See this ? I built this frame in late 1978 or early 1979.....somewhere about then. Originally it was branded "Routier"after the street I lived on at the time. I had a small shop set up in a garage in back of the house where I rented a room when I first moved to Santa Cruz. I only built two frames there and this was one of them, the fourth frame that I had built. When I first started building frames I painted them myself with not the greatest results . I had this frame repainted a few years after I had built it and by that time I was no longer living on Routier street so I rebranded my frames with my last name. This 'Sadoff' brand lasted only around two years. I didn't have the money to get decals made so I hand brushed the logos on with paint- that is what you see here on this frame. There were maybe a dozen Sadoffs before I changed to Rock Lobster in early 1984.
So why am I retelling this not so significant bit of my building history ? I have a plan to re-release the Sadoff brand, even if it does not represent a large number of frames that I built and the style I built back then does not reflect what I do now. What I am thinking is that with the treasure trove of cast lugs and NOS tubing I have enough material to make a bunch of late '70's early '80's style road frames. The idea is to take a style I built back then when I was a hobbyist and do it with 45 years experience. The frames will have simple graceful lugs, 1"threaded steerers and be made for rim brakes. Sure, not much call for frames like this these days and very little call for them from a builder such as myself who strayed from this style as soon as mountain bikes emerged.
So if anyone is interested , they can get in touch with me at paul@rocklobstercycles.com and find out what this is all about. I doubt I'll use up all the materials before I'm dead but I'm definitely interested in building some nice riding, nice looking lugged frames with materials that have been out of production for many years. I'll be building the prototype ( Pretty ironic to call it that when it will be identical in many ways to something I built 45 years ago..) some time in the next few months when I have a window of time. I'll get the frame and fork painted with catalyzed polyurathane just like what was used in the '80's .
I guess there will be at least one of these made-I'll hand letter it as well. Time will tell if anyone out there wants one. Either way, it will be a nice way to mark the 45th year since I built the first few frames. Will I re-issue the Routier brand ? Probably not......seems like a bit of a reach since not only did I move away from that street over 40 years ago and there were probably only 6-7 Routier branded frames built. OK everyone, don't rush the stage........he says to an empty auditorium........
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