The Rebel King of Custom Bikes

Richard Sachs, the master bike builder, doesn’t do high-performance materials (just steel). But for a hand-built bike from him, you must wait years and pay top dollar. Here’s why. Len Janssen wanted a bike built just for him. So a few years ago he made the trip to...
Guardians of the Flame

Guardians of the Flame

The introduction of methods that industrialized bicycle manufacture inevitably led to a reduction in hand-crafted production especially for competition models with proven success. Industrialization and the increase in the number of bikes produced forced many famous...

Framed Art

THE BUILDER To Connecticut’s Richard Sachs a bicycle has a split personality. As a builder, he identifies an art form in the construction of a frame. But as a racer, he knows that a finely made bicycle means very little in the midst of competition. “I...

Cycling Towards Perfection

A damaged orange bicycle frame sits in the corner of Richard Sachs’ shop in Chester. Stripped of its wheels, handlebars, pedals and saddle what was once a proud new bike is now a confusing mass of orange tubes, twisted together like a giant Krazy Straw. The...

Bicycle Racer makes hobby a career

When Richard Sachs graduated from a New Jersey high school in the early 1970s, his love of bicycle racing propelled him to a small shop in England where he did odd jobs for eight months just to learn the craft of bicycle building. While on the job a Witcomb Cycles, a...