Tom,
Just for the "record", I suspect my total production of frames might be a little closer to maybe 500 frames, if you include my involvement in Wi zard Cycles. Unfortunately I'm supremely poor at keeping records. I have most of the full scale drawings for frames built since 1982 or so, but the little notebook I kept my early numbers in has disappeared; not necc essarily forever, but I haven't seen it for a number of years.
You may be pretty close to correct as to the number of frames I've built for myself over the past 30 odd years. Certainly over 40 and counting. Each bike teaches me something valuable that I can experience personally and delve into to understand deeper as to what I'm doing and also what I like personally in a bicycle.
Variety within those production numbers may be an interesting perspectiv e to look at. How many road, track touring, time trial, tandem, replicas , trikes, etc. were made? In my case, even still there are no two Baylis frames alike. An example of this surfaced last week and I also get to s ee a time trial frame I built for myself while I was building Wizards. I hope to reaquire this bike, probably built in 1975 and made to be light for time trials on the road.
I believe there is actual and genuine provanance in bikes I've built for myself. Each one is unique and most were built with some sort of new co ncept in either the lugs and aesthetics or the design/materials of the f rame. I suspect down the road a ways these bikes will become highly coll ectable, relatively speaking.
Framebuilding is really fun and makes a good hobby if you are a careful worker and have a good dose of common sense. Johnathan will probably tel l you that, hey Jon?
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA Off to the salt mines, where unexplainably we make functional and beauti ful bicycles. Go figure.
Well, if the consideration of how much time we actually spend on bike discussion with the amounts of bikes made in these discussions, we get t o some interesting places. Richard Moon made 10-12 for the public
Art Stump made 18 George Omelenchuck made 12-20
Mario Confente made 135...11 of them track bikes Brian Baylis has made about 200 for the public...I think maybe 60 for himself About 200 California Masi twin plates...we think The illustrious Jonathan Green, a dear man if there ever was one, 3/4 of
one. These folks were not large producers (Jonathan may yet become one) but t hey generate a lot of interest. Perhaps because it is so darn difficult to own one...perhaps because of the amount of pining for one and the wishful thinking involved...perhaps also on the merits of the bike (Please don't
make me mention Mojo, whatever the hell that is). At any rate I enjoy t he discussions on them every bit as much as those bikes produced in greater
number (Paramount's most prolific year was '72 and they produced somethi
ng
like 2400 bikes that year...just thought I'd toss that in). Sheer numbe
rs
don't tell us much, but they must bespeak something in our hearts after
all.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi