The Nexus Years

The Nexus

A cooperative machine shop called, "The Nexus," in the Dorchester area of Boston was employed for the production of the first mountain bike frames which went to market in May, 1995. The Nexus is the creation of Peter Lindenmuth whose generous spirit and engineering talent contributed to our early efforts.

The Nexus was truly the first home of IF. It is an old wood frame structure and backs up to the Southeast Expressway (Route 93). Before the building was the Nexus, it was a facility for the fabrication of religious icons. There are still remnants of its past with a collection of dusty plaster saints overseeing various areas of the building. The smells include the musty odor of decay, overflowing cat litter boxes, machine oil and the aroma of home cooking which erupts every evening and is served with cheap wine in gallon bottles. Year-round fleas and fruit flies make the Nexus a kind of wildlife sanctuary.

The shop is in the basement which has very high ceilings made possible when the original structure was jacked up to raise the ceiling height. It is filled with a rich variety of machine tools, a life time supply of scrap metal, abandoned projects, new work in process and collections of pieces of this and that, evidence of the creative spirits who have been tenants of the Nexus. Resident in the shop during the time we were there were a small company which designed and built elaborate fireworks; Bill, who was working on the development of a folding bike and various other artists and artisans.

IF resided in a small corner of the shop between the furnace and the outside door - occupying maybe 200 square feet and a small office space on the first floor. For the space, use of all the machines, all the scrap metal we could consume, frequent dinners and limitless technical assistance and encouragement from Peter, IF paid the incredible rent of $200/month. It is fair to say that Peter Lindenmuth is one of the important people who made IF possible.

Jane joined us to organize the office and to do what ever else needed doing when we didn't have many beans to count. Sue Kirby couldn't stay with the group as she was a mom and needed more income than we could afford to pay ourselves. Our loss as she is an excellent welder. Ben Cole left to pursue a career as an opera singer and to support his growing family. Lloyd, Jeff, Steven, Jane, Mike and I remained with the company living through significant hardships to make IF happen.

Lloyd continued service as a bike messenger through the first few winters when things were slow. Thanks to the generosity of Toby Stanton, owner of Hot Tubes in Worcester, Mass, Mike Flanigan was able to take our frames the 35 miles to Toby's in his broken down car to paint them in the off hours until we got our own paint booth in October of 1996. Jane continued to work at SRP until we needed her full time in 1996. I didn't start getting paid until January of 1997.

Jeff created our initial tools and fixtures at the Nexus where he shared the machine tools with a variety of others who worked in this cooperative space. Steven bartered frames for airline tickets to make it to our first Interbike trade show. I, and later Jane, coughed up some money to help keep things going and most of us maxed out our credit cards.

Early Racing

The Spring of 1995 saw IF making its first appearance at the Mount Snow NORBA National. A young and up-and-coming road racer named Jonathan Paige, sponsored by Hot Tubes for road racing offered to race for IF in the dirt. Supplied with our Deluxe mountain bike and a makeshift team jersey (our logo silk screened onto a Bellwether jersey), Jonathan went on to destroy the men's expert field by over four minutes. A picture in, "Mountain Bike Action," was IF's first racing press coverage.

Jonathan continued to race for IF, making the trip to Helen, Georgia for another NORBA National where he took second in a hotly contested battle on a rain soaked mud fest of a course. Steven met up with Guy Stevenson and Earl Walker at Helen, Fat City sponsored riders who Steven had known in his earlier life. Since Fat City didn't have a booth at the race, and most of the riders knew Steven, a good part of the Fat City Cycles team spent their weekend hanging out at the IF booth. Guy and Earl later became IF riders.

Early Support

Significant, in these early days, were the initial orders from Clint Paige of Belmont Wheelworks, Harold Knochin of International Bicycle Exchange, the leading Boston area dealers; and Atlanta Pro Bikes, a fledgling shop which committed early to IF. Lloyd had wrenched at Belmont and Steven at International. Ed, Booger & Chris of Atlanta Pro Bikes had previously worked at a shop which purchased frames from Fat City and knew our crew. About the time IF was established, they left their jobs and set up their own shop that has been very successful. The owners of each of these shops knew members of our team and had faith that IF would succeed. We will always be grateful for their early support.

While not in the bicycle business directly, Red Bones, a popular Somerville attraction for barbecue and beer offering valet parking for bicycles on special bike nights, has been a great supporter of bicycling and of IF. We presented our first frame for public display there. They have sponsored our racing activities and Rob Gregory, the owner, has been a great friend of IF.

In September, 1995, IF made its first appearance at the Anaheim Interbike Trade Show in a 10' X 10' booth. The self-help story of IF made an impression on many and the frames were well received.

This was the first time that Jeff and Lloyd had been to the LA area. They were accustomed to riding all over Boston and surrounding towns with ease. After setting up for the opening of the show, they thought it would be fun to bike into Hollywood to see Reverend Horton Heat, a popular rock artist. They discovered the meaning of LA sprawl when they arrived too late for the good Reverend's show at 11:00 PM, having covered almost 50 miles. To their credit, they rented a cheap motel room, got up at 5 AM and pedaled the 50 miles back to Anaheim just as Interbike opened.

During his tenure at International Bicycle Exchange, Steven met Tom Schneider, the owner of Target Marketing, a Boston marketing firm. Tom, a die hard mountain biker, wanted a new frame and offered Steven airline tickets in exchange for a mountain frame and that is how we made it out to Anaheim.

Tom Schneider's interest and support of IF would turn out to be key in developing support for the racing program. Tom was able to link IF with Stonyfield Farms, the maker of all natural yogurt made in Vermont. The IF race team, consisting of about 5 riders, hit the New England scene and NORBA National series on their "Cow" bikes. These were bikes painted like typical New England cows with the bottom brackets painted pink to resemble udders.

The Deluxe & Special

IF mountain frames received critical acclaim from the biking press. We started in 1995 with the Deluxe and Special mountain frames. The frames were made with True Temper chromoly tubing. They differed from the Fat City Yo Eddy in that they had size specific tubing, shorter chain stays and came in more sizes. Reviews of the Deluxe and Special usually highlighted the ride quality and outstanding execution with respect to the welding and painting.

The importance of designing frames specifically for the proportions of women was confirmed for us at Mount Snow in 1997 when a young woman came back to our booth to return a Special she had borrowed. She was in tears and we were concerned that she had fallen or hurt herself in some way. It turned out that she had just purchased another brand and the experience of riding the Special made her very unhappy with her decision. She reported that she was substantially more confident riding the Special and felt like a stronger rider.

IF made its first appearance of many at the inaugural Pedro's Fall Festival. Showing off our line of hand-built mountain frames. Steven and crew spent every waking moment handing out stickers, shaking hands and talking to anyone who would listen to them. Gary Fisher, mountain bike pioneer and cycling legend, spent several hours with the group, sharing his insights and offering his advice on topics ranging from headset sizes to chainstay lengths. IF's exploits at later Pedro's Festivals would become legendary with frame raffles, Sunday morning Bloody Mary bashes, a late night game of Co-ed naked football and a reputation for being the last booth open.