As any of you know who have tried to contact builders yourselves, they can sometimes not be the friendliest bunch. Often garded and protective, they answer questions like riddles to a child. So needess to say I came to his shop with a few preconceptions regarding this rendevous.

So without further ado let me just say that in this case, I am pleased to be wrong! On Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting Lance Mercado of Squarbuilt cycles at his shop in Brooklyn, and he was everything but unapproachable. On entering his space one cannot help but admire the sheer beauty of having your workshop directly beneath your apartment as well as accessable from the street via its own discreet doorway. Now, just to clarify, when I say workshop, I mean studio complete with huge compressor, welding rigs, sandblasting cabinet, oven, powdercoating and the list goes on! Squarbuilt was a medley of cycling projects old and new laying about the shop in various states of the process. The apprentice was busy sanding fillets on a current customers frame in the corner. Lance was prepping tubesets for the nights TIG activities.

Now where was I…Lance primarily builds fixed gear framesets in Bed Stuy Brooklyn. The raw steel is beautifully welded and meticulously finished. Powdercoating is the preferred finish here as he has a setup on site, in contrast to many other builders who often sub contract their painting duties. There is a friendly, even jovial air about the shop mixed with a definite work ethic and a dedication to the schedule of tasks at hand. Lance graciously shows me all of his toys, aside form the torch whose regulators had to take a visit to the repair man. Benches are littered with well loved chisels, mallets and leftover scraps of disheveled sandpaper. in striking contrast however the floors are clean with ample room to move freely from station to station. Rows of bare frames on the wall awaiting their color with numerous others clamped in iron jaws receiving finishing touches before moving on down the line.

Lance has just finished putting 6 sets of tubing together, they must be assembled that evening to stay on schedule. He is the chosen builder for another brand of frames, who I will not name in this account. Mr. Mercado has his plate full. A few short years since its inception, Squarebuilt cycles is on a roll, busy and growing! His technique is solid and as such, demand has increased. I cannot help but attribute some of that to the attention to detail that is in these frames right down to the beautiful headbadge that is handcut and carefully brazed to the headtube.
You will find no sticker there!

All in all my visit to Squarebuilt was intriguing to say the least. I look forward to coming back to visit Lance and his bikes often!