Restored Memories
Mon, July 27, 2020 
Just this last week I received an email from Jim Taylor, owner of a bike store called “Grindin’ Gears Bikes n’ Boards, in Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada. Jim had come into possession of a “project” bike as he referred to it. A custom ‘dave moulton’ frame, that he intends to restore, and ride himself.
I reached for my frame numbers record book, a little hardcover notebook where I recorded frame numbers of custom frames built from 1982 to 1986. When I moved my shop from San Marcos to Temecula, California, the book got misplaced during the move, and it is a small miracle that it survived and I still have it today.
This frame number is 1835, it is a 62 cm. frame. Custom frame numbers represent the date it was built.
This one was built in January 1983 and it was the 5th frame built that month.
It was ordered through Two-Wheel Transit Authority, a bike store in Huntington Beach, California. (Orange County, South of LA.)
A huge bike store that was housed in a building that was formerly a Bowling Alley.
Jim tells me that the original customer’s name is on the frame, Paul Johnson. The bike was picked up in Palm Springs, California, and brought to Alberta by a customer of “Grindin’ Gears. Sadly, the bike has been neglected for many years, probably stored in an outside barn, or shed.
Looking at my frame numbers book (Above.) brought back a lot of memories. In early 1983 I was still working out of the Masi shop in San Marcos. Previously working for Masi until the end of 1981 when I was laid off because of an overstock of Masi frames and a downturn in the economy.
In a bad economy there are always people who have money, and believe it or not one can survive making a high end product, where the issue is not the price but the quality, and even more important is delivering the product in a timely manner. I would build and deliver a custom frame in as little as two weeks.
Last frame built 1982. (See book page above.) Owner David Ball
I sold my frames through a network of bike dealers across the US. Dealers originally contacted by cold calling on the phone. The bike dealers loved it because they not only made a markup on the frame, the made money on the components, and labor to build wheels, and assemble the bike.
Frame #1834Selling though dealers gave me the quantity of orders that I could not have achieved by selling direct to individuals.
By January 1983 I had so many orders to fill, I was working 18 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week.
The pages in my book shows, I built 10 custom frames that month. February (A short month.) I built 7 more frames, and March another 11.
It had become obvious that I needed to get out of the Masi shop, and into my own facility. I did this by July 1983. Altogether in 1983, I built 96 custom frames, plus by the end of the year another 200 John Howard frames.
Frame #1839Looking back, it was a lot of work, but the repartition of building so many frames made me a better framebuilder.
It also made me faster so I could build even more, at the height of production I built 500 Fuso frames a year.
By then I did have employees doing much of the prep and finish work, plus I had a full-time painter. In the eary years I also did my own painting. Everything shown on this page, I painted.
The only problem was, when the demand for road frames dropped, it was no longer viable to keep going. By then I was burned out anyway.
Frame #2831Was it all worth it? You bet it was. There is a whole legacy of frames still out there, still being enjoyed by their owners. I still put in a lot of hours, writing this blog and maintaining my Bike Registry. However, I am a firm believer that a person should have a purpose in life.
Nearly every email I get starts something like this: “To be honest I had never heard of you or the Fuso, until I found this bike and looked it up online.” So, without all the time I spend promoting the brand now, all the hours I worked back then would be wasted, and many of these frames I sweated over would be in landfills.
#2832 Original owner Chuck Schmidt. Used regularly and still in mint condition. Also shown below.
Throughout this article I have shown other bikes built around January/February 1983. Below is a track frame #2833 built for Jim Zimmerman and raced on the Trexlertown track in PA. Later it was bought and used as a "Work bike" by the late "Fast Eddie Williams, renowned bike messenger in New York City. (Below.) (Read articles here.)
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Reader Comments (3)
I have looked long and hard for one of your frames in a 62 Dave, there are not many out there. The only ones that I have found are full bikes in good condition, and I am not looking to spend that much.
But I will keep looking.
I am glad that someone found this one and is going to restore it.
1834 has my name next to it , but its a 60c too big for me , you did make me one , best bike i ever owned, wish I didnt have to sell it , but the shop allowed me to buy a bike for myself every year, but I had to sell the old one ! Looks like we sold a few bikes for you that month , including Chuck Schmits , I rode his monthly vintage ride a few weeks ago and he was riding that bike ! imaculate as always
I’m in the process of restoring my original 1987 Fuso. So many memories!!! It’s so much more the just I bike.