Originally Posted by
Sedgemop
Great to hear about Gordon Borthwick. Wasn't familiar with him. My partner is from a very small town near Marshalltown, Iowa and I'm over there with some regularity. The gravel riding is great. Anyway, I'll be on the lookout for Mr. Borthwick's bikes when I'm there. Looks like he did very nice work, especially as something resembling a hobby. Sorry to see he passed away not long ago. Searched the site for info on him and most of the posts are from you. Thanks again for the awareness.
Gordon did pass the business along to Dave Huff, who built similar fillet brazed frames under the name "Christopher". I'm just assuming that not a lot of folks wanted "Huff" on the downtube.
I did have Dave repaint my Borthwick and do the minor modifications around the year 2007. I used to see him at the Hilly Hundred in Bloomington, Indiana. Not sure if he is still building or not.
Gordon was a retired mechanical engineer who enjoyed cycling. Framebuilding seems like a good merge of those interests, especially when combined with not really needing to make it profitable. In 1990, he had built 33 single frames and 37 tandems. Not sure what the final count was. If you suspect that you've found one of his frames, you can confirm it by the copper letter "B" on the headtube...
Steve in Peoria (but originally a native of Iowa)