Re: [CR] Tesch 101 history

>From Dave Moulton's blog:

"The guy was like a sponge, just wanting to soak up every scrap of framebuilding knowledge he could. For my part I just wanted to get as much work done as I could, and get the hell out of there and into my own frameshop. It was like having a child who keeps asking, why, why, why? While you are trying to get work done."

To be fairer to Dave Tesch, to his skillset during the time Moulton speaks of, much of Tesch's querying was not simply an impositional means to gain new methods or to improve upon his own methods. Whether Moulton knew it or not, when Tesch asked "why, why, why?," he was more often than not slyly sizing up his subject. When he arrived in San Marcos, California, he arrived with technical knowledge and experience acquired whilst in the U.S. Navy. He was also exposed to all things Trek whilst he was a brazer at Trek, and, he was mentored by Tim Isaac at Trek. And, he'd already begun making his very own Tesch frames, before he began making Masis. His frames sported quite nice graphics before he left Wisconsin, for California. In fact, from his get-go in San Marcos, Tesch was a paid promoter of Milwaukeean Gary Prange's decal work. 

Was Tesch "scatterbrained" and "meticulous?" Yes and no, of both descriptors. Explanation of which though, will have to be for another day.

Back in 2002, I had a roll of my favorite posters that I was thinking about un-rolling for my shop walls. I don't know the where-abouts of these posters, so, I consider them stolen. One of the posters was given to me by Moulton. My point is, I don't mean to discredit Moulton here, certainly not to diminish Moulton's influence, but only to amplify Tesch's skillset that he had prior to ever exhausting Moulton's patience. Prior to exhausting anybody's patience at Cribbage Lane!

One of the first things Moulton said to me, my two-time employer, on my first day at work for him, back in the mid 1980s, was "Well, I hope you like rock n' roll." I'm not the musicologist that Moulton is, so "The Stranglers" was new to me. Probably not new to Tesch though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFIBtz4I4Kw

Joe Starck
Madison, Wisconsin USA