You know who I was but you don't know me- Lawrence Malone

 While I didn't know him as well as a lot of other people I do have some Lawrence Malone stories. He died in an automobile accident this week - the true cause of it a mystery much like the life of the man himself. He was a bike racer of the first order but I don't think that he wanted that to be his total identity. His racing spanned a number of years and included no less than five national cyclocross titles but he was not much like those who he competed against. He raced at a time when American bike racers were very poor financially but none were poorer than Lawrence. He borrowed bikes , bummed food and rides to get to races-most of which he would win but the prizes seldom included much if any cash. He lived on almost nothing on a good day and less the rest of the time.

My first exposure to Lawrence was the cover of Velo News magazine. The cover photo was of Lawrence jumping a barrier on his bike at a cyclocross race. As far as I know, he was the first racer to do this and while he was in Europe racing he really made a name for himself by airing the barriers when nobody else had thought about riding that way- he was an original thinker. Seeing this made me , a lousy Cat. 4 beginner go out on my bike and jump every chuck hole in the county on my training rides. On one particular jump I came down ungracefully and broke a very expensive 3TTT saddle. It was at that point I realized how much skill that I didn't have and would never have- and I also realized how skilled Lawrence must be to be able to jump barriers that were more than a foot tall. 

The first time I saw Lawrence in person was in 1978. I was on a ride with my bike shop boss on a popular route up Hwy. 1 north to Swanton road. When we were about 45 min. into the ride we were passed by a rider going very fast, followed by a pack of what must have been about 20-25 riders. My boss said that this group was the 'Friday ride" - a pack of most of the fastest cyclists in the county. The guy in front that they were chasing ? -Lawrence. My boss said that if I wanted to try my hand at that ride I would have to train as people like Lawrence ( even though he really was in a class by himself ) were going to leave me behind in short order if I didn't put in the miles. To see all those top riders working so hard to catch Lawrence impressed me- how could one guy hold off a whole pack ? 

The next time I saw Lawrence it was a bit of a surprise. I was in my apartment with my girlfriend at the time on a Friday or Saturday night- not sure what night it was, actually. About 8:00-9:00 PM there was aloud and frantic knock at the door. I opened the door and in walked Lawrence with his bike. He closed the door and sat down on the living room floor and opened up a pack that he was carrying. Out of the pack came a gallon bottle of cheap Red Mountain wine- he offered us a swig , which we declined. He shrugged and took a drink. I'm not sure how he knew where I lived but my apartment was just what he needed that night for about 15 minutes or so. After a bit of conversation and a few drinks, Lawrence got up and took a peak out the front door. He looked up and down the street - after this he thanked us for our hospitality and got on his bike and went on his way. Before he left I asked him what was up- he just smiled and said that he needed to hide for a few minutes and now that the coast was clear he could continue on his way. I never fully found out who Lawrence was hiding from but knowing that would not make the story any better- it might even ruin it. It was just Lawrence being Lawrence.

Years would go by - Lawrence was no longer racing but he was still a bicycle rider, scrounger and always cobbing various old bikes into transportation. He came by my shop in the early '90's with an Italian frame with a broken chain stay. He asked me how much it would cost to fix it . I told him around $ 40. He said OK and left the frame. I would not see him again for maybe two years. I had fixed the frame but after two years I figured that Lawrence was not coming back for it- $ 40 was big money to Lawrence and perhaps he had forgotten about the frame or maybe had decided not to pick it up. I had the frame painted, assembled it into a complete bike and sold it. A few weeks after I sold the bike Lawrence came by. He asked me if I still had the frame and if it had been repaired. I told him that I had repaired it two years ago and that I thought that he had abandoned or forgotten about it. When I told him that I had sold it he didn't get angry- he didn't ask me for money or anything really- he just looked disappointed and shook his head a little. I apologized but said that anything left in my shop that long is subject to getting sold or disposed of. He seemed to understand and left.

