We lost a good one - Edward Litton

 This was a hard week if you are someone who has been part of the Bay Area frame building community for any length of time. I guy who was mostly behind the scenes , never garnering much press but doing the lion's share of the frame restoration and repair work in the SF bay area has died. Ed Litton was someone I had heard of but did not really get to know until about 8 or so years ago. I do know that builder Cameron Falconer had worked with him and that Ed had partnered with the late Bruce Gordon on a good many of Bruces later brazed frames. For Bruce to let anyone else braze his delicate and artistic frames together was something I did not imagine possible. It was not Ed who told me about this but Bruce himself. I was at Bruce's shop visiting and there was a really nice silver frame hanging in his showroom. Bruce told me that he had not brazed a lugged frame in 15 years ,but this was clearly a frame that had been recently constructed. Bruce told me that after he had mitered all the tubes and put them in the jig that Ed had done the brazing. Looking at the frame , I could not see any difference in the quality of the work from Bruce's best efforts. Bruce went on to say that Ed knew more about frame repair and brazing than he did and that Ed was able to do things in the shop that Bruce was unwilling to attempt. This is essentially the guy I looked up to as the foremost west-coast artisan frame builder telling me that there was a guy who eclipsed him in skill level - this led me to want to know who this Ed Litton guy was and what his history was.

Well , the years have gone by and I am sorry to say that I really did not get to know much about Ed as he really didn't talk about himself much. What I did talk about him with was the subject of classic bikes, (of which he was a wealth of information ) other notable builders such as Peter Johnson and of course , Bruce Gordon. I traded some frame building bits with him and often he would send me stuff without charging me. He really didn't seem to care about making a buck-I guess he did ok and was good with that. I can sum up the little I know about Ed with my impression that his focus was on the work, not on talking about his legacy or the remarkable skills that he had with the torch . His willingness to take on frame repairs that most builders would refuse to do set him apart. He became the guy that I would refer people to for jobs that I either # 1, did not feel comfortable attempting or # 2 , just didn't want to do. 

Now he is gone- a result of a horrific bicycle crash. Ed was pretty close to my age and by now had inherited much materials and supplies from Bruce, Peter and other builders who had passed on. Now Ed is gone leaving a pile of stuff that was I'm sure on his list to use up some day. I have a similar pile of stuff that I have accumulated as a builder-all of us from that generation remember when getting frame building supplies was both difficult and expensive so when stuff came to our doors for free, we seldom said 'no'. 

While I did get to see Ed as a bike show or two and at Bruces shop and we did talk on the phone now and then , I never did get to see his shop. This I regret greatly and If there is a chance to go up to Richmond and visit his shop , I know that it will be sad to look around and not hear from Ed himself the stories behind all that I would be seeing. 

Goodbye, Ed- really good to have met you and traded some stories. You were a great ally to Bruce and had his profound respect- something that hardly anyone ever earned. You seemed to have the faith that anything placed in front of you - no matter how damaged - was something you could fix. To maintain that mindset after decades of the kind of work you did was remarkable. There's a lot of people who will miss you-probably many more that you could have eve imagined. 

Made show 2024- my impressions

Yes, I exhibited at the 2024 Made show- mainly because I was prevented from doing so at the 2023 show when I broke my femur on a bike ride and was crippled shortly before I was to leave for the Portland show. This absence allowed me to ask for either a refund on my booth or a booth space at 2024. I opted for the 2024 show .......just seemed like things went that way and I went with it. 

Thursday was load in day- I got to the location, a re-purposed ship yard down by the river in an area that used to be really sketchy. Now it is decidedly more civilized and gentrified, even if very rough and industrial. For people working with metal it seemed like a proper environment to display their craft.

