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army firmly established itself as the ruling authority, Cuevas fled across the border to France where he spent eight months in a refugee camp.

By late 1941 the political situation had normalized and Cuevas returned to Spain. He reopened his shop and again began building frames. Once again his shop prospered, but the situation in Spain continued to deteriorate.

In 1951, unable to tolerate the political regime, Cuevas left for Argentina. He spent 18 years in Argentina as a successful frame builder where his firm, Ciclos Cuevas, employed four assistants. He developed a close association with the bicycle federation and became the technical director of the Mendoza district bicycle federation. Unfortunately, the political situation in Argentina in the 1960s was highly explosive and again Cuevas felt that he had to leave. He emigrated to the United States in 1969.

Cuevas1 individual success in the United States has been marginal. Without the capital investment needed to establish another shop, he was forced to work as a bicycle technician and consultant in many of the larger bicycle stores in the New York City area.

Since 1976, Francisco Cuevas has firmly established himself with Paris Sport Cycle which provides him with a frame-building workshop. Although the frames he builds all bear the Paris Sport label, they can be distinguished from Paris Sports' "other" master builder, Pepi Limongi, by the signature on the rear chainstay of the frame.

Cuevas is a builder from the "old school" of frame building who believes that it is imperative to learn how to handle a file properly before even looking at a torch. According to Cuevas, learning how to handle a file requires years of careful filing and finishing frames.

Cuevas welds with either silver or brass. Since he is so familiar with the effects of heat on lightweight bicycle tubing, he feels that the normal objection to brass (increased possibility of overheating the tubes) doesn't exist in his case.

All the tubes are spot-tacked to insure correct alignment of all frame dimensions. Cuevas does not use frame jigs because he feels that the expansion that takes place when heating the tubes must take place unhindered, otherwise the frame will distort upon cooling, requiring much more bending when cold setting the

PROFILES OF AMERICAN BUILDERS

Figure 18-5: Nearly 50 years of experience guide the hands of craftsman Cuevas as he files the fork crown tangs.

frame. With his years of experience he finds that he can secondguess the reaction of the tubing, thus eliminating the need for extensive cold setting.

Mike Fraysse, owner of Paris Sport Cycle, advised us that Cuevas will build almost any frame size imaginable—from 18inch racing frames to 28-inch touring frames. The large-size frames he designs handle well, according to Mike, but in the European tradition, he would rather see a tall person ride a frame that is as small as possible because a smaller frame will naturally handle better.

example of what often happens when a small, high-quality frame builder tries to meet his demand by increasing the number of employees and semi-mass producing frames. Because of poor capitalization, quality control, and labor problems, Eisentraut has abandoned the project, reverting back to the production style that made him famous: He once again builds all of the frames himself. Before we look at Albert's current frame-building operation, let's look at the events that contributed to the man and his bicycles.

Since he grew up in a cycling family, Albert Eisentraut's experience more closely parallels that of the European frame builder than any of his American counterparts. Albert's father was a prominent bicycle racer who actively competed in the 1930s. His close friend was Oscar Wastyn, Sr., the well-respected frame builder and bike shop owner. From the age of three, Albert visited the shop regularly with his father, and in 1955, at the age of 15, began working for Oscar as a bicycle mechanic. Oscar liked Albert and would spend hours talking and philosophizing with him on the merits of cycling. At the same time, Albert's father, an adept welder by profession, taught his son how to braze. Both Oscar and his father became major influences in his life.

Albert's technical skills continued to improve while he attended the Illinois Institute of Technology's program for mechanical engineering. In addition to his formal education during the day, Albert worked part time in an ironworks where he became more familiar with machine tool operation. He built a few experimental frames at that time, although "they were recreational frames for my own amusement." Throughout this time his interest in bicycle racing continued to grow and when he joined the army in 1961, he was at his racing peak.

The army recognized Albert's racing experience (a secondplace finish in the Illinois state championships, a tenth-place finish at the national championships, and numerous individual race victories) and placed him as one of the members of its cycling team. The army stationed Albert in Oakland, California, and, after his stint with the army, he entered San Jose State College. Four

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The top American bicycle racers ride the prestigious European frames. Of the many American bicycles, only the Eisentrauts and the Schwinn Paramounts have gained wide racing appeal. How did Eisentraut earn his reputation?

Albert is a major influence in modern American cycling partially as a result of his successful synthesis of his many years of experience. Although he is only 38, he had been producing custom-made bicycles years before the bicycle boom. Maximizing the benefits of his racing experience, his technical skills, and his artistic talents, Albert was able to design and produce a frame that was aesthetically pleasing and technically sound. He could offer his customers more than just a well-brazed bicycle; he could interpret their physical requirements into an efficient frame design. In response to the great demand for his frames, Albert chose to meet that demand with a semi-mass produced frame called the "Limited."

By semi-mass producing the Limited, Albert was able to meet his demand with a less-expensive Eisentraut frame. But, because of the lack of capital investment needed to adequately mechanize many of the frame-building procedures and the shortage of qualified labor and its attendant quality control problems, Albert abandoned the project. He found that he sometimes produced a substandard Eisentraut frame, not the quality product with a reasonable price tag as he had envisioned at the commencement of the project. As Albert described his problems, it sounded reminiscent of complaints voiced by other famous builders in Europe. Albert found that "Unskilled people . . . don't particularly care and they don't think that it's [the assembly process) particularly important and the kind of work they turn out is definitely substandard. The more skilled people very quickly tire and want to make more money." But where does this money come from? Virtually every builder we spoke with is motivated by the desire to create a quality product—not by the desire to turn a large profit. As a result of Albert's unsatisfactory experience with the Limited, he has decided to return to being a one-man operation that exclusively specializes in custom frames.

