
esilky
I built my first frames in the late '70s in Davis CA, working with John Pagent and John Finley Scott. You may or may not know JFS, but some feel that he was the ‘inventor’ of the Mountain Bike. We called them “Woodsy Bikes” at the time. I worked on his double-decker bus/bike-shop. Our group of riders/racers took 6 of the top 10 spots in an early, long’ish, off-rode race around Mulholland Drive. My road frames were made from Renolds 531, 531SL, and Columbus tube sets. I made two off-road frames, made from 4130 aircraft tubing.
I haven’t built any bike frames since the '80s, but I’ve been working on some off-road kart frames, and I find that a lot of the discussion about materials and techniques for building can be applied nicely.