[CR]When did Keith Lippy retire!?!

Damn, damn, damn. . . I was surfing euro bike pages and found a link to Keith Lippy's site, but next to the link it said he'd stopped building and the link dead. Here's the page I saw it on and the link is almost at the bottom. http://tandem-fahren.de/Mitglieder/Christoph_Timm/builders.html I swear he was still building just a couple of years ago. He was one of the great classic style builders, and even though he specialized in tandems he built really nice singles too. He was one of those builders that was under the radar of most cyclists. Knowing of him and knowing his work was like having the secret handshake for the club.

Just a few months back I remember Brian Baylis waxing poetic (as he usually does) about a 30 year old Lippy touring frame he'd picked up cheap. I really hate it when great builders stop building, particularly when there is no one to give a eulogy. Rarely does a builder pass their craft on to their children to continue the tradition. Few small builders make it to their 10th anniversary, let alone their 30th or beyond. One of the big reasons I appreciate people like Richard Sachs, Bruce Gordon, and Jeff Lyon is because they've stuck with building. These guys could make more money doing less work doing something else, but they keep building and that's something special. Anyway, I ask everyone on the list to hoist a beer, wine, tea, coffee, water, whatever and think about their favorite builder that is no longer building.

Keith Lippy I salute you with a Delirium Tremens for the work you've done in the past and the work you may do in the future. enjoy, Brandon"monkeyman"Ives Keeping the flame alive in Santa Barbara, Calif.