RE: [CR] Long Beach bike shop

(Example: History:Norris Lockley)

Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:17:09 -0700
From: "Kristopher Green" <kristopher.green@gmail.com>
To: Stronglight49@aol.com, Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: RE: [CR] Long Beach bike shop


Hi, Bob:

I enjoyed reading your anecdotes about tracking down the history of your bicycles. I've always thought it was a very worthwhile process, and I'm thankful for the folks who go to the trouble to create registers for particular brands, such as those for Raleigh Pros, Cinellis, Masis, Hetchins, and so on.

For the last three years I've periodically googled Forrest Yelverton and Forrest-Willing bicycles in hopes of tracking down information about my custom tandem, built by him in Durango, Colorado in about 1978. That I knew anything about it at all was due to a query I'd submitted to a small tandem list just after buying the bike, and from which I was amazed to make contact with someone who was once friends with Forrest and could remember the individual bike. Anyway, I finally hit paydirt last week and made contact last week with Yelverton at Pacific Bicycles, where he is now chief designer for Mongoose, Schwinn, and some other popular modern brand.

Sadly, My Yelverton appeared not to have a great deal of interest in reminiscing about his old bikes, although he did refute the recollection of his old friend that this bike was built for Forrest himself, and that he used it tour Europe with his wife. As Albert Eisentraut and Bruce Gordon apparently do, Forrest evidently feels that taking time to talk with owners of his old bikes (particularly those bought second-hand) detracts from time needed to sell a bike today. As a self-employed consultant, I can certainly sympathize with that viewpoint, even if I don't entirely agree with it.

Forrest did say that he'd look at photos of the tandem to see if it would jar his memory; I'll take some if ever again experience a Saturday or Sunday without torrential rain. And I'll continue to try to build a better understanding about the bikes that pass through my hands. To my mind, such knowledge increases the pleasure of ownership, and often leads to unlikely and very pleasurable contacts.

Kris Green
Olympia, Washington State, USA