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Vicious Cycles off as of late. Just because Vicious might fit into New Paltz, New York Framebuilders the handmade label doesn’t mean the Years in Business: 13 company doesn’t offer a bevy of differ- Fab 5 Number of Employees: 7 ent riding options including the afore- Soulcraft they are making, which is so rare these any in the industry might not mentioned full suspension, a 29er, Petaluma, California days,” Walling said. realize that Vicious Cycles a cyclocross and a women’s-specific Eight years later he still sees his M has been ahead of the curve mountain bike, just to name a few. Years in Business: 8 Number of Employees: Just business as one step above a garage when spotting trends. “We’ve developed our production the owner builder, but he’s making a good living “We were among the first four build- methods to allow us to easily switch and loving the business. ers to display a 29-inch mountain bike from making one frame type to anoth- hen he worked at Marin “I’m only one guy but I always an- at the 1999 Interbike Show,” said Carl er, so it’s become possible to offer all Speed Machine grinding swer the phone when I can or return Schlemowitz, founder and owner of the models we do,” Schlemowitz said. W out parts for hot rods, Sean calls and email quickly. Why make a Vicious Cycles. “We were the first to “Over the years our selection of prod- Walling was living the dream. But the big deal about your individual level offer a 29-inch mountain tandem. We ucts has grown to keep pace with our oil, smell and dirt of an engine shop of service when you don’t deliver? I were the first company day after day began to tarnish the make sure I deliver,” he said. to have a rigid disc dream. While liability insurance and rent fork.” Thumbing through a Bicycle Guide checks add cost over working out of a From a one-man feature on American garage, it pales next to operation in 1994 to framebuilders, Wall- the cost of running the employing seven to- Handmade Business ing noticed that many Soulcraft racing team day, Vicious Cycles shops used the same and attending Inter- has grown to be a na- equipment he used in bike, Sea Otter and tionally recognized the engine shop. That the Handmade Bike bike brand thanks to got him thinking. Show. But spending Schlemowitz’s vision He picked up a this extra money adds and love of biking. Carl Schlemowitz frame he had at Bruce professionalism and “My interest in Gordon’s shop for re- passion to his com- mountain bikes began in the late customers’ desires, not just to fill space painting and asked pany, and Walling said 1980s and came about by combining in the market.” Gordon if he needed it keeps his customers camping trips with off-road cycling,” Vicious Cycles has all the capabili- help. And as things go, coming back. Schlemowitz said. “Cycling became ties of the larger U.S. manufacturers, Walling left hot rods But if there is one a lifestyle for me, more than just a according to Schlemowitz. for Gordon Cycles. thing that keeps Wall- sport.” “All the models take about the same “I left Gordon to Sean Walling ing up at night it’s the Schlemowitz’s love for fabrication amount of time to build,” he said. work with Ross at thought that his pric- came from his father, who was a sculp- “Custom geometries take a bit more Salsa, but it was all great time. I was es might be too low. tor working in metal. time, and tandems take the most de- working with bikes and doing what I “The last thing I want is customers “I watched him work and was in- sign and production time. A standard loved. There was a bit of a panic when that search me out because I’m cheap- spired to start building my own bikes,” geometry frame is usually delivered in Ross sold Salsa, but I knew frame- er than other builders. Those value he said. “My first successful efforts in- four to six weeks.” building was what I wanted to do,” customers are so much extra work. In spired me to make biking my life and Schlemowitz said he has no inten- Walling said. addition to a good price, they want a work. Now my main focus is on grow- tion of going into production with his Salsa founder Ross Shafer sold his whole bunch of other extras for free,” ing Vicious Cycles so I can get more bikes. “We’re growing while maintain- company to Steve Flagg at Quality Bi- he said. of my bikes out there for people to ing the high quality of our frames and cycle Products in 1999, and days after “So rather than getting you more enjoy.” forks,” he said. “We continue to keep it Salsa closed, Walling and fellow Salsa business, letting your prices lag ends Schlemowitz said he continues to all handmade.” employee Matt Nyiri founded Soul- up costing you business and eating up see his business grow. Especially lately In the handmade business, a lot of craft. Five years later Nyiri left Soul- your time,” he added. as his company builds a stronger deal- competition exists for a very tight dol- craft for a sales position at Camelbak. Soulcraft works with about 10 deal- er network. The Handmade Bike Show lar, Schlemowitz said, but that doesn’t “When Matt and I got started we ers, but from a business standpoint, doesn’t hurt either. seem to bother him in the least. had no business plan or strategy be- Walling said it’s hardly worth it. After “It’s an additional venue for gain- “Our customers come to us for our yond figuring that there were more he figures in a dealer’s 35 percent mar- ing exposure with both the consumer product’s reputation,” Schlemowitz people like us who are willing to pay gin, little if any profit is left. For that public and potential dealers,” he said, said. “They’ve seen our bikes on the a bit more for something made by reason, Walling said he greatly prefers adding that his full-suspension and trails and roads, and appreciate the someone that really cares about what doing customer-direct business. 29er models have been really taking style, personality and ride.” lege, he spotted an ad Unemployed but un- “To me, bikes were so beautiful. I Richard Sachs in New York’s Village daunted, “I went to the had this vision of them being made in Cycles Voice for a wrenching library and wrote to 25 some antiseptic arena with tile floors, job in Vermont. With to 30 bike makers in by people in lab coats. I had no idea Chester, Connecticut confidence that only England and France, it was a labor-intensive job by people Years in Business: 32 a bike-crazy 18-year- basically saying ‘Will in dirty shop aprons on floors coated Number of Employees: 1 old could muster, “I work for food to learn with metal filings,” he laughed. t makes you ponder predestination: bought a one-way about bike making,’” he Not a formal understudy, “I glom- A serendipitous series of naïve but Greyhound ticket to said. med as much information as I could I gutsy decisions set Richard Sachs, Burlington thinking Amazingly, Witcomb and picked up basics, but I was not a beginning bike racer just out of high I’d go up and ace this Cycles of London wrote there being taught so much as exposed. school, on the road to becoming one job. When I got there, back, “We’d love to have No way did I come out of there a frame of America’s pre-eminent custom bike they looked at me like you.” Using college tu- maker,” Sachs said. builders. I was crazy,” Sachs ition money, he went. Tuition money running low, he re- With time to fill before entering col- said. Richard Sachs It was an eye-opener. turned to New Jersey, but soon joined 34 Bicycle Retailer & Industry News • March 1, 2007 www.bicycleretailer.com Bruce Gordon Cycles Last year for the North Baylis Cycles Cycles. The venture lasted about two American Handmade Bi- years. Howard moved on and joined Petaluma, California La Mesa, California cycle Show, Gordon con- Medici in Los Angeles, but Baylis Years in Business: 31 Years in Business: 30 structed a tubular titanium wanted to make his own frames. Number of Employees: Besides Bruce, Number of Employees: Just cantilever brake that was Baylis, in his early 50s, estimates one part-time employee the owner such a hit, he decided to he has built anywhere from 300 to t’s no surprise that Bruce Gordon make a CNC’d aluminum version. rian Baylis is the first to admit 500 frames in his lifetime—a lot less has a good sense of humor. He is, “I like making new designs of parts he’s not a modern or techno- than most custom framebuilders. I after all, the “co-dictator” of SOP- that have a more classic aesthetic than Blogically savvy guy. “I like to “There’s no way to make large WAMTOS (Society of People Who many of the parts made today. They stay in the past in some ways, while numbers the way I work,” he said, Actually Make Their Own Shit), a look better on classic lugged frames,” still refining my work,” he said.

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