Some I remember

I don’t remember every individual frame I built, there were too many of them, but those I do remember it is usually some little detail about the frame or the particular customer that will trigger a memory. And when someone sends me pictures years later, often after the frame or bike has changed hands, I will say to myself, “Oh yes, I remember this one.”

The one pictured above for example was built for the manager of Two Wheel Transit Authority, a large bike store in Huntington Beach, California, that sold a lot of bikes for me through most of the 1980s. I remember the customer visiting my shop in San Marcos in 1985 as clearly as if it were a few weeks ago.

It was unusual to see a customer in person as most of my orders came through bike dealers,

However, this particular customer was representing one of my biggest dealers, so it was an exception.

The frame ordered was a custom ‘dave moulton’ built in Reynolds 753,

Another reason I remember this particular frame, when I asked the customer what color paint? He answered “Surprise me.”

This is a freedom I rarely experienced. On all my custom frames the paint was always “Understated.” I felt that gaudy or flashy paint schemes would take away from the fine detail in the metalwork of the frame.

This one I simply mixed black and white to come up with a rather plain looking grey. But after applying black decals, I added a blue pearl to the final clear coat overall, giving the whole frame a blue sheen, especially in bright sunlight, and the decals appear as a dark midnight blue.

The pearl additive comes in the form of a paste in a small jar. A tiny amount on the end of a mixing stick, stirred into the clear Imron, and the overall finish takes on the color of the additive. Blue, green, red, silver, gold, many variants are available.

Pictures of this second frame I remember, came to me recently. It is a Fuso LUX model built in Reynolds 653. One of a kind I believe, with many of the features that were usually reserved for my custom frames. But that is not why I remember this one.

It was a persnickety SOB of a customer who insisted I measure this frame from center of the bottom bracket to the center of the top tube. And stamp the bottom bracket to reflect this.

As most know I always measured my frames center to top, the standard English way.

Why did do that? It was all I knew, I had always measured frames that way.

I was not exposed to Italian frames (Measured Center to Center.) until I came to the US.

Also it was not something I discovered the moment I stepped of the plane at Kennedy Airport.

By the time I realized that most in the US measured center to center, it was too late. I had a ton of frames out there already measured and stamped center to top, and it would have been chaos to change at the height of production in the mid-1980s. I had to remain consistent.

This frame was a 54cm. by my usual standard, but I had to stamp it 52.5 C.

I added the letter “C” to alert any future owner this was not measured the same as every other frame I built.

This bike is now a show piece in a bike store in El Paso, Texas. The Bicycle Company, drop by and take a look if you are in that area.

So there you have it. Two frames I remember, but for two completely different reasons.

The one because I knew the customer and was given the freedom to create paint of my own choosing. The other because my freedom was taken from me. A piddling little detail that should not annoy me, but it does.

This second frame was built in 1990 when business was dropping off, and I allowed myself to be manipulated for monetary gain. Something I regret, and know it is the reason it still annoys me.

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Fast Eddie Williams

I awoke Sunday morning to the sad news that New York Bike Messenger Legend “Fast Eddie” Williams had passed away.

Apparently, when Eddie didn’t show for work on Friday morning a coworker went to his apartment where he found Eddie had died during the night.

Life is strange, death is even stranger. We all know it is inevitable, and yet when it happens we are so ill equipped to deal with it.

We are shocked, stunned, we can’t believe it. Or is it just that we don’t want to believe it?

Eddie had been a bike messenger in New York City since 1983, long before riding a fixed wheel, no brakes, track bike on city streets became a hipster fashion. In fact it was the bike messenger who started the craze.

Bike messengers provide an essential service in the city, delivering important documents when overnight delivery is just not fast enough. Speed is of the essence, and a fixed wheel track bike is the perfect tool for the job.

A skilled rider has tremendous control over the bike, able to speed up or slow down easily and thread between cars when traffic is at a standstill. A courier on a bike can get from A to B quicker than any motorized vehicle.

