Originally Posted by
Welshboy
I really do wish them all the very best but just hope they do not re-employ the same framebuilders and staff who were there in 2004-2007. I had three custom-built frames and only one was acceptable the other two were poor (on one the lug points weren't even touching the tubes). At this time, I was a 'steel is real' fanboy (I still am at heart) so despite these problems I ordered a fourth frame specifically to ride PBP. They screwed up that order by initially quoting me a 3-4 week turn around time but within a month this had become 16-20 weeks meaning I could not have it in time for PBP. The cherry on the cake was then the glacial speed with which they returned my deposit cheque.
Regarding Woodrup then I must say that a friend of mine raced on a Woodrup and always regarded it as the best frame he ever had, regretted selling it and eventually bought it back!!
Ellis Briggs Cycles where I learned how to build frames in 1975 is located in Shipley West Yorkshire in the same metropolitan area as Jacksons and Woodrup in Leeds. There was about 15 miles in-between. The city of Bradford is in between. As the article mentions, Jackson and Woodrup started out as partners and had a falling out. If I remember right it was a pretty bad falling out. When Woorup went out on their own, Jack Briggs helped Maurice get started. E-B was an older business. When I was there they also painted Woordup Cycles. I visited both companies while I was there.
The business plan of Jackson frames was to keep their price as modest as possible - which means that they had to be made as fast as possible leaving no time to fuss with details. Their paint work was nice to compensate. Woodrup took more time and as a result did a better project. At Ellis Briggs when I was there we took 3 or 4 times longer. EB frames were designed to add prestige to the business and weren't attended to be moneymakers.
Paul Gibson bought Ellis Briggs from Jack's sons and is the frame builder now. He - about 10 years ago - came over to the US to take one of my frame building classes to learn anything new I learned from when I was there. Kevin Sayles started at Jackson about 50 years ago and went to Woodrups and finally this year went out on his own.