Willits Brand Blog

This is my first attempt at living outside of the northeastern corner of the country. I just moved from upstate New York with Peg (my wife) and our cats, Simon and Dylan. We are starting to get acclimated to Austin’s balmy spring weather, and find our way around town with some aptitude.

Wes and I met at the beginning of this year to discuss working together. He wanted to breath life back into Willits and I was looking for a change of pace. Our combined experience seemed to compliment each other. Wes possesses the spirit of invention, and I love refining and developing the manufacturing processes.

Merlin Metal Works is where I cut my teeth as a frame builder. After spending a number of years working at bike shops I ended up being most curious about the frame. How was it built, finished and so on? I was going to Massachusetts College of Art at the time and Merlin was located near by. I started in the finishing department. Polishing titanium is dirty and noisy but it teaches you about every part of the frame. It is a very intimate way of handling and finishing a frame after the meticulous fabrication process. As time went on I worked on improving alignment of the frames and coming up with methods to streamline production processes. I was also in charge quality control and developed a keen eye for diagnosis of manufacturing issues.

When American Bicycle Group purchased Merlin and announced they were moving operations to Chattanooga, I sought a position at Serotta Competition Bicycles, the largest US based custom frame shop. I was hired there, starting as a final machinist. In an effort to make final machining more efficient I spearheaded a number of procedure modifications that reduced the overall time by 50%. This allowed me to spend more time learning other processes in the shop. I was soon offered a position on the R&D team as lead technician building titanium and carbon fiber frames. We built the first frames and were shocked at the wonderful ride quality they had. From the prototypes, I developed the manufacturing processes for the Ottrott, Serotta’s flagship model. The Ottrott received rave reviews from magazines and owners alike. It was Bicycling magazines “Dream Bike of the Year” in 2004, and received Bicycle Retailer and Industry News “Frame of the Year” at Interbike that same year. In 2005 the Ottrott became Serotta’s best selling frame set. While this was happening, I quickly moved up the ranks to production manager. I was responsible for every aspect of manufacturing for the company.

I enjoyed doing that type of work but being in charge of oversight took me away from my favorite part of the process, building bike frames. Working with Wes has brought me right back to the core of frame building. Each frame has been carefully constructed by the two of us. They are a collaboration of the thirty plus years of frame building experience that Wes and I have.

So here I am in Austin, sweat coming out of every pore, bloody knuckles, and enough grease under my fingernails to lube up a bottom bracket. I wouldn’t change a thing.