In my years of writing about frame building and frame builders, I’ve encountered plenty of artful frames. We often refer to great frames as “rideable art.” I have considered these frames bicycle frames first and art second. There have been a handful of builders/brands whose works seem to be primarily art and only incidentally bicycle frames, as if building them up might distract from the art in some way.
John Murphy of Columbine Bicycles is the builder people point to most often in this regard, but Glenn Erickson was one of those builders as well. I’ve seen a great many of Glenn’s bicycles over the years, but the fact is, he was for many years a working builder who produced a great many fillet-brazed and lugged bicycles and only occasionally did he, well, go nuts.
I’m in the midst of working on a piece about the shop he cofounded with Angel Rodgriguez, R+E Cycles in Seattle. While there, I saw this frame of Glenn’s and it stopped me cold. I’ll let the work do the talking.
Worth noting is that not only did Glenn extend the lug points before carving these stars and slots and windows into them, he had to make the two head lugs join each other.
You don’t see builders do much to bottom bracket shells. They may make a feast of the head lugs and seat lugs, but there’s so much going on in a bottom bracket that many builders simply don’t exercise much artistry there. This is significant because of the bilaminate or half-lug design. The down tube and chainstays fit into the bottom bracket shell, and the points have been thinned, but the seat tube is fillet brazed, something he may have done for reasons of seat tube angle or tube diameter. Regardless, I’ve not seen another bottom bracket like it, ever.