I believe Caylor had a side business dealing in combustable hemp related products and the State of California gave him a place to stay which did not allow him to be free to build frames. Caylor was a well regarded Central Valley builder in the '70's. William Sampson was out of San Jose. Started building while attending San Jose State and was in '73 a founder of the cycling club there; I was recruited as a member. He was a great guy but, a horrible mechanic and a worse framebuilder. His career took a nose dive when a cold brazed Sampson frame came apart in a sprint at our local Velodrome. The rider crashed. I inspected the pieces..a great learning experience for me. Small community in the early '70's. Any frames sold after that were out of the area or to newbies because of a cycle mag article(early Bicycling?) profiling builders that submitted resumes. The "Custom Bicycle" must have used that article as a source. Back in those days you went to Europe like Jeff Lyon and others, found the rare old timer to learn from, or were self taught. Hats off to the "keepers of the flame". My 35 years being paid to wrench on bicycles has given me a deep appreciation for fine craftmanship. I sent a deposit to Al Eisentraut for his framebuilding class. Had a conflict and didn't attend. No regrets. T. Shaw
> From: "Michael Wilkinson" <M4Campy@aol.com>
> Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 22:08:25 -0700
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Subject: [CR]KOF Where are they now?
>
> I was reading through The Custom Bicycle last night and in the Appendix
> there were references to a couple
> of American builders I have not heard of. One was Caylor Frames and the
> other was Wm. Sampson... Who
> What When Where?
>
> Also, I thought that the chapter on American vs European frame builders was
> interesting. There is a section regarding art and technology.
>
> "The Americans are technically motivated. The Europeans view frame building
> as an art" Any comments???
>
> Of course, this was written in 1979 and was reflecting on the bike boom
> years that preceeded it.
>
> Mike Wilkinson
> Castle Rock, CO
>
> ps. Ok, after seeing the chainring tattoo and after watching the DVD on
> Coppi that Peter Bridge lent me last
> night I retract my comment that implied black socks and a chainring tattoo
> made you not cool... Coppi wore
> black socks and what do I know, I'm a fred:)