Add-on to my story of sprinters and the "psych-out factor":
First, I have to give credit to my employer at the time, Bill Davidson of Davidson Bicycles, for being the reason these top sprinters came to us in the first place, and for giving me such an excellent frameshop, materials and tools, and free rein to design and build the frames however I wanted. The bikes I mention here never said Davidson on them because of sponsorship conflicts - they always had the names of various other companies who paid to have their decals there. Davidson never was big enough to pay riders to ride his frames, though he supported and sponsored racers in other ways, probably still does.
Now another story. Paul Swift finished second to Ken Carpenter at least a couple of times at Natz and must have got it in his head that the reason Ken was unbeatable was this bike I had built him. Finally Paul came to us for a sprint frame. He had us paint it a fade -- from silver to gold, get it?
At the next national championships, Paul Swift finally won the gold. Making that six national sprint championships in a row on a frame I built, for anyone keeping score. Those were exciting times for me.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle WA USA