Dave Patrick wrote:
> Rodriquez frames were/are out of the R&E shop in Seattle.
> R&E Cycles was started by Jesus Rodriquez and Glenn Erickson
> back 20+ years ago. Most of the single frames out of the shop
> were labeled "Erickson" and most tandems were labeled "Rodriquez",
OK so far (except for the Jesus bit!)
> but Glenn Erickson did all of the framebuilding,
> regardless of whose name was on the downtube.
Well I built maybe a couple hundred of them myself, and there were usually one or two other builders during most of the period I was there, '79 to 84. Maybe 5 total at the peak? I used to stamp my initials in the frames I made, until Angel found out and made me stop. I was the main tandem builder in those years (having been trained at Santana). Glenn was definitely the master, but he didn't really supervise us - we mitered, jigged, brazed, aligned, and machined (etc) our own frames, and so felt we were journeymen, not apprentices.
Quality was surprisingly good though, for a shop with such little heritage - I'm not ashamed when I see a frame from those days. We used to do things like filleting over the lugs, Singer-style, for example. Hand-cut lugs, interesting stay ends and seat stay tops, cable-operated lighting generators, a few extra custom features like lugged handlebar stems and pannier racks out of tubular Cr-Mo.
The one in the auction was made in London though, by Tonard. Angel brought in maybe a hundred of them unpainted, and put his decals on 'em, in '77-'79 I think. The US made ones were nicer, but more variable - the Tonard ones were extremely consistent and competent, if a bit uninspired.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA