of paper.  Lego blocks would be cool, you could really keep track that way as we construct what can only be known as the best tower!  I suppose what I am saying to is that we are getting a lot done and making headway on our mission goals of promotion, advocacy and development that will directly benefit professional bicycle mechanics.

But we still need your help. We can not do all of this alone, and we can not do it without financial support.  Many arms go up at the notion of any single major player stepping in and driving the direction of the PBMA.  As both individuals and as a large group of individuals each one of you can have a say in that.  You can have a direct impact on what the PBMA focuses on (remember, we really do listen) and how dependent or independent we are from financial donors at the corporate level.

Join as a member. Become a genuine part of the conversation. Not just on Facebook, but in real life. As a PBMA Member you automatically receive discounts from Pedros, Hirobel, Mountain Khaki, Presta Cycle and others. Do you realize if you simply bought a Master Tool Kit 3.1 from Pedro's, you would save more money with your PBMA membership discount than the membership dues actually cost? You'll also receive big discounts on PBMA branded merchandise so you can show the world that you support professional mechanics.

As a PBMA Member you'll be able to list yourself or your shop in our growing Find a Mechanic Directory.  As a Mechanic Member you'll receive a metal placard to display at your workbench.

We are working on growing these benefits but we're always looking to provide more and broader benefits. If you've got an idea that would help, let us know and we will see how viable it is.  We're currently working with Insurance providers, looking for ways to offer coverages to mechanics. Our Certification, Training and Endorsement programs are a major part of those conversations.  

Most importantly if you join now through the end of the today you can take part in #GivingTuesday.

What's GivingTuesday all about? It's really simple.  Join the PBMA at any level.  Donate to World Bicycle Relief (WBR).  WBR will receive matching donations all day long today.  Imagine if 7,567 people from this group each donated just a dollar.  That produces more than $15,000 in donations to WBR programs, that's 102 bikes or double that in tools and replacement parts for the mechanics in the most remote of remote areas who are keeping these Buffalo Bikes on the road.

It gets better.  Email your donation receipt to Membership@ProBMA.org and we will return your donation X2 (up to your membership dollar amount) to your PayPal account.  Join before or after you've made the donation.  We will honor the offer for all membership from November 17th until December 3rd but your donation receipt must be dated November 29th.

​This is stretching your dollar for one of the best causes around and brings you into the world of the PBMA as a full member.

Thank you for being a part of this conversation.  Let's move the needle together!

James Stanfill

Everyone watches NBC and the Olympics for almost 3 weeks or however long it takes from opening bell to final round. What you don't see is that a few weeks later the Para-Olympics occurs and just like the "big show" this is a international competition with the same, if not more merit. It's full of unsung hero's and forgotten athletes. On each side of that fence they are giving equal if not more than the ones everyone sees on TV. Our story here is about cycling of course and the 4 gentleman (loosely used term) who made it happen.

I consider myself lucky because I know three of these individual personally and I know a handful of the athletes who were representing the United States. Mechanics don't go home with medals, we go home with some new shirts, shoes, pants and jackets. We go home with pride. We go home with a sense of accomplishment that our athlete(s) succeeded and our work, our work ethic and our expertise helped them to get there.

For the 2016 Para-Olympics in Rio Team USA was supported by Chad Contreras, Steve Donovan, Tony Pedeferri and Vincent Gee. What brings a team together is a common goal. In this case supporting athletes at the highest of levels. Olympic sport is second to none. Four guys who sometimes see one another throughout the year and sometimes don't.

Each of the four have different day to day backgrounds. Chad is the face of SRAM NRS in California, Steve a bike shop mechanic in Denver, Tony owns a shop that does custom fabrications for Para-Athletes and Vincent is a race mechanic with a storied career.

Tony in fact was a Para-Olympian himself representing the USA in the 2012 games in London. His first hand knowledge is critical to success working as team. Chad has a memory like an elephant which makes logistics and daily organization a breeze. Steve is simply great at solving problems. Vincent rolls into the group as the worker bee. Experienced in all disciplines of cycling he helps with all the mechanical tasks.

Para-Olympics by the numbers:
Days on the ground: 20 in Rio (12 addition days at a pre-Olympic camp)
Athletes: 22 (plus two tandem pilots)
Cycles: 34 (10 road bikes, 11 track bikes, 2 trikes, 8 hand cycles, 3 tandems)
Wheels: 108 pair (56 team race wheel sets, 52 personal wheel sets)
Races: 53
Medals: 18

These guys as a team deserve a gold medal. The unsung heros of cycling as a competitive sport. We work before and after the race, we work in the dark. We work in our rooms. We work behind the scenes. I always through the best way to know if you are a good mechanic - is that nobody ever even knows you've been there.

