[CR]I've been thinking most of the day about a framebuilder I knew.

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Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 16:06:51 -0800 (PST)
From: "Joe Starck" <josephbstarck@yahoo.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]I've been thinking most of the day about a framebuilder I knew.

I learned today, skimming through yesterday's CR posts, that David J. Tesch died eleven months ago at the age of 44. I then read his obituary, then the CR thread about his passing, then his articulate posts during his brief membership on the CR and Framebuilders lists.

My nineteen years living and working in San Diego County building Masi, Holland and Rivendell frames, from 1984 to 2002 came about due to an invite from Dave.

I worked at Trek in Wisconsin from '79 to '82, and my best recollection is that Dave worked there sometime between '80 and '81. I wasn't really into bikes; Dave really, really was. I remember the joy and pride in him, that he expressed from head to toe, in his stride and body language and beaming smile, the day he walked into Trek with his first wood-encased Campagnolo tool kit. In the next decade, he would go on to replace the function of those tools with new pride in building efficient, dedicated machinery to build frames his way.

I'd bet that nobody ever had more drive and enthusiasm to become a custom framebuilder than Dave Tesch.

During his months at Trek, he learned every thing he could from Tim Isaac. He orderd a track frame from Tim and followed along, and learned from Tim's progress and methods on that frame, and then learned from that ride. He had a frame fixture made just like Tim's, and when he asked for advice on steps to becoming a framebuilder, Tim said the first thing you'd want to do is get decals designed and made; Dave did that. It amazed me that Dave had the gumption to go about building his own frames under Trek's roof. He even made a frame or two for then Trek's Vice President of Marketing. Some co-workers were perturbed by what seemed like a conflict of interest, like he was getting away with something, but in hindsight, Trek management, especially President Bevel Hogg, probably got a kick out of Dave's brashness. Years later, at the Interbike trade show in Long Beach, Dave overheard, at a distance, Bevel mentioning to another that he liked Dave's "Built For Speed" logo, and at that moment when Bevel and Dave's eyes locked, Bevel restated for Dave's ears the compliment. I think Dave could have stayed on at Trek a while longer, getting his own thing going, and it could have been potentially nurturing and beneficial all around. But Dave busted out to California the first chance he had.

After Trek, Dave worked for CycleArt, then Masi.

We worked together at Masi for about a year, maybe less. One day he just up and decided it was time to operate Tesch Bicycles on his own turf and he leased a shop across town and he would go on to acclaim throughout the 80s.

Often I'd witness him soaking up relevant technical knowledge. He'd mesh it internally, then send it back out. It'd be too easy to say he was a great self-promoter. He got noticed and he got press because he made his perspectives interesting, and ultimately, his enthusiasm for his designs got racing-minded riders on his bikes. Everyone I heard form about his bikes always expressed a thrill about the combination of stability at speed and the ever-described "cat-like responsiveness."

In one of the bicycle magazines, the author characterized Dave as "the redoubtable Dave Tesch." I got a helluva kick out of that when I read it, and still grin at the thought of the phrase. (redoubtable: Arousing fear or awe; formidable) Dave was no rival to a company like Trek, but he sure was to the smaller companies in the racing scene, including Masi.

Also, I think it may have been in that same "redoubtable" article, a photo of Dave with his marijuana-leaf tattoo on his leg, right smack in your face. Again, I pause to grin here. He had a number of tattoos from his Navy days, and to me, the leaf was indicative of his boldness -- not afraid to express his views. He had more colorful, comedic insults for people he chose to ridicule than anyone I've ever known. I mention the tattoo and his entertaining brand of criticism, because they were a part of his identity at the time, well known to all. He probably didn't expect all the attention he received from that magazine photo though, and for better or worse, rightly or wrongly, no judgement here, apparently he decided that the leaf tattoo was not to be as prominent a part of his identity as when he had it inked into his skin so many years before. One day I visited him at his shop in San Marcos, and he showed me his leg. He had just had the approximately three inch square tattoo surgically removed -- as in skin removed -- all stitched up. When I saw that my body welled up with a rush of empathy, and I thought to myself, ah, he's one of us: human.

A few days after Dave died, in a post I read today, Jonathon Green wrote on the CR list, "This is sad, but also life. I have decided to take an extra hour or so before work, and take my Tesch track bike for a spin. Hopefully I'll have the strength to move at the speed where a Tesch begins to live."

I like that last sentence -- as a literal explanation of Dave Tesch's racing-bicycle frame philosphy -- and as a metaphor for relating to Dave Tesch in memorium. (Dave, Thanks, Joe Starck)

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