Meet Peter Olivetti | Custom Bicycle Builder and Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Peter Olivetti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Peter, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I am a pretty dedicated, loyal and hard working person. In positions I’ve had at companies other than my own, I would find that I would get frustrated by how much I would put in, and how little I would get out. At a certain point, I felt like if I was going to put in that kind of effort for other people to prosper and succeed where they were, I might as well put that hustle into my own business and endeavors. Beyond that, I had to consider what are the things that match my values and what I think adds value on social level. In my current business, I really see a lot of movement to high paying tech work or similar type jobs which tend to chip away, in my opinion, in what people tend to see value. Building something beautiful, tangible, and has a real world use became my big motivators to go down my current path.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In the bike building world I think it is really hard to set yourself apart. There are great builders like Black Sheep and Oddity that hustle and produce really crazy and awesome designs. Or guys like Whit at Meriweather who really focus on building the perfect rig for someone who wants to go out and get lost for a 1 day or 30. Then there are builders like Nobilette, Chapman and Wiegle who build stuff from nothing, often just using raw materials as a start, and in the end have these insane ridable works of art. I admire the work all of these folks put into their finished product. it is really astounding, and beyond the builders themselves, their work stands on its own and is near immediately recognizable.

The rest of us are in some form or another building pretty proximally about the same thing. We all tweak what we can to add our personal touches, and for sure you can probably tell one builders bike from another with a keen eye. But what I see as the art in truth, especially in this one off type building, is what you bring to the customer and how you help them realized their ideal bike. That ranges from addressing their needs and concerns for the bike you are producing, to who you are as a person and fabricator. One of my main goals with my business is to create a great experience all down the line for the customer. My phone number is on my side, my card, etc… so when you call me you are talking directly to the builder. When I start making your bike, I am typically sending you photos of the process so you can see where you bike is all the way through. I think that is the real challenge for most builders once they have cut their teeth. Its a ton of time to talk to clients, and often its maybe not the most satisfying part of the work, but it is the connection the client has to the process. They can’t make the bike themselves so having a relationship with a builder is really an important part. In a rather direct sense the customer is buying the builder and who that person is and represents when they invest in their custom bike. While I am certainly proud of the bikes I produce. I have learned a ton and am alway moving towards making a better and more beautiful product, While I don’t think that should be short sold, I do think that the connection to my customers and the experience I incorporate them into is probably what I find as my biggest success and how I separate myself from the rest of the builders out there.

To speak to the physical challenges, the biggest part is just trying to figure things out. Some people come to the frame building world having been engineers or machinists or some variations there in. Others just like to make stuff. I had a fine arts background, but am also a pragmatic fixer type person. Both of those have helped me to look a problems and fabricate in a way that is both functional but pleasing. Its hard to find that balance of what works, what looks really good overall, and what doesn’t take 10 hours to do. That is why I probably love the guys that build from nothing. Hitting that level of details would probably ruin me because the perfectionist in me would take over and I would ruminate of the tiniest things.

That all kind of jumps around a bit, but in some sort of summary, I think I have spent a lot of time focused on doing the best work I can for my clients. Obviously a ton of that is the end result of the bike the customer ends up with, but I really love to represent myself and brand as one that has a great deal invested in the builder client relationship as well.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A week in colorado to roam would be awesome! If we meet up in Boulder, I’d probably do day one with a good local mountain bike ride then head to Mountain Sun or Southern Sun for a few beers and food. Its kind of my slam dunk setup for a Boulder intro. I’d have to jump out to Crested Butte from here and probably hit Monarch Crest or Kenosha Pass on the way there to make a day of the trip. In CB it would be pretty much game on. While 401 is sort of played out, in mid june early july it really does live up to some of the hype. Elbow deep wild flowers and the down valley view the whole time. You really can’t beat that as a ride. Dyke Trail, Doc’s or Teocalli are all pretty classic rides around town as well. Plus CB has some great place to eat and hang. I even love when we just do a family trip and we ride bikes on lower loops out to the Slate River and my son and I will just mess around in the river for hours. We usually hit the Stash and Bonez while we are there. Occasionally we will roll to Slogars which is awesome but there is only so many times you can jam yourself with fried chicken. From there I’d probably say driving back into the front range I think stopping over in Salida for a day to ride some of the sweet trails out there, and possibly a quick stop in Buena Vista, which really surprises me every time I roll through there these days. Buena Vista was definitely not the place it is now back when I lived up in Leadville in the late 90’s. Anyway, swinging back through the front range, hitting a ride in Golden and stopping at Amir for some pretty legit Lebanese food would wrap up a pretty solid week for anyone Id say. Who knows, perhaps they wouldn’t make it out of CB and just set up camp there for the rest of their days. : )

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are a lot of people that have really helped me over the long run. 100% my wife has been probably exceedingly supportive. Any startup always has ups and down. With a family and a house and real world needs, start up cash flow issues can be pretty stressful. Its a long trajectory to success as well and through all of that, Mandi has undoubtedly been at my back and encouraging me the whole way.

I have also had the opportunity to work with some long running builders. Mark Nobilette here in Longmont let me hang out with him, do some work for him over the course of about a year and a half. Around the end of that, I really had some pressure to start producing some things on my own. I also worked at Dean Cycles for about 8 months which was a great confidence builder for me in that it was straight fabrication hustle. You got your drawing and you just started cutting tubes and building bikes. There have been lots of other builders out there, especially here in Colorado that have been really open. James at Black Sheep, Burnsey at Oddity, Chad at Corvid Cycles and Brad at Bingham Built have all been super people. There are heaps of others from around the country as well. Carl at Vicious Cycles, Doug at Breismeister its a pretty long list actually. I probably talk to 2 or 3 different builders every week to either figure out a new process or maybe they need help sorting something.

The small builder community is a great bunch of folks. Especially, once you have shown that you are actually in it for real. There are a lot of hobby builders that can tap information on facebook groups or youtube, but there is also a ton of bad information there that is totally incorrect and actually in some cases probably dangerous advise. But once the other builders kind of know who you are, and that you are seriously trying to make an effort as a business they tend to open up quite a bit more. In summary on that point, I think the community of builders on the whole has been great.

Website:  www.obikeco.com

Instagram: @obikeco

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-olivetti-8a3865/

Twitter: obikeco

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/obikeco/

Image Credits
Joseph Bowers