John,
I think you covered it. Beyond what has already been said, I can't
add too much. Only that he was a very interesting person and a man of
many talents; although his abilities did not prevent him from
spending countless hours on the phone (in the days before the
internet) nor keeping his opinions to himself from time to time. He
was a good friend, and I miss Dave.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
David Patrick wrote:
> I would advise you to check the CR list archives, for which a link
> exists on the CR web page. You should find quite a few previous
> discussions on Dave Tesch which would contain very good info.
> Another possible source of info might be Mike Appel, who was an
early
> framebuilder at Trek and still lives near Waterloo, Wisconsin (Mike
> might even work for Trek again, as it seems as I heard a rumor to
> this effect). I'm not quite sure how to contact Mike, but the
> Cronometro shop in Madison would know for sure. Good luck and take
> care.
Mike Appel is indeed working for Trek again (as a painter), but he had left Trek a couple years before Tesch started at Trek. That said, he (Tesch) did spend a lot of time at Appel's shop in Madison during the time he (Tesch) was working at Trek.
As far as identifying Tesch's Trek frames, he did use a "T" stamp on
the BB shell for a while at least. Keep in mind that he only worked at
Trek for a couple years, 1981-83 IIRC and was a regular production brazer
for that period.
Another source you might consider is Joe Starck, who started at Trek shortly after Dave, and left to join him at Masi in the mid 80s.
--
-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA