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..........