Cycling has been my passion for over thirty years and I am finally getting the opportunity to build my own framesets. Townsend frames reflect my experience with road, track, triathlon, cyclocross and mountain bike racing.

While living in England when younger the typical rider would purchase a frame from a local builder to help ensure proper fit. An "off the peg" frame was only considered worthy for winter or hack bikes. The fancy Italian jobs at the shops in London mostly made us laugh because we believed they were all built at the same place with different paint and transfers being the only difference. Wrong or right we had to have our USWB(ultra short wheelbase) bikes with track angles and brazed on brake pivots just like Alf Engers rode.

Belonging to Newmarket & Dist CC and Mildenhall & Dist CC gave me the chance to meet and ride with some of the great cyclists in the area. My club mates Bruce Bursford, Woody, Hamish and Niel Dykes are people I think about regularly hope to see at least some of them someday. Sadly Bruce is no longer with us but I will cherish my friendship with him forever. He was a larger than life character and I remember the weekly club roller races and spending way too much time at his house drilling and polishing equipment. You can read more about Bruce and his Ultimate bike at http://bikebrothers.co.uk/bruce.htm.

I also rode with Martin Pyne(national 25 TT champion), Colin Chapman(Barelli) and Ian Cammish(BAR) on many of the areas training rides.

In 1975 one of my club mates who was friends with Barrie Witcomb told me that Witcomb Cycles in London was looking for an apprentice. He told Barrie about me and I thought my dream of building frames under a master was going to happen. By the time I got there Barrie had already hired someone from the US. My frame building career had stopped before it began and I moved with my parents to St Louis Mo in 1980.

 The midwest cycling scene was so different for me I had difficulty getting used to riding alone on country roads and the races required so much traveling. I was not used to so much training and very little racing and packed it in after a couple of years. The experience did give me the chance to befriend Dan Casebeer who was the best rider in the area for many years.

It took triathlons a in the early 1980s to bring me back into the sport. My experience with cycling was a good fit with other friends who came from a running or swimming background in a sport that was completely new. The learning curve was great at this time and the sport was eager to push the envelope in new technology. I began repairing and modifying friends bikes in my spare time and rekindled my interest in frame building for a time.

In 1989 I was transferred to Southern California and took to riding the trails in the local mountains. Racing here was so great and reminded me of the friendships and camaraderie that I had missed from my time in England. Like most mountain bikers I soon took to training on the roads and eventually came back to where I started by racing road, cross and mountain bike! There is even a new world class track nearby and I am already making frames for use at the http://lavelodrome.org/.

I primarily build road, track and cyclocross frames but enjoy working on anything cycling related. I am also a firm believer that the fork and stem should be an integral part of each frame design and prefer to design each bike accordingly. The frames I build reflect a classic look and take advantage of the superior ride achievable with modern steel tubing.

Whether it is racing the Three Peaks or just enjoying a weekend coffee shop ride, I strive to make my frames efficient for their intended purpose and admired for their style.