The next time I saw Lawrence was in my back yard about a year later. Some how word had gotten out that I had a big pile of bike parts that I wanted to get rid of and they were in my back yard. Lawrence called up and asked if he could look through the pile. I told him yes and he drove up later in his Carmen Ghia and proceeded to rifle through the pile of frames and parts. I told him to just make a pile of what he wanted and we would come up with a price. He must have worked for about an hour looking carefully through all the bike stuff and eventually had a pretty large pile of what he wanted. He asked me how much for the pile, to which I said : How about $ 200.00 ?  Lawrence looked at me blankly for a second and they broke into a bit of a smile. I think he was pretty happy with the price- he opened his wallet and produced 10 twenty dollar bills- I was in shock- this was Lawrence Malone buying $ 200 worth of bike parts in cash. While I knew that the parts were worth far more than what he was paying, I was still amazed that Lawrence was carrying that amount of cash for any reason. He carryed the parts to his car and whatever frames he got that would not fit inside the car he bungie corded them to a rickety rack on the back of the Carmen Ghia . After that he bid goodby and thanked me for giving him the good deal. I thanked him and watched him drive off.

The last time I saw Lawrence was over a decade later. I was at a cyclocross race here in Santa Cruz watching the elite race. A friend pointed to a taller older man standing with a road bike near the side of the course. He asked me :" Is that Lawrence ?" I really had to look for awhile- it didn't look quite like the same guy who had driven away with the load of bike parts- if it really was Lawrence, he looked much older . He had moved to New Mexico years earlier and I had pretty foggy memories of what he looked like. It turned out that it was Lawrence indeed - in town for a visit and taking in a cyclocross race as a spectator. I didn't talk to him- I just felt like maybe he might just want to watch the race and not have a bunch of people talking to him as a distraction. Maybe I just didn't feel that I was someone he would remember or want to talk to. I regret not talking to him- I really regret not fully giving him credit for the fact that not only did he remember about that frame he left for me to repair- he remembered people, places, events- he was outwardly a spaced-out seeming character but in reality he was very present. I am sad that I didn't know him better , that I never got to build him a frame and get his opinion on how it rode. Most of all I am sad that I underestimated his capacity for observing and remembering the people he came into contact with. 

As I said in the beginning, I didn't know Lawrence that well and I can't really talk about his life other than the few times that I saw him. There are all sorts of Lawrence stories out there- not all of them happy. He didn't always leave people with a smile and his past is a mixture of all sorts of varying accounts- I'll have to leave it at that and suggest that other people will be able to fill in the vast spaces that I left open in this story. In Lawrence's memory I tried to stick to what I recalled the best and not pass judgement . It is ironic and quite sad that such a bicycle guy would have his life end in an automobile accident . I think that Lawrence had a lot more to give to this life if he had had the chance , but with the chance he was given he did make an impact on cycling history , even if the identity that people gave him for his racing exploits only tell a fraction of what he really was all about. 

New shop at last.

 April was a heck of a month- EKG, stress test, angiogram, internal bleeding and a hematoma, three days of bed rest followed by 16 straight days of moving. I'm still alive and very close to recovered from my procedure at the hospital......living the dream. OK- now for the good news-I'm now in the best workspace I have ever had. I had to wait decades for it but at least I am there now. I have enough room to have a nice open floor and there's some natural light and more ventilation. The other bonus is that it is less rent than the last building I was in - more room, less rent ? In California ? -Yes.......does not seem possible but that's how it is now. I have no idea how long I'll be able to enjoy this spot but I'll be here as long as I can. Affordable industrial space is mostly extinct here in Santa Cruz. Small manufacturers like myself are being displaced by brew pubs , wine tasting rooms and cannabis distributors. Those are the businesses that have the money to pay for the high west side rents. There's a thriving economy in intoxication.....kind of funny but hey- I don't make the rules around here. 

So- I have a 'destination shop' but with Covid, I can't have a bunch of people coming by and I can't have a grand opening party. That's OK with me.....I have a major ton of work to do , delayed by my hospitalization and subsequent bed rest and also by the 2+ weeks of the move. I'm ready to re-start tomorrow. Wish me luck- I have to get this place up and running and there's a bunch of tools that are going to be hard to find at first.It will be a challenge but this year has been all about challenges for everybody. I'm glad that mine aren't that monumental.

