Fox Farm

Thomas J. Bruni, 54, designer and builder of customized bicycles
By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Sun Staff
Originally published July 15, 2005

For nearly two decades, Thomas J. Bruni quietly designed and built bicycles in
his Hamilton home - innovative mountain, road and tandem bikes that were highly sought after by riders.

"They were completely unique, fast and beautiful bikes. Tom was a custom
fabricator, who would meet you, measure you, and fabricate out of a few pounds
of steel tubing some of the best bikes on the planet," said Phil Feldman, who
owns three of them. "Bruni Bicycles are a common sight in Baltimore, and his
customer base extended across the country and even to Europe."

On Saturday, while riding one of his bikes, Mr. Bruni was injured in a collision
with a minivan at an intersection near Westminster and died at Carroll Hospital
Center. He was 54.

Mr. Bruni who was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., attended City College of
New York during the late 1960s.

"He was such a city boy that he thought that trees grew between the concrete
cracks in the sidewalk," said his wife of 16 years, the former Therese Spadero,
a Baltimore County public school teacher. "He came to Baltimore on a train with
his bicycle in the early 1970s. He knew it was a good place to come because he
liked the small-city aspect that Baltimore offered."

A master welder, Mr. Bruni held a succession of jobs - among them building ships at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point yard, teaching welding and sheet-metal working, and service technician for Electric Motor Repair Co. He also taught math, physics and electronics at area community colleges and Anne Arundel County public schools.

In 1990, he went into business for himself with the start of Bruni Bicycles.
"Riding bikes was a lifetime passion. His philosophy was that he wanted to enjoy
riding and not get burned out or obsessive about it. When he was riding, which
was sometimes three times a week, some days he'd go 30 miles and then there were rides of 100 or 150 miles," Mrs. Bruni said.

"His forte was designing and building bikes, and he also loved trouble-shooting
and finding solutions for mechanical and design problems," she said.
"His belief that he could build the 'better bike' drove him to start expanding
his craft of building his own bikes to help others get more out of their lives,"
said Larry Black, a longtime friend and owner of College Park Bikes and Mount
Airy Bikes. "He was never afraid to try new things or reinvent old ideas to make
them better."

Mr. Bruni fashioned his bikes out of British-made steel tubing rather than the
more popular aluminum, carbon fiber or titanium, and they weighed no more than 17 1/2 to 23 pounds. He patiently catered to every whim and need of the
purchaser.

Every floor in his Sylvan Avenue home seemed to contribute some vital process in the assembly of the bikes, whose prices ranged from $950 to $4,500. Articles
published on his Web site extol his "suspension bicycles" that ride smoothly,
despite bad road conditions, and even make railroad tracks "almost cease to
exist."

"When he custom-made a bike for you it took several months, and no two were ever the same," said Debbie Taylor, who has ridden more than 6,000 miles on her Bruni bike. "He was an eccentric and a genius, a real out-of-the-box guy."
"He was outspoken, and he'd definitely tell you how it was. He'd answered the
phone, 'Bruni,' and after 30 or 40 seconds, would say, 'I gotta go. I've got
lots of work to do.' And it was always A-plus work," said Bobby Phillips, a
longtime friend and local bicycle racing legend known as 'The Baltimore Bullet."

Mr. Bruni was always on hand to lend his bicycle-repair expertise at races. He
also provided engineering expertise for several human-powered, all-terrain
vehicles for the American Visionary Art Museum </news/obituaries/59785,1,7530673.venue?coll=bal-news-obituaries>'s
annual spring Kinetic Sculpture Race. One of them included the elaborate and
fanciful "Cirque du Sore Legs" circus train that provided a dramatic rescue in
the 2004 race after the pedal-driven engine separated and the cars carrying
costumed riders drifted away off Canton Waterfront Park.

"The 15-mile race is on land, water and in sand, and he certainly raised the bar
for us," said Theresa M. Segreti, the museum's director of design and education.

"Tom loved bicycles - their efficiency - and the fact they were affordable
transportation for almost anyone, and the absolute joy of descending a twisty
tree-lined road at 40 mph or more," Mr. Feldman said.

"There will be no services because he believed in the Church of the Spoked
Wheel. He'd say that every Sunday when we were out riding, taking in the
countryside," Mrs. Bruni said.

Other survivors include his mother, Celestina Bruni, and a brother, Steve Bruni,
both of Fort Myers, Fla., and several nieces and nephews.

womble

This is already over in the Advocacy and Safety forum:

https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-safety/120753-frame-builder-killed-accident-reportedly-fault.html

Fairporter

As a Bruni Bike owner and once a fellow cyclist on many a ride in my BBC days, I still can't believe one of my best friends of all-time is gone. We [Tom, Theresa and I] even took on the very first Cycle Across Maryland tour in 1989. Now a little over 4 years later, and a ride I take doesn't go by I'm not thinking about him. There are so many good things I could say about him, and anyone that knew or came in contact with him can attest to that. A great loss for the Cycling World.



I just avoided a trip to the hospital last week and could only think it was his spirit that somehow pushed me out of harms way. Maybe it was just a sudden burst of energy, yeah that's the ticket. I don't know, either way, it was at least a bike he built that allowed me to avoid a wreckless driver.



I used to own a few bikes, now the Bruni bike is the only one I need, still have and use. Thank you Tom Bruni. May he Rest In Peace.