Jeremy SyCip is a real-life fantasy. He began college with an eye toward industrial design but quickly realized he wanted to be more hands-on. So he took a course in framebuilding at United Bicycle Institute. His teacher for the class? None other than Albert Eisentraut, arguably the most important builder ever in the U.S. and maybe the most important teacher of framebuilders in history.
Jeremy SyCip (right) with builder Max Kullaway.
His next stop was no less amazing: he apprenticed with Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster. Once he felt he had enough experience to hang out a shingle, with his brother Jay, the SyCips opened SyCip Designs and began offering road and mountain frames.
These days, Jeremy SyCip works alone and counts steel, aluminum and titanium as materials in his repertoire. He’s a mainstay of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show and has picked up a few awards along the way.
I talked to Jeremy at his shop which sits at the edge of Santa Rosa between Annadel State Park and Hood Mountain Regional Park. Because we recorded this in his shop, there’s a bit more ambient noise than usual, but the chance to visit his shop was too good to pass up.
The Pull is brought to you by the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, the world’s premier annual gathering of bicycle framebuilders and framebuilding enthusiasts. The 2019 show will take place March 15-17th at the Sacramento Convention Center in Sacramento, California.
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