[CR]Communications breakdown

(Example: Racing:Roger de Vlaeminck)

From: <"brianbaylis@juno.com">
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:31:37 GMT
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Communications breakdown

Greetings from the Great Beyond,

In the past month or so I have been super extra busy, in combination wit h an ongoing battle with my computer at home. This has made communicatio n with people in general and the CR list in particular unusually difficu lt for me. I try to keep in touch with the topics of interest and the cu rrent discussions as much as possible. I would like to at least assure p eople (or anyone who gives a rat's ass) that I'm still out here and stil l very much interested and excited as always to be part of the vintage c ommunity as well as the modern framebuilding brotherhood. As I mentioned , I've been very busy, on literally several fronts; and there is much fo r me to be excited about in the future. In particular I'm looking forwar d to the upcomming North American Handmade Bicycle Show in March 2007 an d then the major party/bash of the year, the final Cirque Du Cyclisme in Greensboro.

Part of the reason I'm so anxious for these events is that much of my ti me in the recent past has been spent working hard to make a dent in my f rame orders. It's a wonderful position for me to be in; that being that everything I build has something fresh happening that may be things rela ted to building the frames, but is going far beyond that, as one venture s into making small parts and accessories for the complete bicycle. The variety of offerings has expanded a little bit not only in the direction of constructuer bicycles, but also the direction of the fixed gear road or track bike; a form of the bicycle for which I have tremendous fondne ss and lots of experience with. My personal collection of fixed gear bik es continues to grow and my interest in riding them grows also.

The down side to being this busy is that much of the "lesser" but necces sary tasks related to conducting this business tend to run behind and ev en simple things can become major pains in the behind as I plod along ge tting to everything sooner or later. Packing and shipping is by far the greatest thorn in my side. It has to be done by someone; and someone who fully realizes the importance of really good packing and the safe trans it of finished projects. That person then needs to perform the tasks to the best of their ability. That job is pretty much mine around here. I d islike the disruption to my regular routine of trying to get as much acc omplished every single day and keep the flow of work moving at all costs . The telephone is sort of my friend and my lifeline to the outside worl d much of the time, but at the same time it is one of my toughest obstic les to getting work done during the day. I always want people to feel th at if I'm working on something for them that I'm always available and ac cessable to my customers. It's a special kind of operation that allows d irect contact to the person who will be performing all of the tasks that will be done on your bike. But the price also comes out in the time it takes out of my work schedule. One problem with phone activity is that i t is unpredictable how much or when said conversations will take place. Anyway, that's just one of many things I struggle with as I work towards my future plans to focus almost 100% on framebuilding and framebuilding related products.

I look forward to the day when I have a better handle on my workload, an d when I have my new and effecient workshop on my property, which always allows me to spend more time working AND relaxing. Those who I have wor k in for that are being as patient as possible I appreciate tremendously , which is pretty much everyone. The time will come when I have everythi ng in order. My plans and ideas for interseting and unique bikes seems to have no limits at this time. Within the next few years I hope to prod uce some bikes that represent a certain amount of thinking outside the b ox. Outside the box there is a very wide open area for creative interpet ation of the bicycle. This excites me and I'm anxious to spread some of this entheusiasm around. It is quite clear now that there is a rebirth o f interest in craftsmanship in bicycles, and believe it or not a younger generation of appreciaters in the form of the fixed gear crowd. How COO L is that!!

Anyway, I just wanted to sort of explain why I haven't been able to keep up with communications lately, amongst other things. If you don't like to be totally tapped out and have a zillion things to take care of at al l times, you would not want to be me; but it's my life and the future de ffinitely is worth striving towards.

Hope everyone on the list is feeling as good as I am about vintage bikes and riding/collecting them.

Cheers to everyone,

Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA