Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
Doug- Yes that's the frame you did most of the paint work on. Today as I was cleaning up the shop and placing the CN jigs out of the way (for now, waiting on their next need) I was thinking how it was nice to have a frame just being available to test fit stuff/thoughts on. So the blue frame will hang around for a while more.
63ricket- I wonder if we met back in 1985. My memory of Rudy is faint. I didn't have any prefabricating involvement with the intended riders, Eddy did all that. Some customers did hang about the shop (I remember one who had been a Ranger type during WWII and had some stories. In his retirement he was driving for the coroner and offered to show us his "client" a few times
) IIRC Rudy was a busy guy and didn't have much time to spend sitting still. Was he the guy who ran some local races? We had to store a lot of barricade and signage for someone who put on crits. If you ever wish to share your stories please feel free to include me. Andy
Unlikely we met. 1985 was a very busy year for me and my bike shop was RRB then.
Yes, the barricades were likely Rudy’s. He was a stalwart of Chicago racing from the 50s until 1999. Uncle Rudy to everyone. Yes, he was a race promoter. Just a bit too young to have been in WWII. Yes, he did not sit still. Possibly you remember the toupee? He had good toupees and ‘I need a haircut’ toupees, it was still obvious. How is it possible to race in a toupee? He did. He really liked that pink bike. Gone, crashed out.
Rudy was just a few blocks from CN at 6724 Glenwood. He was also the guy who taught Eddy to braze and encouraged him to build frames. Rudy was a metal sculptor, not a framebuilder. If you ever went down Glenwood you might have seen his 12 foot tall metal ice cream cone over the fence.
There is a simple explanation for all the last days of CN drama. A simple explanation that deletes all the heavies from the story. Everyone did the best they could. But then it got crazy. Call Scott and see if he built those jigs.