I met Eddie just once when I traveled to New York in November 2014. We met in a bar/restaurant in Brooklyn, where Eddie lived. (Picture above.) He was a big man, at least six-four, maybe more. Soft spoken, humble almost. He showed me his bike, a track bike I had built in 1983, and had been raced on the Trexlertown Velodrome. Eddie had bought the bike from the original owner in 1998.

Then just two months later around Christmas 2014 Eddie’s bike was stolen. Eddie was devastated. He needed this bike to earn a living. I listed the bike as stolen on my Bike Registry, and several months later the frame showed up in a Queens bike store. Someone contacted me, I contacted Eddie, and he got his bike back.

That was the last time I spoke to Eddie just hours after he had retrieved the frame. The parts were gone, but Eddie had other parts and had already re-built it. I asked if he had found the thief.  He replied, “Oh, it was just some young kids.”

This response was typical of the man. He wasn’t vindictive or looking to punish someone, he was just full of joy to have his bike back.

I will always be grateful that I got to meet Eddie, and also with the help of many others was able to get his bike back to him when it was stolen.

I hope that bike never gets restored, but that it remains as is, with its thousands of paint chips. A working bike, displayed in a bike store or somewhere, as a memorial to a Legend.

Rest in Peace Fast Eddie, I will always remember you, as will many more.

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1978 Aero Track Frame

I came across these photos the other day of an experimental aero track frame I built at the end of 1978 a matter of weeks before I came to the US to work for Paris Sport.

The tubing was Reynolds 531, which I had modified by squishing to an oval shape between two pieces of angle iron held in a vise. The frame was a lugless filet brazed construction.

There was a sheet metal aero foil behind the head tube, and another just behind the bottom bracket in place of a chainstay bridge.

The reason for building this frame was that it went to the Reynolds Tube Company, along with a proposal that they make some special tubing for the US Olympic team bikes, to be built by me after I took my new position with Paris Sport in January 1979.

In the Spring of 1979 I did build the frames with the help of American builder Mike Melton.

The whole project turned out to be a huge fiasco and the US team never did ride the bikes.

Reynolds Tube Company had gone to a great deal of trouble and expense to produce this tubing.

The tubing never did go on the market, but Reynolds did send a few of these special sets to the French Bicycle Company, Gitane.

Gitane built an aero frame for Bernard Hinault, he rode it in the 1979 Tour de France time trial stages.

The bike got quite a bit of attention at the time, so at least Reynolds got some publicity out of it.

I got very little out of it, except for the satisfaction of knowing that if it wasn’t for the frame I built in the above pictures, then this other photo of Bernard Hinault (Below.) would not exist.

According to my record book, the frame I built was number M8292, I have no idea where it is now. The last I saw of it was when I dropped it off at the Reynolds factory just before Christmas 1978.

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Candy Apple Paint

If you don’t already know, a Candy-Apple paint finish is a two-step process. First a base color is applied, metallic gold for example, then a special translucent paint in a color of choice is sprayed over. The result is a finish of great depth and beauty.

One can see the sparkling metallic gold under the semi-transparent red, blue or green top coat. Just like seeing the apple under its candy coating. Hence the name.

The picture above is an example. The gold FUSO name on the down tube is actually the base coat, it was masked off, then the red candy apple was sprayed on, and the mask was removed after.

When I went to work for Masi in Southern California at the end of 1980, I was amazed at the beautiful paint work coming out of the shop.

Not only by Jim Allen, Masi’s painter, but former Masi painters, Brian Baylis, and Jim Cunningham of Cyclart, who were all sharing the same premises and paint booth.

At that time I had been painting my own frames for a number of years, so I knew how to handle a paint gun, but what I didn’t know were the little “Tricks of the Trade” it took to bring a paint finish up to the next level.

Like for example, spraying 6 or 8 clear coats over decals, then when dry, sanding smooth with very fine 600 grit paper, before applying a final clear coat. The result was a perfectly smooth finish with the decals completely buried under clear coats, with not even the slightest ripple in the top surface above the decal.

