SpeedofLite 

Includes a review of the Eisentraut Rainbow.

Bad Lag

What would the price be if the full labor content were included on the sticker - customer support, design, purchasing materials, materials, overhead, oh, and cost of labor?

That was a rhetorical question, at least to some degree, or not.

Piff 

His story reminds me a little of Dave Van Ronk, who welcomed folk singers to New York during the folk revival of the 60s and showed them the ropes. Watched as some of his friends became huge stars (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell) but never found lasting national success himself.

Interesting to hear how many frames he was churning out in California at one point and yet I've never seen one on any of the classifieds. Are they all being held by old racers from days back, or did they just get ridden into the ground?

SpeedofLite 

Not all. Here's a beauty: https://www.ebay.com/itm/195048727271
Auction ends in 34 hours.

habes78023 

They appear from time to time, I got one from the local Craigslist. There's been a few others since then listed locally, the Limited frames are the ones you'll see most often in my experience. I love my Rainbow Traut.

georges1

Very interesting article about a talented framebuilder, thanks for sharing

Prowler 

…but still revered by wack ole men in obscure backwoods Pennsylvania towns. Big money? No. Lasting and National? Yeah. But, then, I grew up on Gene Shay and Michael Tearson radio.

mtbikerjohn 

Shades of WMMR & WIOQ! Remember David Dye? I grew up listening to new albums being played in their entirety on WMMR..ah,good times!

repechage

Anyone note the crashed frame in one of the article images?

steelbikeguy

It's interesting (to me) that so many framebuilders want to just build, but then end up in a business where they have to deal with customers and the concerns of running a business.
As an engineer, I loved to just focus on the problem solving and creation aspects of the job. Working for a large corporation largely kept me from having to worry about customers, selling stuff, etc. Would Albert have been better off at Schwinn, or eventually Waterford??

I do have respect for those that figure out how to produce just a few designs, with minor tweaks, and have those become highly desirable. It seemed like that was part of the genius of Richard Sachs.. he produced relatively simple racing frames with few options, but people were happy to write a check and wait quite a while to get their frame. I thought that Albert was in a similar situation?? His frames certainly had a great reputation.

OTOH, I also respect those builders who can manage to do original and creative work and somehow make a living. Not sure how many have other forms of income or support that make things work out. I love looking at pics of Brian Chapman's bikes, complete with the custom touches like hand-made brake calipers! Beautiful! Is he actually able to charge a proper labor rate for all of that work, though?? Can he charge what a plumber charges? I always assume that the privilege of doing creative work means that the pay is lower. That's why "starving artist" is a phrase, and "starving plumber" isn't.

Steve in Peoria

Bad Lag

Perhaps I should re-read the article. Right or wrong, my impression was he had regrets and felt under valued (under paid) for his work, maybe even some bitterness. This is one of many quotes to which I refer.

" You see mediocre people making $100,000 per year and I am busting my ass for $15,000 maybe."

Is he still around, still in business making frames?

ETA - I found this on the web site, "The business is now closed, with reports of a rare frame being made for insiders, but no public offering...".

bulgie 

I remember an Albert quote from an interview. Maybe this article (I haven't read it closely, not recently anyway) or maybe it was another magazine. He was trying to discourage anyone from entering into the trade, saying something like "it's not going to get you laid." To which my reply was "then you're not doing it right!" I'll spare you the (many) details, but for just one example, I wouldn't have met my wife if I hadn't been working in the shop that day, and she probably wouldn't have given me a second look if I was "only" a bike mechanic. (Apologies to all bike mechanics, my wife is just a snob... ) I fixed her road frame, that she'd already got silver on at state road championships, and later raced at Nationals, then made her a pretty track frame that she got two state medals on. She would have won the same medals anyway, but wouldn't have looked quite as stylish doing so. The rest is sweet history.

Mark B

bikingshearer 

Seems appropriately inappropriate to repost this one here. 1978 "A" that I had repainted by Ed Litton (who worked with Eisentraut in making the Rainbow 'Trauts). I'm at least the third owner. It now sports fenders and is my wet road bike. The attention to detail on these frames is beyond belief. The ride is top drawer. The fact that it was made ten or so miles away from where I live is icing on the cake.

bulgie 

Is that the era with the Eisentraut BB shell with the derailer cables cast-in, like wings to the left and right of the tube sockets? I'd kill for one of those...
The story I heard was Schwinn bought the tooling to cast those, and then ditched them, never made any. There'd be jail time for that, if I were king of the world!

Call me Draco

bikingshearer 

You mean like these? Yeah, they're pretty cool. (But please don't kill me; it might annoy my wife.)

BTW, notice the baby's-butt-smooth mitering between the stays and BB shell. An amazing amount of artistry in a place that no one, aside from the owner and/or the mechanic, will ever see. I have a frame from another of the very best builders in which the same joints are very workmanlike in appearance - strong, functional but strictly utilitarian. That doesn't make the other one a worse frame, but it does speak to the artist/perfectionist in Eisentraut.

FlatKitten

That's gorgeous!