David Tesch
Thu, December 14, 2006 
On this day, December 14, 2003, David Tesch passed away too soon at only 44 years old.
I first met Dave early in 1982. I worked for Masi from October of 1980 until the end of 1981. I always state that I worked for Masi, but strictly speaking I built Masi frames, working for Ted Kirkbride who was subcontracted to build the frames.
Roland Sahm the man who had brought Feleiro Masi to America in the mid 1970s still owned Masi USA. The original Carlsbad, CA factory had closed some of the equipment had been moved to Sahm’s ranch in Rancho Santa Fe, just north of San Diego. There were a few frames still being built by local framebuilder Rob Roberson.
Around 1980 there was an upsurge in Masi sales, due partly to the movie Breaking Away, in which a Masi played a leading roll as the main character’s bike. Local bike store owner Ted Kirkbride opened a small frameshop in nearby San Marcos, CA and I was brought in to build Masi frames in addition to those being built at Sahm’s ranch.
To keep his overhead low, Ted Kirkbride rented out space and use of the equipment to local independent framebuilder Brian Baylis, and ex-Masi painter Jim Cunningham who had a frame re-finishing business called Cyclart. In addition there was painter, Jim Allen who painted the Masi frames.
As I recall, it was Cyclart who brought Dave Tesch to the San Marcos shop to do frame repairs for them. Dave had some framebuilding experience having worked for Trek, in Wisconsin. Dave Tesch would have been about 22 or 23 years old at the time.
At the end of 1981, I had been laid off by Ted Kirkbride due to an excess inventory of Masi frames, and in January 1982 I too was building my own frames; renting space in a very small and what was becoming an increasingly crowded frameshop.
Into this crowded mix of very diverse, independently creative people; each with a different agenda and ego, came David Tesch; full of the energy and enthusiasm of his youth. What stands out most in my memory was the fact that he talked incessantly, and loudly. When he wasn’t talking to others in the shop, he was on the phone to his friends and family back in Wisconsin, recalling what he had learned that day.
The guy was like a sponge, just wanting to soak up every scrap of framebuilding knowledge he could. For my part I just wanted to get as much work done as I could, and get the hell out of there and into my own frameshop. It was like having a child who keeps asking, why, why, why? While you are trying to get work done.
Things were not made easier when I was asked to build Masi frames again, because now I had more than enough work building my own frames. This did give Dave Tesch the break he was looking for and he was able to take over the Masi production. Although we now had three separate framebuilders sharing the same equipment, and three painters, including myself, sharing one paint booth.
The following summer I was able to move into my own shop also in San Marcos, and my relationship with Dave Tesch and the others improved greatly with a mile distance between us. I went on to build the John Howard frames, and Dave Tesch worked part time for me.
Around 1984 Dave opened his own small frameshop across town in San Marcos, and took over the building of the John Howard frames when I switched to production of the Fuso.
I have never known a young framebuilder who became so good at his craft, as quickly as Dave Tesch; he obviously had a natural talent.
Physically he reminded me a little of Keith Moon, drummer with The Who. Dark hair, dark, sometimes wild looking eyes. Casual to the point of being scatter-brained in everything except his framebuilding, in which he was meticulous.
One story I recall, he came out of his frameshop one evening with a brand new frame he was to deliver to a customer. He was about to put the frame in his car trunk when his phone rang. He sat the frame down on its rear drop-outs leaning against the back of the car.
In typical Dave Tesch fashion he talked on the phone for an hour, and it was dark when he finally hung up. He locked up his shop, jumped in his car and backed over the brand new frame. Later when he told me the story, he thought it was hilarious; he could laugh at his own dumb mistake.
Dave had to close his frameshop in the early 1990s due to the fall off in demand for road bikes; for the same reason I would follow him a few years later. The difference was Dave Tesch was young enough that he probably would have returned to framebuilding had it not been for his premature death.
His frames still exist; treasured by their owners and each a tribute and a legacy of his craftsmanship.
Reader Comments (20)
That's one thing keeping your blog interesting.
I remember “Smokin’” Dave shared a program on his HP 41 calculator (I had one also) to figure and print frame angles and lengths, at a time when programming was esoteric. And I remember listening to him, as you say he was always talking.
It saddened me to hear of his death, but brings a smile thinking what it was like to be around him.
I am Dave's sister. I miss him and hearing more stories lightens the loss.
Just to clarify. Dave did not die of a brain aneurysm. He had a Glioblastoma Multiforme, Type IV. Time from first symptom (2/03) to detection (5/03) to death (11/14/03) was far to short.
He was a wild guy, intense, sometimes irritating, but always interesting.
Ann Marie Schulz
Mike Wonder
i'm so sorry to hear of daves passing, we were great friends and a great person to work with, i have some great storie about working with dave....i think we do !!!!
raymond w. schmal
It was built by him for a friend who was trialing for the Seoul Olympics, with a one of the kind, lugless fork crown.
