The Generosity of Frame Builders
 

I was inspired to start this conversation by this thread in the C&V appraisals forum in which Dolanarc1 tells about Harry Quinn's generosity towards "young bike racers like myself when we had no money." This reminded me of the stories of Roland Della Santa mentoring and providing bikes for the young Greg LeMond. Also the story of Cino Cinelli giving a Cinelli SC to Viktor Kapitonov after he won Olympic gold on a Cinelli Model B in the 1960 Olympics.

Of course it is in the builder's interest for their bikes to be seen at the head of the peloton or first across the line at the velodrome, but many framebuilders, like all three mentioned above, were former racers themselves and had, perhaps, a love for the sport that was greater than the financial incentive. I'd love to hear other stories and ideas about this tradition. Let's focus on the smaller builders and omit for now the large companies like Raleigh and Peugeot who had the monetary wherewithal to sponsor entire teams of riders.

I will leave you with one final story told to me by Bruce Gordon. He explained that all the bikes that he gave or sold cheaply to racers were painted pink. He figured that way at least his bikes would be noticed.
Brent

....and returned...:)

The pink race bike story is interesting as Merz had them too, Robert Burney's Merz was pink for visibility I think Jim said. It would be interesting to know if Bruce was doing that before he moved to Eugene. Maybe ask Jim about it next time you talk to him. ;)

The Dolanarc story is great, quite an achievement for both builder and rider.

I'm pretty sure Randy Smolenski in Grand Rapids was instrumental in the development of many young racers. I only know this second hand from people like Jim Townsend (over on CR) though, so can't really offer more specifics.

People in this hobby just seem to be more generous than in other 'collect-y' circles.

When I started getting into this and things weren't the best for me, financially, there were people here who both gave and fronted me stuff. Even later people sent me stuff they knew I was interested in.

While generally people are free with information and sources- you don't see that with guitars, old guitars or stereo gear.