I enjoyed a nice evening talking bikes with Chris Bishop a few months back, when after planning to drop off a fifties Carlton for alignment, we both found ourselves with free time and he did the work while I watched. Definitely a bike guy, I first met him when I'd gotten my first fixed gear back in 2001, an off topic Surly Steamroller, and he owned of all things a track bike shop and messenger service, "Marathon Express" located in the Little Italy section of downtown Baltimore.
Chris had more frame alignment tools than I'd ever seen and I was impressed with his methodical honing in of the frame and fork's alignments. Apparently in his ownership of the shop and servicing of his messenger buddies bikes, most of whom couldn't afford much, he'd gotten a lot of experience straightening and aligning bike frames.
Chris had a couple unfinished projects still prior to paint on stands in the shop and his own bikes. He does a very nice finishing job prior to paint, nothing needing to be hidden. Then again, having Keith Anderson for a painter doesn't hurt either, very pretty stuff. It's nice to have another good frame builder in the Baltimore Maryland area.
Happy trails,
Dan Artley in Parkton, Maryland USA
Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/
Angel Garcia wrote:
> I missed Trexlertown but one of my friends that was there said he was
> impressed with the KOF builder that brought along some of his bike, BISHOP.
> I looked at his website...looks like many nice builds:
> =A0http://bishopbikes.com/gallery/see-the-frames
Those that attended the Cirque this past June got to see some of Chris Bishop's work too. At T-Town, Chris also had one of his "works in progress" where he was working on a filet-brazed bi-laminate lugged look on the head tube of a frame for a client. Chris is someone to watch!
Wayne Bingham
Lovettsville, Virginia USA