The PBMA is dedicated to mechanics and with that to bicycles.  Our friends at World Bicycle Relief (WBR) are a participating in #GivingTuesday where every dollar donated is matched (dollar for dollar).  Tuesday the 29th is this years date.  We are encouraging everyone with an interest in cycling to take part.  The PBMA is going to take it a step further.  Join the PBMA at any membership level between today and December 3rd, email us your #GivingTuesday receipt (dated the 29th) from WBR and we will refund twice the amount of money you donated!  Yes.  Donate $10, get a $20, (donate $30 get $60)... discount via refund on your membership  (the amount of the refund will not exceed the actual membership fee). 

The PBMA is represented at World Bicycle Relief's Mechanics for Mechanics page and you can donate directly to that by following this link: fundraise.worldbicyclerelief.org/ProBMA 

We can't think of a better way to say thank you for supporting something we believe in and that is the Power of Bicycles.

Save the date and don't miss out!

 I suppose we should start this interview with a note to the readers to help them understand why they might want to read about you.   We crossed paths when you used to show up in my beyond secret R&D shop inside the depths of Specialized Bicycle Components in Morgan Hill.  To many (maybe not the younger readers) you’re an iconic frame builder.  But you must have started somewhere.  
 
What got you started on your path with bicycles?
Well, my tomboy next door girlfriend learned to ride a bike before me! This at 5 or so. I learned too and got a 26" Schwinn World from Goodwill for $1. The next phase was in high school. Young people may not understand how un-cool bicycle riding was in the early 1960's. The only, and I mean only guy to ride a bike to my 2,000 student high school was the absolute school nerd. I had a English 3 speed converted into a "racer". It had drop bars and a 3 speed derailleur lashed onto a Strumney Archer 3 speed hub. I of course did not ride it to school.
 
I worked starting at 15, became a motorcycle mechanic. Most of my motorcycle buddies did not go to my school. Senior year I met Lane, he was a Europe nut case. One of the things he was into was the Tour de France. So he had a very nice French bike, for the time and considering he was a high school kid with no money. 
 
He talked me into buying a 10 speed,with some Campagnolo on it. When we got out of school in June 1964 we headed off on a ride across the USA, starting from Portland Oregon. Very little money, the plan was to find jobs as we went. Got to Denver, I could not find a job even though I had motorcycle skills. So I had to end the trip and ask my mother for the bus fare home. My bother ended up with the bike and became a bike racer. I went on to become a motorcycle hell raiser. I got so many tickets that they took my license away, many times. I had to get to work, this was when I was 21 or so. My brother said I should get a bike. So I did, and because I had to ride about 15 miles to work, and back each day I got fit.
 
In around 1969 I got into the bike scene in Portland.  I met most of the players, it was very tight and small then. Met my future 1st wife, Virginia. She was really into bikes. At that time I was working in the dental industry. We saved up all the money and decided to ride around the world. Started in Aug. 1971 from Portland. Rode to Panama, then over to Portugal and down to Africa. Got robbed and burned out, so went home after 6 months. I went back to work in the dental job. After riding this big tour I was sure I could build better bikes that what I was seeing. So I just started making frames (1972 or 73).
 
How did you evolve on that path to starting and operating what I can only imagine was a successful frame building company known as Merz Bicycles? 
 
At first I was just building bikes for myself. Soon other riders started asking me to build them bikes. At that time there was zero info, no tubing, no lugs. At first I made frames out of old broken frames, took the lugs off, saved the good tubes.
 
My wife was working for a good bike shop, so I got to hook up with suppliers. Finally figures out some of the tricks for getting stuff. Just slightly after I started building Andy Newlands started Strawberry Racing Cycles. He imported some tubing and lugs. Mark DiNucci was his first frame builder. We were friends, but competitive also.
 
Virginia did the painting and she was very good. Because I had a background in brazing and machining from the dental industry I had the skill and very importantly the contacts for doing bike frames. I did not drive a car for most of the 10 year I was building in Portland. We had very little money, but it was cheap to live in Portland back then. The successful part of all this was the friends I made, and the things I learned about bicycles. I was one of Mike Sinyard's first customers. He came to Portland on the train with his bike and stayed at my house, rode to the dealers selling his stuff. 
 
In the 80’s you started working for Specialized Bicycles, specifically in the era of the now famous Allez steel lugged bicycles.  What was the significance of that for you as a frame builder?
 
I could see the writing on the wall about continuing my life building bike frame for a living. I knew a lot about making a good bike. Custom bikes then had a very large range, track frames to full on touring bikes. My touring bikes that I made back then were state of the art.
 