What could possibly go wrong ?

So.....yes, I am moving my shop. I have been saying this since about this time last year but as of a few days ago I have signed the rental agreement and have paid the first month's rent. Do I have a key yet ? -no. Has the place I'm moving into been fully vacated ? -That's a no as well. Long story- the previous renter is very old and has been moving very slowly-if at all to get his 40-odd year's of accumulation out of the space. He asked for a few more days to clear out what he wanted to keep and I said that as long as they have not changed the lock he can get his stuff out-until today. He asked for three days and I gave him three days. I'll have to do many dump and recycling runs to get the place empty enough for me to move into. The landlord let me slide on the security deposit if I do all the dump runs myself and take the place as-is. 

Now this would be a full enough plate just by itself as I also have decades of accumulation in my shop to move. Fortunately , my last move in 2018 resulted in 4 truckloads of stuff getting donated , recycled or taken to the landfill so I won't have that to worry about. The thing that makes this move a bit daunting are the many more bicycles and boxes of parts that have come my way since I started renting the present shop.  Also, a new huge free-standing  loft was constructed for this shop and it will have to be dismantled and moved and re-built. 

But the real wild card is this: On the last two hard bike rides I have done I have experienced some new chest pain- not really horrible, but new. It only happened when I was doing a threshold effort up a long steep climb. I talked to a doctor and he said "Stop riding hard and get a stress test ." This I have done , along with other tests. The result is that I now go in on the 12th for an angiogram to see if I have blocked arteries and need a stent or two. The good news is that this is a very quick procedure and I'm likely to bounce back in a few days. The wild card is not knowing the extent of the problem, or even if there is any real problem as I have no other symptoms. I can still ride comfortably , although I have definitely slowed down to avoid giving myself a coronary. At 65 , I'm not alone in having a health issue like this. Plenty of people half my age have gotten a stent. The timing of this issue though could not be more poorly timed. I'll have one week to do dump runs and then, without even starting my move I'll be going into the cardiac unit for the procedure. It has to be done but hell......WTF ? 

So..........I should have a pretty good crew to help me with the move, although I might miss some days. This happened last year when I fell off a ladder and got a concussion and missed 4 days of the final part of the shop move. Will I pull this move off successfully ? I hope so.....I just hope that the doctors pull off their job successfully and that they don't have much of a job to do. Of course, if I die on the table there's a good chance that your frame will be delayed significantly.......

hope to see you all on the other side of this one- it could be way worse-I caught this issue ver early I think. 
 

Again ??

With a build list longer than ever, a pandemic and a crazy busy time in the bike business, what could be more unwelcome than another shop move ? Yes, after less than three years I am moving the shop down the road, not very far- back to the same building I was in before. Crazy ? -Yes.....but this actually might turn out to be a good thing. As luck would have it, a place in my old building that has about 40% more room and about 40% less rent is opening up. The person with whom I'm sharing my current shop with has decided to move out so I must leave as well. The current land lords have given us the green light to leave even before the lease is up. Less rent, more room ........why would I complain ?-  Let me count the ways.....

Upon moving into the current shop I had pared down my junk and extra bits to a nice level and created a pretty good working space. Never mind that it had no natural light, poor ventilation and was very much a depressing concrete crypt that cost much more than any shop I had ever rented- I managed to make it work. Now that it has been a couple of years in this space I am somewhat used to it but winters in this cold unheated bunker are not something that warms the heart, the feet or anything. I am now 65 and thought of this time in my life to be the point where I take on less work and try to slow down a bit. This is definitely not the case in 2021. I had my busiest year even in 2020 and 2021 looks to outpace it already. I should be grateful for all the work that is coming my way-and I am, believe me-but during this surge of activity it must all grind to a halt while I transport my garbage heap a couple of blocks away. I have not even seen the new shop yet- there's real promise that it might be the best space ever and that the new lower rent will help me in my quest to get to a less busy week but really, with the added pressure of losing weeks of productive time during the move and also the prospect of having more room and a better work flow means that the temptation to buckle down and bust ass in these times of plenty is a compulsion I might have trouble shutting down. There are over 60 frames on my list right now- slowing down and smelling the flowers will not get these frames built.

