My professional journey in the bicycle industry began in 1993 when I got a job at the Bike Broker in Fort Collins, Colorado. My interest in bikes grew under the legendary staff at this great bike shop until I eventually moved into manufacturing at Catamount Cycles. This marked the beginning of my frame building career under the late, great, Jerry Shuler. I could devote an entire website about Jerry and probably will one day, but for now, know that his mentoring is undoubtedly present in every bike I make. Jerry built his own frame fixtures (the style I and many others use today) which says a lot about what kind of craftsman he was.

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Concurrent with my employment at Catamount I started working at Momentum Machining where I learned the beginnings of CNC machining and programming. I bought my first TIG welder and practiced welding between cycle times of the CNC mill. This led to the start of my contract welding business.

 

My first contract was with Dean Bikes where I began to hone my Titanium welding skills with hundreds of frames over the years. This led to contract frame building for many other smaller start-up companies. During this time I also worked at Yeti Cycles in Golden fabricating and welding Aluminum frames.  

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In 2006 Jerry Shuler and I were contracted by Ecosse Motoworks to design fixtures, fabricate, and weld their Titanium chassis and exhaust for their Heretic motorcycle. It was featured on Discovery Channel's World's Most Expensive Rides special.

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In 2008 I met Daryl Funk and began fabricating and welding Titanium frames for Funk Cycles which I still do on a limited basis. 

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Also of note would be the work I did for Atmospheric Observing Systems in Boulder around 2013 which included design consultation and welding of a chromoly frame structure for a high precision CO2 analyzer designed for the Global Hawk drone to measure CO2 in the upper atmosphere. I also welded a Titanium pressure buffer canister for a smaller unmanned aircraft.

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Currently I am focusing on my own bicycle brand which will evolve through each partnership formed during the custom frame process.  

 

Craig Sata 

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