Kevin and all,
OK, here is the real word direct from me. Part of why I haven't spent mu ch time on the lists lately (the past year or so) has to do with a numbe r of changes in both by workshop location (and several of my phone numbe rs) and my relationship to others in my area that I have been working wi th for a few years. So many things have happened and it is all very comp lex; so I'll spare everyone the details.
It should be somewhat common knowledge that for the past 5 years I have been trying to get away from the "restoration" part of the paint busines s. Originally the plan was to teach a few other people how to do at leas t some of the paint work to take the load off of me and still be able to offer these services. There is always going to be more paintwork than p ainters because framebuilders are growing on trees these days and there' s going to be one on every streetcorner before long. The people who do O EM paint for custom builders is one thing; restoration work is similar b ut another (big) step further in complexity and difficulty. I like a cer tain amount of restoration work and I REALLY like doing OEM painting for other builders. Most of all I like painting my own work. What has happe ned is that the restoration part of the paint business is generally a li ttle beyond the ability of the newer people I have trained. That means i f it is going to get done I'm still the one that is ending up doing the bulk of the work and I still have to keep an eye on what the other guys are doing. I actually loose ground in this process as it turns out. My p ace and the ability to focus on several jobs at once makes it so the slo wer guys can't contribute because it takes them too long to do their par t to work within my pace. I have found it just isn't going to work, afte r about 3 years of giving that approach a go. To add to that, the people who are learning to paint really want to learn framebuilding. I made th is available to a couple of people but it is not paying off for me in an y way. At this point I'm just doing my part to help some of the local as pirants get a leg up.
So, at present, I'm still working on a lot of my previous backlog of res toration paintwork which has been further hampered by changes becoming n ecessary with our chrome platers. JB and I are working on a new plan as we speak, which will hopefully fix the current problems until I can arra nge a permanent fix for myself no matter what happens next. I may have s ome experienced professional help in the paint department for a temporar y period that may crack that nut wide open.
Once everything is under control I will probably take a limited number o f restoration jobs if they fit into a category of bikes that I'm very ex perienced with. Examples would be Masi, Colnago, Cinelli, Bianchi, Hetch ins, Herse, Singer, and such. I won't be chasing decals around nor makin g anything or any of that stuff. It's going to be a one person deal so I 'm not going to make it difficult for myself. That way if there is somet hing that I really should be involved in there is still a way to make it happen.
I want to take a few more (small scale) custom builders on for OEM paint ing because I like painting more in the creative vein than the recreatio n vein. Certain builders with certain styles and myself get along well; so I will continue that on a limited basis.
This brings me to my primary focus, which is and shall remain my highest priority. I have other bike related projects I intend to develop as wel l. Most of my time will be framebuilding and working on refining and imp roving my work and designs.
I'll work in a little time to sleep. Eating is over rated and maybe I ca n just eliminate that altogether. I will probably spend a little time ge tting dressed, but combing my hair is just a complete waste of time. I t hink you get my drift. There won't be much time for much else. So when d o I get to ride? That's obvious...in my dreams.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA
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