Right after the load-in, assuming that you were done there was a group ride around Portland and up into Forest Park for a little "Gravel" , which I prefer to call "Dirt". The ride was really excellent in many ways- a couple of stops here and there while taking in some iconic Portland city views. The ride started as a slow motion parade but got a bit more spirited as we headed up the hill into Forest Park. This was maybe the highlight of the whole show experience for me- riding through Portland with maybe 100 people , most of whom I had never met , a few I have known for decades. Wish that I had taken more photos.....

The ride ended at the Chris King factory for some food and a band performance- here's where the band was set up. Seeing as the food and the band were not going to happen for awhile I got back on my bike and rode to the next stop- Strawberry Cycles , also known as Torch and File, also known as Terra Nova cycles headed up by the venerable Andy Newlands. Andy has been building frames and supplying Reynolds tubing since before I ever even thought about building a bicycle frame. Not having met him in person, this was a stop I really wanted to make , made even better by the invite that stated that the first 50 people would get some top-tier BBQ. Not counting on the food but definitely wanting to meet Andy and see his shop I rode the 30-odd minutes across town and eventually found the place tucked away in a residential neighborhood.

Unlike the Chris King party where everyone was half my age, this room was filled with people from my decade and even older. The shop looked like a '70's bike frame building shop- the rack of files, the vintage fixtures and old dusty stock hanging overhead-I was super happy to be there.....not that the Chris King factory was not impressive-it really was....it's just that the Strawberry shop party was more my speed and age group. The BBQ was the best I have ever had, too. 

Day one at the show was media day, at least until noon. I sat in my booth waiting but no media came by-there were a lot of exhibitors and I imagined that the media people might be running behind schedule and show up later in the day. At noon the public was finally allowed in and made a modest showing on the first day. I was not very busy but I did sell a surprising amount of the socks I had brought...you never know what people will want at these shows......

Here are my two favorite bikes of the show- not because of the fine attention to detail or artistry-I loved these two bikes as they pretty much were honest expressions of "Hey, lets try this!"- just a couple of wacky ideas that almost poked fun at the whole "show bike" concept- bike #1, a tall bike made from bits of Merlin titanium frames , but done so in a nicely artistic way. Bike # 2....I don't even know if it is rideable- a swing bike covered in disco mirror tiles with custom Anna Schwinn saddle and grip treament- it was adoreable and my tip top favorite. That said, I really did not get a chance to see the show, even if on Friday things were so slow that I got in a 45 min. uninterrupted practice session on my guitar in my booth, waiting to talk to anyone who would stop at my booth..........honestly there were very few on Friday.

Below is my humble booth- maybe people didn't want to stop in such a spartan and understated corner of the show but I did have some pretty decent bikes on display, including the first bike I had ever built from 1978....more on that later. I need to thank Aaron at Modus for the Shimano table shroud-without that the booth would have looked even more pathetic and I would not have a place to hide all the stuff I would be leaving in the booth over the weekend. 

Shimano also gave out generous amounts of coffee beans, which my wife will appreciate.

The guy in the polka-dot kit was everywhere and was pretty crazy on the bike ride, taking reckless chances on the bike without a helmet. I'm amazed that he survived the ride and the show. 

I got in a little visit here and there with a few old salts-this is Joe Bell, the best painter I ever met. I also saw Mark Nobilette , Chris McGovern, Mike DeSalvo, Jeremy Sycip, Curtis Inglis and others. Saw a Rick Hunter bike even if he was not there at the show. Most of the Nor-Cal builders were there and if they weren't , their bikes were ( John Caletti , Todd Ingermason )

Saturday started out just as slow as Friday and I began to wonder about the health of this show until about noon when all of a sudden the people showed up and the entire venue filled to capacity. I was crazy busy at my booth and sold most of the socks I had left and answered questions from anyone willing to ask. The time went by quickly and I remembered what it felt like to be at one of these shows when it was really happening. Whatever didn't happen on Friday happened on Saturday....that was, except for the media-still absent for the most part, at least as far as I could see. Nevertheless, I felt that day #2 had been good enough that the trip felt worthwhile and I would return home satisfied-but there was still one more day left.