So there it is- the September years workathon-shop disembowelment tour 2021. I'll try not to fall off a ladder this time and I'll do what I can to make a real nice place to work out of the next space. I never did have a grand opening of the last shop- I doubt that I'll have a grand closing of it, either. There won't be a grand opening of this shop- Covid makes that pretty much a non-starter. So......just like most of the big events in my so-called career, this one will take place with little or no fanfare, no press releases, no parties, just a few more dump runs and donations to the various bike charities around town. Wish me luck- this move will probably be the last big one-but that's what I said about the last one. It is just that this time I really feel that I do not have a decade of full time work left in me......all things come to an end at one point or another and even though I am still going full-tilt in 2021 I know that I am already feeling my limits physically and mentally. I have now too much stuff to keep track of and a capacity to do so that is shrinking steadily. I promise to do my best ...........again.
 

Out of the attic and onto the road

Right about the time I was building my first frame I bought a used Bianchi frame , supposedly from the late '50's. The idea to search for one was spurred on by Ross, the guy who taught me how to light a torch and then gave me some guidance when I was building my first two frames. Ross told me how he had one of these old Bianchis and that it was the greatest bike ever.

If I remember the story right, Ross was on a ride on the Bianchi and crashed really hard. He was next to a small river so he went to the water to clean himself up and was out his wounds. When he got back up to the road his Bianchi was gone. He told me that he really missed the bike and the experience of losing it that way was really traumatic.

After Ross told me how magical his old bike was, I made it my mission to find one. Luckily, someone working in the shop where I worked knew of one somewhere near Fresno that was sitting in a garage of an old retired frame builder. I was told that I could buy it for $ 75 but that it didn't have a fork. I had my friend pick it up for me and then began the search for a fork. Fortunately, I worked in a bike shop-a really busy one and I asked everyone if they knew of a fork that was proper for this bike. After about a year I was able to buy one for $ 40. It wasn't totally straight and it did have a dent in one of the blades but I knew that finding another one would be nearly impossible.

Next, I had to find the illusive Bianchi Headset that was exclusive to that brand and was no longer in production. I would up finding a low-end Bianchi that had been crashed but still had its special headset. This crashed frame was free as it was pretty worthless , except of course for the headset. Now all I had to do was to strip the parts from my other bike and build up this Bianchi and ride it. Ride it , I did......many miles. I put a Campagnolo triple on it and made it into a touring bike and rode from Denver , Co. to Calispell, Mt. , crossing the continental divide about 11 times. It remains the longest bike tour I have ever done and the bike never failed me- no flat tires or mechanicals I even had my tent fall off the front rack at high speed- I ran over it but didn't crash .......the bike was very stable .

About 1985 I lent the bike to my girlfriend for a few years as she really liked the way it rode, even with the crooked fork. She gave it back to me when I gave her another bike that I had built. When I got the Bianchi back I raided some parts from it and it would up hanging from a hook up until last September. I decided that this Covid time would be good for fixing up all the old project bikes in the shop. This bike is the one I have had the longest and might be the pick of the litter. I finally did fix the dent in the fork and aligned it- the bike is about a straight as it will ever be and riding it with no hands is no longer a death defying feat. Instead of putting on the hodgepodge of parts that came off it from the first time I built it , I went up into the loft of my shop and took out all the parts that were relatively correct for a bike of this time period. I didn't want to just get it rolling again- I wanted to honor it by making it what it originally was, a late '50's racing bike for 20-year old amphetamine-jacked professional European bicycle racers. While I was not able to preserve the chrome on the frame and fork, I was able to get the correct decals and took photos of the bike before the paint was stripped so that I could place the right decals in the right places.

Here are some of the shots of the bike before the restoration. Just so you all know, I had resisted repainting this bike for decades-I really loved the old patina and original decals. The years have not been that kind to this frame and if I had not done the repaint I think I would have been signing an early death warrant for this old treasure. Purists will probably be insulted by the lack of chrome and the powdercoat finish but hey- the color is correct and it will protect the bike from the elements better than anything else I could have had done. I'm not trying to win first prize at the Eroica bike show-I'm only trying to show some consideration for a half-century old bike that was possibly the best of its day-and as I like to say, "An old bike that was good in its day is still a good bike".

