I was around bikes before and after the bike boom in the early '70's and have some observations about the development of high quality frames. Before the boom there were few mainstream sources of good road racing bikes in the USA. There were exceptions, like Spence Wolf and Gene Portusi (spelling?), but most local bike shops did not have Campagnolo equipped bikes on the floor to buy. Paramonts were around, but were expensive and seemed somehow un-hip to me. My first good bikes were Raleighs. They were OK but I could see that some details were done just to save money. I have always been around people that could make things, so I was not intimidated by the thought of building better frames. My motivation to build frames was not being satisfied with what I could buy. This was right when the boom started, 1971 or so. All of a sudden dealers could sell any kind of "ten speed" and could never get enough. When I was building my first frames I got to fix a pile of Raleigh frames that were replaced under warranty. The NW rep had so many frames with the head lugs coming off that Raleigh could not supply replacements. These frames were from the entire line, even Pros. He said that the workers were paid on a piece basis, so they just brazed around the edge of the lugs! So I got to see many shortcomings on production frames. During this period the dollar was getting weak and the price for a good bike was going up very rapidly. This allowed the small custom builders (including me) to have a niche.
In my case the desire to build the highest quality frames came from idealism. Of course making money is required as I had to eat and pay the rent. I think competition forced quality higher also. In Portland Mark Dinucci was building Strawberries and Bruce Gordon was in Eugene. We were all friends but worked hard to outdo one another.
I tried to increase production with hired help, but it is hard to get people to have the same vision. There was never enough money to offer good pay. I did have Mark Dinucci work for me for a year or so. But a true craftsman will leave to do his own thing after awhile. I never made much money building frames. But I met many great people and learned a lot. This knowledge led to me getting a job as chief designer at Specialized. I tried to make bikes and parts that worked for real riders but offered good value.
Jim Merz
Bainbridge Is. WA