Saturday night I took a walk across the river to meet friends for dinner and shot a picture - the sky was gray just like it is most of the year in Portland and it reminded me of my many trips up here for CX races. I really did miss coming to Portland and was getting my fix after a 12 year wait.

On the last day I decided to look around and make note of any international presence at the show. I did see this car and a couple of guys running around in Belgium national team jerseys-never did find out what they were up to but they looked really busy. I also got a visit from two notable Japanese shops- "Circles" and "Blue Lug" along with Simworks who had this really cool display in the photo below. Japanese bicycle culture was on display at the show and I admired this booth more than just about any other. 

another nice visitor to my booth was an old friend who had Rock Lobster # 020 from 1987, a fillet brazed MTB frame that I had just restored for him. I put it in my booth for the latter part of Sunday so that people could see an early MTB effort from my shop that pre-dated my full time entry into the trade.

Frances cycles was showing these custom made spatulas......I really want to get one of these and since Frances is just down the street from me in Santa Cruz I should be able to do that.

So....what is my take on the Made show ? Do I think that it is an improvement over NAHBS ? For many reasons, I'll say yes. The lack of a focus on awards was refreshing. While there was a "People's choice" and "Builders choice" award, I never found out who got what and I didn't make any effort to enter a bike or even place a vote-that isn't why I am at the show. Did the media ever show up ? Yes- on the last day John Watson came by and I told him about my 1978 track bike I had brought- I have to thank him for expressing interest and taking photos , otherwise I don't think anyone would have known that I was even at the show. Gravel Cyclist came by and did a short interview-I could tell that they were really short on time and barely able to keep up with the work load over the three days of the show. I'm grateful that they included me in one of their videos. The Made show did wind up taking some photos of the "Big Ass Cruiser" that I built just for the show- I wish that I had been better about putting the bike in a more visible spot in my booth but hey-I don't do shows like this much and my instinct for display aesthetic is truly lacking. Will I return to this show ? Who the hell knows......it seemed like a show put on by people who really cared that the show was about the builders and not about the people who put on the show-huge plus in my view. The volunteers were helpful, courteous and took care of everything as best as they could in the environment that was at times a bit chaotic. 

While I am sure that there will be a 2025 Made show and that it will stay in Portland (instead of the NAHBS model and travel from city to city ) I am not sure that I will be there. I'm thinking that the show is really a good thing for up and coming builders who need the audience and exposure. I'm not sure why I was there, other than to represent my generation of builders, most of whom have either died or quit. I guess there's value in that, even if it seems like not that many people seem to care. The ones that do, however definetely let me know about it and I found it strange to be attached to titles that I don't feel I have earned -other than perhaps just not quitting . Maybe there will be an award for that some day..........
 

Where are all my friends ?

 Well, time marches on and the bicycle business does as well- some times it's a march to a better place.....some times its a march away from what it is at it's core- a community of people. What has been taking place in the last decade with many bicycle companies has borne some pretty rotten fruit, at least in my view. What transpired in and around the starting of this century has been the gobbling up of companies by larger conglomerates. The companies that have been eaten up were -in the beginning -manifestations of a few people's ideas and passions. I know a lot of these people and their dedication and selfless acts have made the bicycle business and the community at large a lot richer - I'm not talking about money....I'm talking about many forms of "better". 

What has gotten better is trail and land access- that's a win/win as people get to ride places where they couldn't for years , those places remain public parks so that they cannot be subdivided into luxury lots with McMansions protected by tall fences and electric gates. Also what has gotten better are the products- bikes, suspension, helmets, shoes, shifting.....just about everything one can think of bicycle related has improved due to passionate people in companies that reward inspiration and dedication. I think that people in the future might look back on the late '90's and early 2000's as a great time in the bike business.

