I was at a party yesterday that was given as a going-away-to-college sendoff for our babysitter. It was a small, low-key, back yard barbecue just like any of a hundred thousand that were probably taking place around this country at the same moment. I was chatting with one of the guests when I noticed that he had that distinctive socks-and-gloves tan and shaved legs that "suggest" that he might be a cyclist. So I asked, "Ummm, are you a cyclist?" He laughed and pulled up the leg of his shorts to reveal a pronounced cycling shorts tan, and incidentally, some impressive quads. I said, "Oh, you must race." He said that he did race, and I asked if he did the local rides out of the Lehigh Velodrome, which he did, and I started to piece together that this guy had been around for a long time. We had been introduced by first names, both of us being Tom, so I asked him to tell me his last name. It was Kellogg. I, only half joking, said something like, "Oh, I know you, you're a famous frame builder!" He had a little chuckle, but demurred, and said that he was just a frame builder, not famous. I spent the next half hour asking him a million questions, and getting all sorts of interesting answers. I'm sure plenty of you have met Tom, and it's actually a bit odd that in the thirteen years I've lived in the Lehigh Valley I've never visited his shop, but I do think it's funny that we eventually met because he goes to the same church as our babysitter's parents.
Just so this post has a tiny bit of substance, I will say that I was stunned to learn that Spectrum Cycles now makes nearly all the lugs that they use on their frames. Apparently the variety of available diameters and angles is just not adequate, and it's more practical at this point to weld them up from tubing, just like in the olden days.
Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA, USA
---------------------------------
Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links.