Edward,
I worked at Turin on Clark in the summer of 1976 while I was in high school. For a kid who was into bikes it was like a dream come true. To be around so much cool hardware was just the greatest. In the summer of '78 Lee had closed that store, and set up in a smaller shop on Clark, just north of Fullerton, across the street and a little south of Cycle Smithy. I ran that shop with three friends all summer, doing repairs and liquidating all the old stock from the larger Clark Street store. Lee was running the Evanston store, and only came around once a week or so to take money out of the register. It was one of the best summers of my life. We had a bunch of old rental cross country ski boots that nobody knew what to do with. We left them in a box behind the store. The next day I saw the guys who ran the parking garage all wearing them. These were the old three-pin binding boots with the square toes. Since these had been rentals, they all had the european sizes painted on the heels
Evidently Lee and Safter did not part on the very best of terms. One day by chance they were both in the store. My friends and I were in awe of Safter because he was a real framebuilder, and of course, the association with Eisentraut. I remember Lee walking in and being surprised to see Safter there. Ike was friendly, but Lee said "Ike, I am having a very hard time just being civil with you." Ike soon left, and I never saw him again.
The guys I remember from the old store were Frank Huerta, Skip Port, Garth Riegle, and Tim Zizadny. I wonder what happened to them.
Kind of fun to unpack the suitcase of memories every once in a while
Best regards, Marcus Helman Manager, U.S. Portfolio Planning Phone: 586-986-1508 MC: 480-111-N65 Engineering North Warren, MI 48090
"Edward Brooks" <ebrooks@eriwine. To: <marcus.e.helman@gm.com> com> cc: Subject: RE: [CR]Was: Holy mackerel, 77 Masi Prestige Fiera, Now: holes in csbridge 11/03/2005 11:35 AM Please respond to ebrooks
Marcus, I knew a lot of the Turin guys in the early days. I still have a black 1973 Pogliaghi. I was working at Parkwest Schwinn at the time and had to have the owner of the store go to bat for me to convince Lee Katz to let me buy the frame. Personally, I always most appreciated elegant well filed lug work so Ron Boi's frames were not my favorites aesthetically but they were built to a very high standard (much better than 90% of the British and Italian frames) and rode very well.
Edward Robert Brooks Managing Director Edward Roberts International Auctioneers of the Fine and Rare 1262 West Winwood Drive Lake Forest, Illinois 60045 Phone- 847.295.8696 Facsimile- 847.295.8697 Email- ebrooks@eriwine.com Website- http://www.eriwine.com
-----Original Message----- From: marcus.e.helman@gm.com [mailto:marcus.e.helman@gm.com] Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 9:54 AM To: ebrooks@eriwine.com Subject: RE: [CR]Was: Holy mackerel, 77 Masi Prestige Fiera, Now: holes in csbridge
At Turin we always considered RBB to be the enemy. We saw them as our greatest rival, in terms of quality of bike store, and of sponsors of local riders.
It is interesting to learn a little more about Ron Boi's approach to frame building. I had a friend who bought a used RBB frame and filed down the lugs himself because he couldn't stand how thick they were. He always said the bike rode very well.
Marcus Helman Manager, U.S. Portfolio Planning Phone: 586-986-1508 MC: 480-111-N65 Engineering North Warren, MI 48090
"Edward Brooks"
<ebrooks@eriwine. To: <marcus.e.helman@gm.com>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
com> cc:
Subject: RE: [CR]Was: Holy mackerel, 77 Masi Prestige Fiera, Now: holes in csbridge 11/03/2005 09:37
AM
Please respond to
ebrooks
Ike was one of a number of small production Chicago area frame builders in the 1970's who generally produced very nice frames. Ike took a lot of time on the thinning and finishing of the lugs and his frames were very elegant as well as very well built. However, there were failure problems with the early frames at the chainstays where they were pierced by the bridge and he subsequently abdicated that practice. Other local builders of note included Bob Myers, Bob Hodge and most definitely Ron Boi who built for a long time and provided frames for several very successful racers. Ron was not a proponent of a lot of lug thinning as he believed this potentially jeopardized the integrity of the frames so his frames were perhaps not as elegant as some but they were aesthetically nicely executed nonetheless and were technically very well built and reliable. There were a number of American "unsung hero" frame builders who through lack of marketing and/or small numbers of frames produced are virtually unknown today. I'm sure the same is true for some high quality U.K. and Italian frame builders. I have come across several beautiful frames from makers who are not yet represented on the CR site. Hopefully some of the list members who are more knowledgeable than I can fill in the blanks for the rest of us. Edward Robert Brooks Managing Director Edward Roberts International Auctioneers of the Fine and Rare 1262 West Winwood Drive Lake Forest, Illinois 60045 Phone- 847.295.8696 Facsimile- 847.295.8697 Email- ebrooks@eriwine.com Website- http://www.eriwine.com -----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of marcus.e.helman@gm.com Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 8:01 AM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Was: Holy mackerel, 77 Masi Prestige Fiera, Now: holes in csbridge
John Jorgenson wrote about seeing a frame with a hole running through the chainstay bridge. Dwight (Ike) Safter, who built frames at Turin Bicycle Co-op in Chicago in the 1970's made them like that. Local legend was that he been taught by Albert Eisentraut. The frames did look cool with a contrasting color inside the tube. Later I heard that a fair number had cracked at the bridge. I wonder how many frames he made. Has anybody heard of Safter frames?
Marcus Helman Huntington Woods, MI
Chuck & All
Falerio's signature was on the frames when slotted chainstays first appeared on a Masi. With show bike frequency I think and different in execution.
Regarding the structural integrity, there was an American builder who's name escapes me, building in the 70's, that fabricated the chainstay bridge as a section of tube that pierced both stays and terminated at the outside. One could see through the bridge. Was for additional stiffness the owner told us, a few months later He was by the shop with the bare frame seeking a frame repair at the cracked stay radiating from the piercing tube. Probably too big a hole in that case, and easier to prototype than do a structural analysis. Perhaps the price of advancement, or attempt to.
Regarding the Masi twin plate crown, I like them for their additional fore & aft compliance, they are softer in ride, as long as the harmonic is not sympathetic,
John Jorgensen
Palos Verdes Ca