Things are quite different now. Large holding companies over the last 10-20 years have gobbled up many of the best companies in the bike industry - of course promising to carry on the passion and original direction of the companies faithfully. Pretty much the opposite has been happening. These large holding companies have been taking local California companies and slowly bleeding them of capital and employees. Many of the local companies that started here in the Bay Area have been dismantled and moved elsewhere and the employees who were responsible for making the companies successful were given their walking papers , or given ultimatums such as "move to such and such city across the country or lose your job". To me this makes no sense, but to the holding companies it makes all the sense in the world- cut costs , maximize profit , dismantle underperforming departments and centralize operations. Good corporate strategy but a complete disemboweling of an industry that is not run so much profit as it is run on passion.

Many of my friends worked for the companies that got bought out, run into the ground and gutted, relocated and basically euthanized. It , to me seems such a total waste and a humiliation of the people who have made their life about the betterment of the bike industry and community. I used to see these people at trade shows, riding events or just chance encounters around town- they, like I were part of the local flavor of the bike world. Now, most of them are out looking for work and are likely to leave the bicycle industry for good- not because they want to- it is because the industry left them. It took what they had in ideas, sweat and years and put it all out on the curb to be taken away to the landfill. This really has torn the heart out of much of the community that I have known for more than half of my 68 years-over 40 of those years trying to be as good at what I do as the people I know in the business......or at least they were in the business. Maybe the good days are gone forever- I really hope not. What can bring back the type of companies that created most of what we appreciate about cycling ? Not sure that I have any good ideas but I have a few friends who do........

Give me the strength to........

Living the dream 2023 style. Building bicycle frames for a living is not an easy thing , no matter how you slice it. I have been very fortunate to be able to say that I indeed have a self sustaining shop that is productive in spite of the usual pitfalls. Some of these issues are things that I can fix, some not. This summer has shown me that issues do not need to show up one at a time but can come as a pair, a trio or a whole damn village. 

Here's the village of the fall of 2023: In July I took a corner on my bike and unexpectedly ( that's usually how it is, isn't it ? ) I fell and broke my femur in two places. I am still recovering from that as of this writing which is about three months after the date of my surgery. Next thing was that I got lost in the system and my appointment for my follow up X-ray never got booked- now I have a wait that I did not expect. Also, for some reason , my email with my business stopped working and now customers will have a bit of trouble getting in touch with me. I have spent numerous hours online and on the phone with no success......I'm getting pretty frustrated but at least I have plenty of work to keep me busy for awhile. Doing this work with a gimpy leg is not that easy but I am getting it done. Next issue is my old trusty truck of 22 years has a check engine light that comes on every week- the mechanic does not seem to be able to cure the problem......kind of like my email issue- the experts are stumped for now. Another issue was that I had to quit a band I was in for the last year suddenly- this was tough as the people in the band were very nice and they were puzzled and hurt that I had left-sadly, it was something I had to do and I felt very strongly about the decision- this did not make it any easier.

Yes, these are not life or death issues but still pretty numerous for a semi-crippled frame builder with a semi crippled email, truck and attitude. This brings me to consult the old AA saying : " Lord, give me the strength to fix the things I can fix , accept the things that I can't fix and to know the difference " . I quote that saying now because the line between the things I can fix and the ones I can't is seeming not to be a line any more but a blurry spot of blindness. I can't really see solutions to some of these issues and it makes me pretty discouraged. This lack of clarity about the issues I am facing has made me turn to the shop-some times 7 days a week- it is the one place I can be where I can fix things, build things and find some sort of validity to the space I am taking up on this planet and in this life. Outside the shop my life really is not seeming like the happy place it can be - I can't ride , I'm in pain much of the time, I don't really feel like there's any activity such as going to a movie, going out to eat or really any type of recreation that I feel up to. But.....cutting and welding metal ? I can do that and as soon as I got off this barely functional computer I will go to the shop and see if I can fix or build something and if not, know the damn difference.
 

We ain't goin' out like that.....

