Inside the Monster Garage With Jesse James

Crafting mechanical works of art is bike builder Jesse James’s passion. See the process through the lens of photographer Nathaniel Welch.

By Chuck Tannert

Photographs by Nathaniel Welch

Published in the November 2007 issue.

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The Enlightened Weld. Creating the perfect weld isn’t easy. Even on a job as mundane as joining a bracket to one of James’s premade frames for DIY bike builders, the weld has to be strong and visually appealing. “One that you don’t even have to sand or do anything to—you can let it be what it is,” James explains. For him, welding is a spiritual exercise: “If I don’t fire up my machine every day, I feel like I am cheating myself, not doing what I am supposed to be doing.” James prefers TIG (tungsten inert gas) to other forms of welding because it gives the weld that clean yet slick stack-of-dimes look.

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