 

The long wait

Back when I had only been in business for a few years a fellow came by on an old bike wearing a white tee shirt and no real cycling clothes. He asked if I could do some non-bicycle related soldering jobs for him. I said yes, and a few days later he showed up with some small pieces of metal to be soldered together. The work was very delicate but I was able to do it to his satisfaction. This began a friendship that lasted a few decades.
Not much later , I moved my shop from my garage to a place across town that was pretty close to my friend's workshop/home. He invited me over to see his fleet of bicycles. When I got to his house I saw a pretty impressive array of bikes from the '30's up to the late '60's. There were bikes hanging from the roof, bikes leaning everywhere and hardly room to walk through the house. This was maybe 1993-things only got more crowded with bike stuff as the years wore on. For some reason , my host told me that he might have a nice older frame that I could restore in my size. He usually looked for stuff that would fit his 6' frame but I guess in a weak moment he bought the carcass of a 1960   55 cm Girardengo bicycle. For those that don't know cycling history, Constante Girardengo was Italy's first big cycling champion-his time was around 1910-1920. After he retired from racing he licensed out his name to a bicycle company and later to a motorcycle company. The bike my friend had was probably from about 1960 and was in pretty sorry shape as the photo shows. I asked how much he wanted for the frame and he said $ 40.00. I said "great, when can I pick it up ?". This is when the long wait began. My friend said that the frame was buried deep in storage and it might take awhile for him to dig it out.
The years went by and in late 1996 I moved my shop back to the west side ,closer to my house. My friend would stop by periodically, some times on an old bike, some times on a mountain bike that I had put together for him out of parts from a warehouse sale. Every time I saw him I reminded him that I was still interested in the Girardengo. Every time he would tell me that it would take time for him to find it. After a number of years I stopped asking-the decades went by.

 A few years ago , my friend got diagnosed with cancer and began a long period of treatment. He went in and out of being able to work and his visits became less frequent. In the fall of last year I got a call from another friend to let me know that my bicycle hoarder friend was in hospice and might not live much longer-if I wanted to see him I had better do it soon. I gave him a call.

 When I showed up to the hospice ( which was very near his home ) I was treated to a great visit and many great stories. We shared memories of a mutual friend , another bicycle history buff who had just passed. It was a great visit. It was at this time my friend said that he had given his bicycle collection away-a friend of his had a big piece of property out of state and was willing to bring a huge truck and take everything away. Even though I was sad to hear that his entire collection was gone, I knew that he had needed someone to deal with it as it would be a monumental amount of work to find all the bikes and get them out of the house.

 A few weeks later I had another visit with my friend, this time I got there just as he was starting dinner. I told him about a restoration I was doing and that I needed a few older parts. My friend told me that he had everything I needed but that it had probably already been hauled away- I told him not to worry-I was in no hurry to complete this restoration- the bike was something I had inherited from yet another old bike enthusiast who had died a couple of years back. I sat and traded stories with my friend for a couple of hours. This would be our last talk.

 About five weeks later I called my friend- there was a strange unfamiliar voice on the voicemail message that said to call another number. I called the number and talked to the person who my friend had instructed to deal with the dispersal of the rest of his worldly goods-He had passed just a couple of weeks after out last visit. The man on the phone told me he had a bike that I should have, my friend's main bike- the one that he used to ride over to my shop. It was too big for me but the man insisted that I have it.
When the bike was delivered to my shop, the man- a very close friend of my departed bike hoarder-looked at my shop, heard about the history of my business and told me that he needed help dealing with all the old stuff at my friend's house. It turned out that there was still a lot of older bike frames and parts there. I agreed to help him and he said that I was welcome to take whatever I wanted out of the massive pile of bike parts.