A couple of years ago I lost a good friend and a remarkable builder. Bruce was not the happiest guy who ever lived but he still saw humor in a lot of life and had come to grips with retired life ,or it seemed that way. Only a couple of years after he liquidated his shop he was gone- but this is what came first.

When out on one of his weekly rides- a ride he knew well- Bruce took a fall in a corner and broke his leg. It was a freak crash on a path he rode on every week. When Bruce got to the hospital the doctors offered him surgery which Bruce opted not to do. I can't tell you why he decided to avoid surgery on his leg but that was his choice. Bruce's recovery was slow and painful and it didn't seem like he ever fully came back from the injury. He could no longer ride a bike and he was reduced to walking with a cane. I think he was maybe 68 years old and otherwise had been a relatively healthy person. By the time he was 70 he was gone-found in his house, no cause of death that I know of -it didn't matter the cause- he was gone. 

This brings me to current events in my life- I just broke my leg in similar fashion to Bruce, riding on a very familiar trail but landing very hard on some hard ground. I am about to turn 68 in September. When offered surgery at the hospital, I took it. The surgeon said that not having surgery was an option but not a good one as there was no guarantee that my leg would heal properly and that I would be spending months in bed. With the surgery I would be up on a walker the following week and fully weight bearing in six weeks. Seemed like an easy decision for me, if not for Bruce. At the time I didn't think of Bruce when I said yes to the procedure but now I can't help but think that maybe Bruce would still be with us if he had done the same as I. Sure, there's a risk with every surgery and the possibility of infection can scare some people , but the thought of being crippled simply because of opting out of a procedure that is commonly done does not seem rational to me. 

Unlike Bruce, I still have a business that I am actively running and lots of work lined up. Retirement at this time is not an option. Giving up riding is not something I want to do, either- even if now I might dial back the amount of miles I ride. I'm also hoping to be a bit more careful, too. One thing about a broken femur , commonly referred to as a broken hip- in people my age and older the broken hip can be an early indicator of a shortened life ........a death sentence to put it bluntly. By getting this surgery I hope to not wind up another statistic in this regard- I want to keep doing what I was doing for as long as I can. With all respect to my departed friend, I don't want to wind up like him- gone well before his time, at least in my opinion. One cannot choose how long one's life will be but there are decisions that can effect the length of one's life - so.......hardware in the leg ? sign me up. I don't want this bike crash to put me in the dirt if I can help it. Bruce, if you are up there somewhere , please don't get mad if I can't agree with you on this........And I really wish you were still here so we could argue about it. I guess we will never have that conversation.
 

Some ideas are best appreciated in their absence..

 Over the course of the last four decades I have had the experience of working with numerous mechanical engineers . These engineers give me drawings and some make me sign non-disclosure agreements. My job is usually to interpret the engineers plans and make them into a rideable prototype. Some times my input is welcome but often it is ignored as many of these engineers are certain that they have beta tested their plans and have worked out every possible bug. This is seldom the case as most of these ideas on paper that I get from the engineers are based in a world of theory and mathematics. I can't claim to have even a small portion of the education needed to be a qualified engineer and I don't pretend to know what they- the engineers know. What I do know is what they don't know- the kind of knowhow that one gets from building stuff for 40+ years. I can look at a blueprint and see pretty quickly if there will be problems with the project-either in the building process or in the actual use of the finished project. To me , these things are obvious-to the engineer these factors lie outside their belief system. Since most of them don't actually build stuff they are disconnected from the building process and are depending on me to handle all of it. I am fully prepared to handle all of it but if the engineer chooses not to listen to my warnings about potential pitfalls of their design , they will be paying me to build something that will not work. 

I'll take you back a little over a decade to a time when I got recruited to be part of a crew designing an early E-bike for a trade show competition. Design firms were paired up with builders such as myself to collaborate on projects. While I usually refuse to get involved in stuff like this I went along with being part of this project as the trade show was being put on by a good friend and I thought that it might be good to show some solidarity. I went into this project with the best intentions and the highest hopes. This was a non-paid job and the reward would be in the experience of working with people at a top-notch design firm. Honestly , I was excited and a bit intimidated as well. 