Anyway, during these days I went to the bike show in New York every year. I got close to Shimano, Tange, Suntour, Reynolds. Campagnolo. So I knew quite a few of the serious players in the bike world ever before I worked for Specialized.
 
I would go to the Bay Area to visit Mike and other suppliers. Mike got one of the very first Ritchey MTB’s, I went down and he let me ride it. So I came back to Portland and made my version, without question the first MTB in the PNW! I knew Mike was going to make his version, what ended up being the Stumpjumper. I wanted him to hire me, so I could be the technical guy at Specialized.

He ended up hiring Tim Neenan, because he didn't want to pay my moving cost! After about a year Tim wanted to get out of San Jose, so Mike hired me. Sept. 1982. The first day on the job was flying from Portland to Japan! It was crazy; I designed everything, bikes, parts and even tires. 
 
Where did all those lugs come from?  You mentioned earlier how they virtually didn’t exist.
 
The lugs for all the bikes in the early days of my working at Specialized were from Japan. The MTB frames I designed had lugs; the first Stumpjuper was TIG welded. I don't remember who made them, but I designed them. Yoshi Kono made the top model Allez frames, and he designed the lugs for these frames.
 
I think I heard a rumor you lived in your VW bus for a while when you worked there.  Is that true?
 
Well, there is a very long story about the changes after I was fired from Specialized in 1991. I could not work for year, after that I went to the company we used to made the M2 frames, Anodizing Inc. in Portland. While there I was the frame designer for their bike industry customers. This job lasted about 4 years, at the end Mark DiNucci started working for them.
 
I got too expensive for their taste and so I talked my buddies who had a bike company in Taiwan into starting a USA frame plant. Kinesis USA in Portland. I set this factory up, bought all the machines and did all the frame designs. Again this lasted about 4 years.
 
I then got a job for Browning, they had an automatic transmission for bicycles. Located on Bainbridge Island near Seattle I moved up there. I took the hand made prototype and made it into a fully tooled production product. I had to live in Taiwan for almost a year. Finally this Browning project was finished, and of course it failed or you would know about it.
 
So I was kicking around in Seattle with no job. Specialized needed someone to run the prototype shop. Kind of step down for me, but hey I need the job. This was about 2003, I was one of the first people in the bike industry to use 3D solid modeling CAD/CAM, starting at Specialized in 1985. I had my own system all through these jobs
 
No one had been there for some time, so the shop was a mess. The machines were all manual. So I got to build a dream shop, CNC mill and lathe, lot's of toys. I had no relationship during these times. After a few years I met my now wife Heidi Hopkins.
 
She moved into her childhood home in Big Sur right when we met. This is 2 hours one way to Specialized. Not good. I was ready to quit; they said why don't I work 4 days? Same pay! So I drove my Vangon camper and stayed 3 nights in the back of Specialized. It worked out great!
 
 
Let’s flash forward - when did you stop officially working at Specialized? 
 
It's been about 7 year ago. As soon as I retired the big Basin fire burned our house up. We lost everything. (Just recently fire again threatened Jim and Heidi’s home – they luckily had no loss this time around)
 
What have you been doing since then?
 
Well, it took about 2 years of full time work to build a new house; this with others doing the work! I ride my bike.  Spend time at our other home in Lee Vining. Backpacking and I took up serious photography again. I can still be found doing the odd project for Specialized, such as the revamped museum.
 
Tell us about your favorite tool.  Maybe it’s a couple tools but it can’t be more than two.
 
Well, that's not so easy! One of the few tools that did not burn up was my TIG welder. Love it! I miss not having a CNC lathe! 
 
What is your favorite bike?  And why or what makes it special?
 
I have a lot of old bikes, mostly Merz vintage bikes. But my modern bike is the favorite. The current version of the Tarmac S-Works Disk brake with Di2 Dura-Ace is what I am enjoying nowadays. The best bike I have ever ridden!  Perfect for the big mountains around Lee Vining. I am old and need all the help I can get!
 
I’ve seen you build wheels - what other great skills do you have?  VW restoration perhaps?… that bus you have now is pretty sweet!
 
Yes, I still build wheels! Have a little shop and most of the bike tools I need. I don't like working on cars though. I take pretty good photos! I have built a lot of things around the house. Screen porches and doors. All made with steel tubing and TIG welding. I have progressed to the point were I can do a decent job welding steel!  
 
What would you tell someone who’s looking to make a career out of this industry?
 
Well, it seems to me it is important to have a passion for bikes. It is not easy to make much money but if you can be happy around bike fanatics and get free or cheap bikes and parts then you can have a good life. These days it is pretty important to have an education. Once your foot is in the door regardless of what go you there… you still need to have passion.

You can follow Jim and see some of his Merz bicycles on his Facebook page which has an impressive gallery of nostalgia.