Re: [CR]Colin Laing KOF

Colin built my first custom, back in '80 or so. Transplanted Englishman from Yorkshire if I remember correctly. Survived building locally here in Tucson and Phoenix since the late 70's. He also built frames for, or bought the rights to, a Belgian racing bike, called a Ludo Van Isghem. I had one. 5 points for anyone who remembers those. I heard he recently retired. Irascible, knowledgable, and a good one for yarns. He would tell stories, from the 50's, of touring on fixed gears, or getting off work at 5:00 and training for club races until eleven. He rode for his regimental cycling team. His wife downed a half bottle of Guiness, mixed with lemonade or tea, each day while pregnant. Colin catered primarily to the racer dude types, but could knock out anything. I first saw him in '79 as he completed a 26" wheeled tourer. "That's for real tourists," he said, "indestructible." He would go into good-natured tirades about Americans and their concept of "framebuilding as 'art' ." "I'm a glorified plumber." Another project he did was for a locally renowned author, Chuck Bowden. He left the right hand side of the lugs plain, but hand filed in a curley-cue pattern the left side of the lugs. Stand on the right side: plain lugs. Stand on the left side: fancy lugs. Don't know whose idea it was, Chuck's or his. The head/seat tubes had transfers, but downtubes were handpainted with his name. He knew he was good, but he never lost contact with his blue collar background. I remember his jig being a large piece of pegboard with nails and clamps, hung on the wall. He'd set the main triangle up on that, then spot braze. Don't quote me on specifics. I'm conjuring images and conversations from two decades ago. Very sharp lug work on mine, done with brass. I rode many years, fully-loaded and on dirt, on essentially a road bike. It was a strong one and very handsome in that English sort of way.
Craig Montgomery
Tucson