Upon arriving at the design firm I was introduced to no less than 6-7 people who would all be working on this project. They were all fired up and cheerful at the start and everyone had something in the way of a suggestion of what this new bike project was going to be. The head of the design crew was very motivated and as the weeks went on it became apparent that the shape of this bike was going to be of his design and that all contributions by other people on the team (myself included) would bear his scrutiny. Ay first I didn't pick up on how driven this lead designer was but as time went on and people started to bail from the project I got a very clear picture. In the last few weeks leading up to the show the crew was less than half the original number-I never heard why people left, I only knew that the meetings were getting smaller .

When all the designing was done and the building of the actual bike was about to start I noticed a major problem with the design. I had a very simple solution to fix this problem- this was key , for if this problem was not fixed , the whole electric system of the bike could not have been hooked up and functional. Again, I'm just a bike builder and not an engineer but I know that if wires have to go from here to there, you sure as shit have to have a path for them that does not get in the way of other moving parts. I told the head designer of my idea-he dismissed it and fought to have some other solution......but there was none. His reason for not adopting my solution was the same reason he did not take many good suggestions- he did not want the physical appearance of the bike changed from his original design. 

Here's my view on the original design of the bike: Problem # 1. This bike was designed by a 5'11" guy and he made it so anyone shorter than 5'11" would not fit properly on the bike. This eliminated about 60% of his potential customers. # 2. The sleek design of the bike did not allow for the kind of battery needed for longer cruising range , making this bike-although prettier-not as practical as other Ebikes .# 3. The bike had front wheel drive- while this might work fine in a car , the bike can become unstable if someone turns and accelerates. For an experienced rider this might not be an issue but for someone just getting into cycling this could be a real problem. These are three fundamental issues that made this bike, in spite of it's cool looks a product likely to fail. 

The head designer was so taken with his design, despite the flaws that he decided to go commercial with it and create a company to build and sell the bikes. I wound up making three prototypes but I stopped working with the designer as he found that he would have to source the bikes from overseas in order to get the quantity and low price that he needed to make the bike attractive to consumers. At some point I no longer had any dealings with the project. I did own a piece of it though- part of the original agreement was that if this design was to become a product , I would retain a share as part of my design credit......even if the bulk of my design ideas were ignored. This would become an issue for the head designer a but later.

After a couple of years trying to be a bike company the head designer got an offer from a major company to buy his design and in effect, the company he had spent the last few years building. My guess is that his finances were running out and selling the company was the way for him to monetize all of his hard work. One thing stood in the way of the selling of the company - me. The head designer called me and asked if I would be willing to sell my share of the design. I was happy to do this so he relayed the information to the company who was the buyer. They made me a very low offer.....never having been in this position I was not sure what to do. I called a few industry people and they all said the same thing. Counter offer what you want and stick with that- this is a big company and they will pay you as it is a very small amount of money for them . I countered with what I thought was a reasonable amount and the offer was accepted. I finally got paid for a project I had done four year previously and the head designer got his windfall.

One thing that the money did not change, though- the bike still had the same problems. The new owners did what they could in regards to making more sizes for shorter people but the other flaws in the design remained and sales of the bike were very sluggish. After a couple of years the brand and the bike were discontinued and the pipe dream of the head designer would be relegated to the world of a multitude of failed products that wind up in landfills across the country. Things might have turned out different if the 'design co-operative project' really was co-operative and not the product of an inflexible leader . I have no idea what the head designer of the bike is doing today but I'll bet he's making plenty of money and doing just fine. There seems to be lots of money being given to people who have strong ideas, even if their ideas turn out to be bullshit. In my opinion, there is too much of this in the world and it is depressing that it exists in a business such as bicycles that is fragile and always fighting for its life. 

