Joe didn't have a bike company in 1977, when I asked him to build my bike. He delivered it eight months later in 1978. He was a friend who had built a half dozen road bikes for other members of our bike club, and he knew what I wanted. Building the first ten mountain bikes, including mine, #2 , is why he is famous now.

Joe is one of the world's leading bicycle engineers. He can build one from a pile of tubing if he cares to, and that is what he did for me in 1978.