The first day of many that I would spend cleaning out my friend's old house we went into two storage sheds that were filled to the roof with all sorts of old bikes, parts and other items. After a couple of hours of digging, I saw a black frame in bad shape that looked about my size. I had already told the man in charge of the estate about the  $ 40.00 Girardengo that I had never gotten. As soon as I got the frame in the light I realized that I had in my hands the very frame that my friend had intended to sell me 27 years ago. I asked the man if I could have the frame-he said by all means , so I put it in the back of my truck, along with an assortment of older parts and frames.
I would continue helping with the estate for a few more weeks but always was thinking of what I would do with the Griardengo-I wanted to honor the memory of my friend and the passion he showed for older bikes. His knowledge of bicycles from 1920-1960 was very deep - I wanted to make the Girardengo ride again with all the correct parts.
In the photos you will see the newly restored Girardengo- not having been ridden for probably a half a century. Now it is rolling with everything as it should be with the exception of some modern rims and a fairly modern seat post. I had to align the frame and fork and was fortunate to find some decals on the internet. As of now, I think I have about 40 miles on it. I imagine that if I had not gotten the frame it would be in the landfill by now.
So it turned out to be very true what my departed friend said- " It might take some time for the frame to get dug out of storage ." While I would much rather have my friend still alive , at least I have this bike and our mutual history to remember him by. Every time I go out on a ride on this bike I thank my friend- In life he provided me with some great bicycle history lessons. In death, he unwittingly made good an a promise of a $ 40 frame that he knew would be a good project for me to take on.

Gone

This last couple of years has been very difficult for the generation of frame builders who started in the '70's. Brian Bayliss, Dario Pegoretti and Roland Della Santa have all passed away. Brian and Dario didn't make it into their '70's- Roland was 72. Now as of last week my former partner in Schnozola bikes Bruce Gordon has died- this one really hits me hard as I had gotten to know bruce over the last 13 years pretty well. He had a reputation as a fairly abrasive character but that was just how he was on the surface. I got the feeling that he cared about what he and other builders did intensely- he would bristle at the news that another brand name based on an old artisanal name was being re-packaged to sell goods mass-manufactured in the far east.
Bruce's almost militant defense of the small builder and 'people that actually made their own shit' got him many followers but also got him into scraps with some major industry figureheads. Bruce didn't care- he was going to be the standard bearer for handmade goods , even if he alienated people who could have helped his career or lost him customers. Bruce had seen many good builders who late in life after decades of hard work wound up with nothing-no retirement, no way to sell their brand or goodwill that they had worked their lives to create. Frame building was to him an under-valued job that required dedication and laser focus. It made him angry to know that he and his fellow builders would do the job they cared about the most and wind up old, broke and bitter.

No matter how negative on the outside Bruce may have seemed, he still had a sense of humor about life and the craft he spent his life doing. When things slowed down for Bruce in the last 5-6 years I approached him about a project I was wanting to do. It would be an attempt to build a kosher bike. There's no practical reason for it-it was a schtick-kind of a joke involving two older frame builders crating a brand-"Schnozola". To my surprise , Bruce went along with the plan-I would do most of the building and Bruce would do braze-ons, final alignment, powder coating and frame prep. We made a total of seven of these bikes. My goal with this project was not just to make a funny joke in a world of serious frame crafting but also to get Bruce back in the public eye-he seemed to be getting increasingly isolated in his shop with less and less business coming in.
I'm not sure if the project helped Bruce gain more clientele but he seemed to be having a good time building the bikes and showing them at NAHBS. Bruce didn't have to be Bruce at the show-he could be one of the two-man team of Schnozola. People were not sure what to make of the bikes and the premise they were built on but the result was Bruce going out into the public and being present.

As of last week I had talked to Bruce on the phone and he was making plans to fly to Chicago to see his 97 year old mother. He talked to his mother on the phone daily, some times more than one call per day. Bruce also told me of his plans to travel to Amsterdam next year-he had been to France the last two years and wanted to try something different. Now it looks as though he will not be making those trips and we will not get to hear the stories he would no doubt tell afterwards. Now it is up to his work and his community to tell his story. I doubt that he will be forgotten by anyone who knew him and his work will live on.