Or take a French writing class to learn to spell "Anquetil," or at least spell his name the same way twice in succession.

Don't be so hard on Joe. He's had enough bad luck already with his two last purchases; give him a break.

-Kurt

It's not bad luck, it's - well, what repechage said. That's the point.

I think his last purchase was a tremendous deal, the expectation made it a poor choice.

I know who built my Ron Cooper... and it is a beautifully made frame.

Many Gillots were built by Cooper during his 20 year tenure there and he is now contracted to build Bates Cantiflex bicycles for Classic Cycles in addition to producing his own bicycles.

I would expect that these new Bates to be even better than the original.

He is proof that a small one person company can produce a world class product that is often without equal... the number of Cooper frames might number 10,000 if we assume he has produced 200 frames a year over the 40 years he has been putting his name on the downtube.

He has never taken on an apprentice and has been doing this work since 1947.

Back to your Italian love fest.

So who is this "america best" anyhow? Seems just about everyone from the 80's that's still around claims this title. But then again, the owner/mechanic at my LBS was a builder at the Carlsbad Masi shop. Just sayin'...

Richard Sachs ?

I love his work.

Dave Moulton - For the sans-serif font fanatic.
Mario Confente - For the folks who like card suits, but want more then a Colnago.
Bruce Gordon - For the fellow who likes drilled lugs.
Richard Sachs - For Newvex lovers.
Rock Lobster - For the fellow who wants his road bike to look like a mountain bike.
Ben Serrota - Because pronouncing his last name is cool.
Peter Weigle - For people who use framesaver.
Bryan Baylis - Replicas R Us.
Jim Redcay - For the understated rider.
Sir Edward Litton - The Notorious Phantom. Oh, wait, that's a different Litton.
Waterford - If you want a lugged 2009 Schwinn.
Rivendell - Shut up.

Tom Kellogg - Personally, my favorite of the lot.

-Kurt

Those young fellows in Oregon do some really fine work... White and Ahearne are a few of my favourite builders.

Probably hasn't personally built a frame in over two decades.

I think Dave Kirk, Dave Wages, and Dave Bohm all belong on the USA list as well. And probably Vanilla, Curt Goodrich, Doug Fattic, Mark Nobilette, Glenn Erickson, Kent Erickson, Columbine, DeSalvo, Della Santa, Crumpton, Southwest Frameworks, and Simon Firth/Bilenky. And that's far from a complete list (especially if Peter Johnson is still building - I agree with Ahearne, too, and also MAP, Polito). They may not all survive the current "troubles" (Jonny Cycles has already bit the proverbial dust), but that's not necessarily a bad thing for handbuilt bikes in the longer term.

Chris Kvale and Curt Goodrich. I could easily see myself going down to two bikes: a day tourer from Chris and a club racer from Curt. These two are crazy good on the details and they create bikes that I want to ride everyday.

what, no love for Albert Eisentraut?

I was listing current builders only - I had Albert listed as the "Grandaddy" of US framebuilders, but edited him out, since once you get started on no-longer active guys, you're into a whole other list. He's the link between guys like Pop Brennan and Wastyn, on the one hand, and Gordon, Nobilette, Baylis, DiNucci, etc. on the other. He's "Hors Catagorie."

I thought Albert was still building?
if not when did he 'retire', I know I traded a a few emails with
him about 4 or 5 years back. . .

Marty

I may be wrong, but my understanding is that if there are "Eisentraut" frames still being produced they are primarily the work of his son (plus whatever additional staff is involved.)

Just did a google search and didn't come up with anything current. The old www.eisentraut.com
URL seems to be for sale.
On that note, unless proven otherwise, I withdraw my nomination for Presi. . . oops wrong speech, I withdraw
Albert Eisentrauts name from current framebuilders.

Marty

Hey, no mention of Albert Eisentraut in a discussion of framebuilders is ever a waste of time.

True, but who's looking for new? Local shop has a minty '83 Spectrum w/50th Ann. throughout.

-Kurt

+1

Always on the lookout for a Kellogg Ross Signature ...

hay repecage im only a high school music appreciation teacher they taught me about music but not about punctuation or speling(thats a joke by the way)

picchio. your right no excuse for not spelling the master jaques' last name. buy i did get merckx and coppi right. by the sound of it-i take it, your not too hot on ron cooper? the reason i mention that is because in my area i was semi-considering either a ron cooper or a grandis bicycle. both same price and in same condition. what would you take??

cudakk is right, thanks sir, give me a break. im still not the same after my cinelli mistake-for that matter i may never be the same man after that cinelli mistake:(

Grandis

vjp

thanks for the input vip. im leaning that way right now. early nineties model with chorus. slx tube-well you can check it out on cr sf-if its still there. joe