Subject: [CR] Little known builders

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2004)

Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 16:05:48 -0800
From: "Chuck Schmidt" <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Subject: [CR] Little known builders


Hey, I've know of one... (he said, waving his arm around at the back of the classroom)

Roger Durham (of red anodized, sealed-bearing, aluminum pulley fame; aka Bullseye). Kind of a rocket-scientist type frame builder and rider. Asthetics were not his strong point.

Back in the mid-70s I met him at the Rose Bowl training race (fast, _serious_, twice weekly, 32 mile crit that dates back to the mid-30s). He would show up in his khaki long trowsers with brogans riding a large diameter tube, tig welded, aluminum frame of his own making, with plastic faring on the front (early Brown Zipper?), a _seat_ faring, and wood platform pedals (no toeclips) and proceed to hang in at the Bowl!!!

He taught a class at his home on building your own large diameter tube, tig welded, aluminum frame like his. I think the class was free. He lived in Silverlake (suburb of L.A. near Griffths Park) that was always a pretty Bohemian area with a lot of artists.

Roger was a bachelor then and worked on his bikes in his living room. I remember the rug was pretty much soaked with oil in the middle! This was before he turned Bullseye into a real business with the pulleys, cranks and hubs; I think his wife was pretty much responsible for whipping him into shape businesswise.

And yes, he was building these Klein-lookalikes before Gary Klein and the MIT thesis; at least as early as the early-1970s.

Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena (breezy 82°), California