Roy and other Listmembers,
Here is the latest news related to "Vintage Bicycle Specialties" that you inquired about. I tried to answer this question a few days ago but somehow dumped it instead of sending it. Very frustrating.
Vintage Bicycle Specialties, or VBS, is forming as an LLC. Craig Fenstermaker and myself are teaming up to form the core of this new company. As the name implies, we will be focusing primarily on vintage lightweights; but we will accept top quality paint requests for "modern" bikes as well. I will still personally handle the OEM paint requests from other framebuilders, like Richard Moon.
We will be collecting a certain number of vintage decal graphics and develope decal reproduction capabilities. Reasonable cost will be the primary goal. We will also specialize in custom polishing of frames and vintage steel parts. We will be doing this in house in order to completely control the critical polishing process on delicate parts.
The primary reason I have decided to enter into this arrangement is to solve the only problem I have in the paint/framebuilding business. That of a long delivery time. In both cases I am always very overwhealmed with demand for my services. As a single person it is impossible to do all of it myself. I need to focus on framebuilding. I will teach Craig everything I know; every trick and secret will be passed directly to Craig to insure that there will ultimately be no difference betwqeen what I do now and what comes out of VBS. We are specialists.
Some have asked, "What does Craig bring to the table?" The answer is several VERY important things. The first and to me the most important is his natural ability to organize and to create effeciency. That is the one talent I lack. Craig is very talented in many areas and there is no doubt in my mind that I can teach him to paint bikes at the top level. I can teach him what I have learned over 30 years time very quickly. My focus has always been thin and durable paint jobs; there is no use for a nice paint job that doesn't stick to the frame. Craig will begin life as a painter knowing allof the neccessary steps. He is very motivated, intellegent, and focused. I believe we will have a magical combination here.
I will also teach Craig the fine art of frame repairing. It is also the best way to teach someone about framebuilding; which Craig wants to do on his own in time. An extra pair of hands often helps when repairing frames. We will have one or two others to support our efforts to run a profitable and effecient company. Everyone wins with this one.
We are looking for a location near here at this time. We will have a website at http://www.VintageBS.com as soon as we can. I'll let everyone know as soon as that has been accomplished.
Craig and I are very anxious to get started on this venture. I'm sure we will have plenty of work to do; and I'm really looking forward to being able to serve my customers in a timely and effecient manner while producing world class work. I hope everyone is simularly anxious!
Brian Baylis