Photo by Tim Harris

Infestation to Intuition

Upon returning from her training with master frame builder Koichi Yamaguchi, what began as a moth infestation in her kitchen promptly turned into frame-building fervor for Moth Attack’s Megan Dean.

Practically Los Angeles’ only handmade frame builder- besides Greg Townsend- Megan is consequently the only female builder showing here at NAHBS and one of a growing conglomerate of women in the business.

Falling in line with what custom frame-builders offer to cyclists, she caters to clients that don’t fit the mold of the standard human proportions.  “From really short women to really big dudes,” she has utilized her own track racing/riding experience and understanding of the delicate balance between flex and stiffness, to offer her clients truly insightful, customized geometries.

This is applied not only to track frames, but to her fixed-gear, road, cyclocross, and touring bikes.

Her personal track bike is being featured here this weekend, demonstrating her hard-earned mastery of fillet brazing and attests to this intuitive expression by reflecting her personality and riding style with clean construction and a touch of female flair on an otherwise mean-looking ride.

Of particular note are the handlebars that she whipped up in time for the show, saying, “I just decided to take a stab at it.”

Her advocacy work with the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition and rich involvement with the city’s rich cycling community has put her in a prime position to go against Don Walker’s advice to new builders and quit her day job to begin building frames full-time.

Dean plans to take over a successful bike shop in the city and add to it an offering of independently built frames.

“LA is a great place for me to be, “ she says.

If her other designs are anything like the the bike here this weekend, there are exciting things yet to come from Miss Megan Dean.