That's my view , anyway- but don't listen to me.......I'm only the guy who puts the shit together.....what do I know ?

R.I.P. Dr. Deltron- Mark Bunten

This guy in the photo striking the goofy pose was the most imaginative and talented bike painter I ever knew. Mark Bunten is not a household name in the bike painting world but if you talk to the best people in the business in the '90's they will not only know his work, they might echo the words I just wrote about how exceptional Mark was when it came to artistry with a bicycle frame as the canvas. 

The photos in this post are of a few of the bikes that Mark painted for me personally but the bulk of his work was for my customers. I estimate that over the years Mark might have painted about 70-100 frames for me. Before powder coating became the norm for bicycle finishes ,catalyzed enamels sprayed wet were what was done. Painters came and went- it seemed like a tough way to make a living . Few painters lasted more than a couple of years in the craft before giving up and moving on to another job.

Mark stuck around longer than most, though he did suffer the long hours and poverty that most bicycle painters endure. To distinguish himself from the other painters, Mark would take on really elaborate paint schemes and show an imagination that was unique and irreverent. Mark's painting days were before the internet so getting publicity and a client base was difficult. He didn't have that many customers but his work spoke for itself. I really wish that I had more photos of the many paint jobs that Mark did for me from about 1990-2005. 

One thing about Mark that made it difficult for him to succeed were his bouts with depression. There usually were times when Mark did not answer his phone and he would drop out of sight for a week or more. There's a good possibility that Mark could have benefitted from anti-depressants but it really is impossible for me or just about anyone to know what could have gotten Mark into the headspace where he could cope with his life and benefit from his amazing talent. Mark would have a run of a few months of knocking out world-class work - then suddenly drop out of sight . This made it difficult to rely on Mark as a reliable person to do business with. That said, he was so likable and so good at what he did . Any chance I had to have him paint for me was a chance I took without hesitation.

After Mark painted the purple frame you see in the first photos he said that he was probably going to close shop and do something else for a living. This was around 2005. He did have a few jobs but never stuck with anything for very long as his imagination and ideas were usually not in synch with his employer's business model. 

It really isn't for me to talk about his personal life- there's not that much that I know-mostly what I know of him was through all the bike collaborations we did over nearly two decades. I don't really remember how I found Mark or how he found me but his paint jobs defined my bikes in the eyes of my customers and in print media. In the era of Mark's painting career there were no limits on what someone could ask for-and receive-in a paint scheme.......those were good days.

This bike was one of four that I built for Paris-Brest-Paris 1995. This is the bike I personally rode in the event. Mark painted all four bikes and if I remember right, he gave me a deal because he wanted to be one of the sponsors. I think he also felt that getting exposure to the long-distance Randonneur crowd would not hurt, either. I wound up riding all over western Europe in this bike in 1995 and 1999. 

Since 1999 this bike has seen very little use, mostly hanging on display. I have newer more modern bikes now that I ride so this one had sat idle until yesterday. I took it down from its high hook, aired up the tires and rode it for about an hour yesterday because I received a phone call from Mark's eldest son that Mark had died in his sleep on April 22nd , just shy of his 62nd birthday. I had not seen Mark in a few years but I knew that he was going through a very acrimonious divorce and did not have a permanent residence . I was aware that he was going through a very difficult time-I even stored a couple of his bikes for about two years while he dealt with not having a place to call home. 

Mark is gone-I don't think there's anyone else to tell his story and my version is not very complete but his work is out there-unmistakeable when you see it. I have kept a couple of the bikes he painted - not so much for how they rode or what sort of job I did building the frame. I kept these bikes because of the work that Mark did to make these bikes exceptional. I know that there are a few truly amazing painters out there doing remarkable stuff currently. These guys are very talented and it shows in their work. That said, there was only one Dr. Deltron and I don't think that anyone will ever eclipse what he did when he was at his most inspired.