Tom McMellon
When he was in the Navy in the 1970's on a sub and bored, he built a stainless steel cooler nearly coffin sized, insulated with leftover insulation from a nuke reactor. He mailed it to me from Italy. I still use it today, over 30 years later. Dave lives on in my memories, as he does in all of yours.
A special hello to Ann Marie, his sister.
Randy R.
sam7757 @ hotmail
Dear Ann Marie; My condolences regarding the death of your brother. I own a John Howard bike that I always thought was built by Dave Moulton until I read this article. The bike was in fact built by Dave Tesch as identified by several aspects on the frame. I completed the 1981 Ironman won by John Howard. I still run long distances and plan to someday return to Ironman Hawaii. If I do, I'll be riding this bike and say a prayer for Dave.
Was a friend of Daves, Bought a 101 in black from Dennis in Del Mar.
I just purchased serial no 006 John Howard bike built by Dave Tesch..
Dave was my first cousin. I knew him as a kid and later for the last two years of his life. Together we built a 64 Corvette and his knowledge of chassis engineering was invaluable as we built the car from a highly modified, bare chassis. He welded the side exhaust crooked as his health declined. He refused to stop work until the car was finished, I kept that crazy crooked exhaust until last year, replacing it with factory pipes. Even though the geometry was off, the welds were perfect.
Many people thought he invented his life story until they attended the funeral. There they found the hard evidence of his life, from his flight case to covers of magazines and so much more, his memory was photographic. He literally “knew-it-all”. Whether it was the spark plug gap on a 60’s Alpha Romeo or who played guitar on Bowie’s second album, he knew the answer. We would often smoke weed during those last years and argue about these details and we would hit Google and he was always correct.
Incredible guy with an incredible life. I miss him greatly.
Was thinking of Dave tonight and thought I’d see if I could find a Tesch bike for sale. Dave was my husbands best friend and best man in our wedding. He’d show up almost every night for dinner and very long chats. He and Ric were making plans to take a road trip when Dave became ill. He was one of a kind.
I met Dave Tesch during the San Marcos period Dave Moulton mentions in his blog. We really hit it off right from the time I met him. In 1982 I closed my Merz Mfg. bicycle frame shop in Portland went to work for Mike Sinyard at Specialized Bicycle. I designed all the bikes and part that were made for us, including the top model Allez frames. Yoshi Kono's company, 3Rensho built them for us in Tokyo during up until Yoshi ran into trouble. I had kept in touch with Dave Tesch, talking on the phone with him for hours at a stretch. After loosing the 1st class frame builder 3Rensho I was looking around for someone else, and thought why not Tesch? I don't remember the exact model year, but 1986 or so? The Allez frame were always red, but the ones Dave made were white with blue fade. I seem to remember that 200 of these Allez frames were made. They are very nice! Dave worked as a mechanic on Navy "Boomer" subs. He did some of the very best brazing I have seen (besides mine!). Super skilled fabricator on all levels. I kept in touch with him right up till he died. Sad that he was not recognized and his huge talent put to use during his later years. He could have written a book about his life and it would be a classic. Except no one would believe it! Here is a story that was in the New Yorker from 20 years ago. It features just one of Dave's amazing tales. Long but worth reading: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QaBfXaXCH9t0sqZdvCGnJpHo4b3SdgtT/view?usp=sharing
Jim Merz
I first met Dave when he came to Marina Del Rey Bike looking for a shop to handle his frames. At that time, early 80’s, MDR Bike was known for having a lot, over 60, pro bike makes on display. The owner, George Garvey, was, I’ll go with enamored here, and would rarely turn down a chance to add to the pro bike lineup. George ordered a Model 100 to his dimensions as he rode all of them to see what they were like. Not the Tesch. I sold it shortly after it was displayed in the front window. We sold a few after that before he came out with the Model 101.
Shortly after Campagnolo brought out the 50th Anniversary Group I told Dave that I would like to have him build me a frame for it. He then asked me if I would be willing to pay more to have it done with Reynolds 753. To me it was a no brainer so I agreed, gave him a copy of my frameset fit sheet and figured it would take no more than a month. After a while, Dave tells me that Reynolds won’t sell 753 to framebuilders that they had not certified to use 753. He had to get a certification kit from Reynolds, braze it up and send it back to them. Dave had no problem passing the certification, it just took time going back and forth with Reynolds.
This was while he was at Masi and I presumed he was doing it on his time. On a visit to see Dave along with CyclArt, Brian Baylis and Dave Moulton, I was talking to Ted Kirkbride of Masi and he says that Dave is spending a lot of time on my frame. I asked Dave how it was going and he said fine, making sure alignments were on and would vertical rear dropouts to get the rear shorter be OK. To me that was a good thing. He used stainless rear dropouts and fork ends with polished faces to avoid chroming the 753.
The frame was painted by Jim Allen of Masi in a candy red with cream head tube, seat tube/pump panels and accents.
This 753 Tesch will be getting refurbished in coming months along with my wife’s Model 100 with rounded tangless fork crown and my ‘73, first in the US, custom Panasonic built by Takao Ono.