I'd always enjoyed working directly with customers Ellis was the next logical step. Ellis Cycles is bornĮarly in 2008, I left Waterford and started Ellis Cycles. I was afforded a great degree of creativity in building one-of-a-kind bikes. Professionally I enjoyed the challenge of expanding the offerings at Waterford and developing the custom lug aspect of the business. The years in Wisconsin have been the best of my life. They were, and shortly I was in a moving van headed to Wisconsin.

I called, introduced myself and asked if they would be interested in my skills. I wanted to learn new skills and loved the stainless lug bikes that Waterford had been turning out. WaterfordĪs the year 2000 began, I moved on from Serotta to one of the only other shops still building lugged steel production bikes: Waterford. These were important years in my development as a builder: learning the trade from Dave and later learning to problem solve on my own after he relocated to Montana. He patiently answered my questions and showed me the subtle differences that separate a good frame from an exceptional one. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from Dave Kirk at Serotta. I leapt at the chance and threw myself into learning the trade. After Ben Serotta reacquired the business he asked if I'd consider becoming a frame builder. My early work didn’t win any awards for beauty, but I still have a set of bar-ends I built for myself.

I didn’t pick up brazing immediately, but one day after work Kelly showed me how to use the torch and I was off melting metal. Here I would meet Dave Kirk and Kelly Bedford, two builders who had real influence on my development as a frame builder. It wasn’t the most exciting job, but it got me in the door. I steadily moved up to nicer shops and in ’94 I got a call from a friend who worked at Serotta: they needed someone in the shipping department. I can laugh now, but it wasn’t very glamorous working in that little room next to a chain smoker who assembled bikes with an impact wrench. I got my first job in a bike shop my Junior year of high school assembling kiddy bikes in a small windowless room upstairs at the “Bike, Golf and Ski Warehouse” in Schenectady, NY. I quickly learned the skills needed to keep a bike functioning: most nights after rides were spent overhauling my bottom bracket and hub bearings. My friends and I would plunge into watery ruts up to our cranks and see who could make it the farthest. I moved on from the Raleigh to a mountain bike a couple of years later and began to explore the trails near my house.

Lugged bike with modern components