Albert builds all of his frames on jigs. The tubes are mitered on a lathe and the frames may be brassor silver-brazed depending usually on the gauge of the tubing being used. For Albert, the gauge of the tubing is very important and he selects his tubes according to the design requirement of each frame and not

PROFILES OF AMERICAN BUILDERS

according to what an individual tubing company offers. Consequently, a single Eisentraut frame may be built with more than one kind of tubing, whether it is Columbus, Reynolds, Ishiwata, Tanguy, or Super Vitus.

The frame jigs which Albert uses are interesting because he has designed them to allow for expansion of the tubing during the brazing process. This reduces the tendency of the frame to have inbuilt stresses. Once the frame has been built and cleaned, it is finished with Du Pont Imron paint, a standard practice among many of the quality American builders.

Through the years Albert has kept all of the sizes of his customers and the dimensions of their respective frames. He uses this information to assist in sizing each new customer. He also uses an interesting variation on determining the length of the seat tube. To calculate the length of the seat tube, he requires a rider to be measured while laying on the floor with the balls of his or her feet against the wall. This will usually result in the foot extending toward the wall at approximately a 45-degree angle. With Albert's method, the inseam measurement to the wall will include the effect of foot size.

Recently, Albert has developed investment cast lugs which are relatively lightweight and are more accurate than the normal pressed lug. He has no intentions of producing them commercially, however.

The bicycle purist should be happy to know that the United States' strongest candidate for the title of master builder has returned to personally producing all Albert Eisentraut frames and that once again we can buy a frame with the quality that made the

bothered with the day-to-day problems inherent in a business, Bruce tends to be a careful technician who is as skilled at talking about frames as he is competent in building them.

Although Bruce is just barely 30 years old, he has a varied

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cycling background. He was employed as a bicycle mechanic for two years and then became a manager. After three years of store management, he found that he longed for work that required making expressive use of his hands. In 1974 he started working as an apprentice for the frame builder Albert Eisentraut. Soon he became a part owner in the newly reorganized corporation. But like many partnerships, the owners sometimes had trouble agreeing on the direction and philosophy of the company. In 1976 Bruce sold his share of the business to Eisentraut and moved to Oregon to start his own frame-building operation.

Bruce Gordon is a perfectionist and he believes that it is virtually impossible to produce near-perfect frames without the finest machinery available. His annual production of 100 to 125 frames per year is the result of his large capital investment in machine tools and his organized business sense. Every sequence in the frame-building operation is done with the most sophisticated equipment appropriate to the particular job to be performed. Tubes are mitered precisely with a milling machine. Several custom-made jigs are employed for each step of the frame-brazing process.

Bruce has his own sandblasting booth. He believes the booth is necessary to properly clean the tubes and lugs before and after the brazing process. Although he has the paint work performed by someone else, he is in the process of setting up an area to do his own. Like many American builders, Bruce uses only Du Pont Imron paint.

During our interviews of frame builders we found that few really understood the business fundamentals necessary to operate a successful business. Accordingly, a surprisingly large number of American builders went "out of business" during the preparation of this book. Bruce, on the other hand, recognizes that his large investment in machinery may never reach the levels of return expected by the average investor. He believes that the equipment is required, however, to produce a truly top-quality frame. He is the first builder that we spoke to who shares our belief that some builders are required to charge high prices since they haven't spent time researching how to perform each required step in the frame-building process on an efficient, as well as, high-quality basis.

Technically, Bruce Gordon is conservative compared to other young American builders. He silver-brazes with Reynolds or

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paint finish, can be learned in six months. The actual development of brazing skills varies with two major influences—the skill or training of the builder and, most important, the number of frames that have been built in a specific time period. For instance, Bruce learned his brazing skills while brazing 20 to 25 frames per week for Albert Eisentraut. How long would it take to develop the mysterious, or hard to define, touch if a builder only builds 20 to 25 per year? The interval between frames may be too long to provide adequate feedback.

Although Bruce has not had a long history of riding experience, his contact with riders has aided him in solving design problems. He cautions mail-order customers to be very careful in taking their measurements for their custom frame. Jokingly, he told us he would like to have a wax museum because he could fill it with unbelievable examples of mankind if some of the measurements he has received were true. Fortunately, he spends a great deal of time checking the measurements for plausibility before he begins to design the appropriate frame. Bruce's second concern involves the inability of some customers to describe the type of bicycle that they desire. For instance, Bruce frequently receives orders from customers who request a "stiff" frame. But, how stiff is "stiff"? To the owner of a touring frame with light-gauge tubing almost anything would be stiff. The opposite is true of a rider who requests a bike that is stiffer than his Cinelli track bike. Any prospective customer should define his desires in comparison to known quantities.

Like most of the better American builders, Bruce Gordon specializes in designing and building the perfect frame for a specific individual and his or her specific use. He builds tandems or singles, racing or touring frames. Most important to the tourist, Bruce builds his own touring racks which are designed to complement his touring frame geometry.

seven different models which include both touring and racing styles.