I also learned about candy apple finishes. One of the ways it was used, you would not even be aware that it is a candy apple finish. That is when used to produce a brilliant red finish. Red is one of the most difficult colors to paint and look half way decent.

The reason is the best red pigment is made from Cadmium. But it is no longer used in modern paint, because it is highly toxic and very expensive. So synthetic pigments are used, and the finished job ends up looking slightly orange. Not a true red. Red paint is also prone to fade over time when exposed to sunlight.

What I learned was the spray a candy apple red over a bright white base coat. What you see is the light reflecting back on the white undercoat, through the red translucent top coat. The result is a really intense deep red. A true red color. 

This process was not easy, because if the red was sprayed unevenly it would appear a darker or lighter shade in places where the paint was applied in heavier of lighter coats. For example, as you spray paint along the individual tubes of the frame there is a tendency to get a buildup of paint around the lugs.

If not careful, the lugs would appear darker that the main tubes. Or there might be dark blotches where the paint overlapped.

Many do not know that even on my production Fuso and Recherche frames this same candy apple red was used.

(Above and Right) But instead of a white base, I sprayed over a bright orange base coat.

The red appeared only slightly darker, but spraying over orange was a little more forgiving, therefore easier than over a pure white base.

Some of these frames are 30 years old and the red paint has not faded, the red is still as vibrant as the day it left my shop.

In the example above. The frame was painted dark metallic blue, and white decals applied. Next a candy apple red was sprayed over all, and the end result is a deep burgundy main color with red decals. Taking on a purple-ish hue in bright sunlight.

Finally, this Fuso Lux frame was first painted white all over. Then a candy apple purple was sprayed on the bottom section only. The white acting as the base coat. Where the color fade transition takes place, the tubes were masked off in a checker board fashion. The purple was faded over this masking which was removed when the paint was dry.

Then I came back a final coat of the purple, and sprayed slightly overlapping the white squares. The effect is a checkered pattern that appears to fade in from the purple, and then disappear into the white. It also demonstrates the effect of lighter and heavier coats of the candy apple paint that I mentioned earlier.

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The Naked Truth

It is rare to see one of my frames stripped of its paint. This custom 'dave moulton' Criterium frame was recently bought on eBay in this already stripped condition. Only 36 of the Criterium model were built.

This frame was designed with lateral stiffness in mind, for fast sprinting out of corners, etc. For this reason it has oversize seatstays, and this modified track fork crown. (Picture above.) The Columbus oval fork blades were re-formed round at the top to fit this crown, which is engraved with my four "m" logo.

(Above.) All California built custom frames from 1982 on, had my name engraved in the bottom bracket shell. 

(Above.) Nice sharp points on the lug work. Those diamond shaped bridge re-enforcers were hand cut and shaped from the off-cuts from chainstays. 

(Above.) Rear drop-out detail. 

(Above.) The rear brake bridge. Again the re-enforcers were hand cut from a scrap piece of tubing. They were never measured exactly, but cut and shaped until the pair matched. The bridge itself is a straight piece of 1/2 inch diameter chrome molly tube. The little barrel shaped center was cutom made for me by a machine shop in Worcester, England, and I brought a box of them with me when I came to the US in 1979. 

(Above.) The seat lug and seatstay top eyes. Again roughly measured, and filed with a large round file to accept an off cut from a piece of head tube, which was then brazed in place and shaped untill the pair matched when held up side by side.

These little hand made touches were what made each custom frame different and special. Each frame was slightly different from another, because these little extras were purly decerative. As long as one side matched the opposite side, they didn't need to be precise.

The frame is now owned by Jack Gabus who plans to have it re finished. I appreciate him sharing these photos of the frame in its current state.

Footnote: Just this week, Mitch Pullen set up a group Facebook page for owners of frames I built. Lots of pictures already posted over there. Click here to take a look.

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