Originally Posted by
unworthy1
fun pics, but I can't get over that Peter Johnson lugwork (built by a teenager?!?). I wonder if he hung out with Tom Ritchey (there's only a short distance from Portola Valley to Palo Alto and Redwood City) there must have been something in the water back then...Was Spivey in the Silicon Valley area? (would have been called by its proper name: the Santa Clara Valley, back then)
Interesting question regarding Johnson and Ritchey. Those paper-thin lugs were the rage for a while, as US frame builders worked to define a "new-world" style - Mark DiNucci's work also springs to mind. I think Eisentraut was a common influence on a lot of those guys, and they would also have seen a lot of relatively exotic and famous-name bikes coming into Spence Wolf's shop.
Edit to say maybe I should have said "west coast" style on the wafer-thin lug thing, as it seems to have been regional to some extent.