Twenty-seven years on
Mon, November 2, 2020 
This past month it has been twenty-seven years since I left the bike business. I cannot remember the exact date in October 1993, but I do remember it was October. I had not planned to retire, and I could have gone on for many more years, but I was forced out of business (Strange as it may seem now.) by the mountain bike.
I had a good run through the 1980s, at the height of my production I had as many as six employees, and together we produced 25-30 frames a month. The employees prepared and fed me materials so I could concentrate on brazing the frames together. My employees also did most of the finish work and I employed a full-time painter.
As long as I could sell around 20 or 25 frames a month, I had a very lucrative little business. But by the late 1980s, early 1990s the mountain bike was becoming more and more popular and as a result sales of road frames were dropping rapidly.
At first there were separate road bike enthusiasts, and mountain bike enthusiasts, and there were separate mountain bike builders catering for the MTB crowd. Over the years these mountain bike builders had each built up a following, which made it tough for someone like me to suddenly switch and break into that market. I did produce a mountain bike, (Picture above.) but honestly, I hated it and my heart was not in it.
I had spent a great deal of time and money attending the Interbike Show every year, and as a result I had built up a nationwide network of bicycle dealers. When these dealers switched from selling road bikes to mountain bikes, I felt betrayed, like someone whose spouse had left for a new love. In hindsight I realize that bike store owners had to do whatever they needed to do to stay in business. It was nothing personal.
Had the Internet been in place as it is today, I may have survived as a one man business, selling direct to the few hard core road bike enthusiasts that remained, but that was not the case. By early 1993 things were so bad, I was down to two employees, Russ Denny, who had been my apprentice since 1985, and another young guy who was my painter.
When I did my taxes in April 1993 my accountant told me, “I have some good news, and some bad news. The good news is, you didn’t make enough in 1992 to pay taxes, the bad news is, last year your employees made more than you did.”
It was obvious that I could not continue in this way, I was ready to liquidate all the equipment and walk away. Russ begged me not to do that, and I felt somewhat obligated because he came to me aged 18, straight out of high school and now at 26 years, framebuilding was the only thing he knew. I allowed Russ and the painter to stay on, unpaid, and they survived by doing freelance work.
By October 1993 I could no longer pay the rent and support myself. I was thoroughly burned out and hated the bike business and anything to do with bikes for that matter. I turned the whole operation over to Russ Denny. As a single young man, he was able to survive by giving up his apartment and sleeping on a mattress in the frame shop. Which I am sure was against all regulations.
I was not prepared to live at that level of poverty. I went on to take a job as a production manager with a company that manufactured bowling equipment, and I actually made some good money for a change.
Looking back, I have no regrets. I have a body of work out there that has survived longer than my entire time in the bike business. As long as people are interested, I will continue to write here and maintain my bike registry. I can even enjoy riding a bike, something I did not have time for while I was engaged in the bicycle business. Strangely, it was writing here on this blog that rekindled my interest in riding again.
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Reader Comments (3)
The older I get, the more I feel thankful to have been able to do work that I love, even if the monetary reward was not as great. I think you were blessed to have found that with the bicycles, your music and your writing.
There are a lot of very rich people who are far more miserable than you or I. And you have put works of functional art into the world, something few people can say they've ever done.
Hi Dave, despite the fact that you didn't Like your mtb, i would really like to know what do you think about the vintage, early '90s Mtb geometry, especilly the long stem configuration on the front. Thanks!
Custom bikes have been making a comeback for a while now. Old brands in France have also come back like Meral albeit with new trendy gravel and all road bikes. The randonneur style bikes are also coming back. There are people like Sachs and J.P Weigle. For some area's, road cycling is just too dangerous. More of these cyclist who started recently with store bought carbon frames are going to want a custom bike and one that accepts fenders as they will be less race focused.