Page 15 - June_2014

GO SEE FRANK
B
ELLOWSFALLS —Sparks from a His list of accomplishments within
grinder hit the floor and the tangy
the industry is impressive, and includes:
• Helping develop Easton frame tubes
scent of oil hangs in the air of this
machine workshop. Standing at a work- • Fabricating the first set of two-fingered
station, Frank Wadelton, 54 — better Shimano brake levers
known to the national biking community By Evan Johnson
• Welding first set of two-sided clipless ped-
as “Frank the Welder” — bends his head als for Don Mirah
in focus and lets the sparks fly.
• Designing A-tac stem for Answer products

Wadelton’s designs have touched ev- • Designing new bar ends for Onza
ery variation of the cycling world, includ- • Co-designing all Yeti frames
ing mountain and road biking, downhill, • Pioneering the “soft tail” design currently
trials, BMX and the newer varieties of fat- popular on XC bikes
bikes and ski bikes.
• Developing use of plastic bushings in piv-
So if you want to talk bike design, ots

you go see Frank.
• Designing tires and grips with Yeti
Wadelton’s story starts in Holly- He’s also built frames out of alumi-
wood, California, when he was “modify- num, titanium, steel, metal matrix com-
ing” his sister’s Schwinn Stingray in 1973 posite (and even a wooden unicycle) for
and taking it out on rides of his own. That riders like John Tomac, Juli Furtado, Lisa
Muhic, Tinker Juarez, Brian Lopes, Miles
same year, he first noticed the earliest mod-
els of mountain bikes with multiple gears.
Rockwell, Missy Giove, Sarah Ballentine,
To the 14 year-old, it was an epiphany.
Don Mirah, Daren and Kurt Stockton, Da-
“Until then, biking for me had been vis Phinny, Greg Orovits, Leigh Donovan,
a basic means of transportation,” he says. Jimmy Deaton, Russ Worley and others
“But those bikes made me realize what I among the top riders in the world.

wanted to do.”
Not only his Wadelton one of the
Wadelton developed his skills as a top bike-builders in the country, his shop
welder and found that he could balance doubles as a private history museum. Early
making bikes with other tasks, such as prototypes, current models or rebuilt ver-
welding on bridges or making road signs sions of older, discontinued models hang
— things he could make a living from. from the ceiling on pegs and, in the back,

After work, he would work from quitting are even older models of bikes – all fully
time until early morning on his experi- restored by Wadelton himself – clustered
ments with bikes.
wherever there is available space. Walking
“In my free time I drove around around, Wadelton can point to any bike
with a motocross bike in the back of my Frank Wadelton - aka Frank the Welder - works on a drill press in his Bellows Falls-based work- and give its name, age, and defining fea-
Blazer and slept on the beach,” he recalled. tures.
shop. Photo by Evan Johnson
“Good times.”
When asked why so many, he grins.
He knew he wanted to make bikes “Wheels, man. It’s all about the for others to build overseas. The business price in 2007. He later sold it and as part of
and with the early mountain bikes taking wheels.”
of constructing bikes changed, he says, his separation with Sinister, they helped set
the market by storm, he found an “in” More specifically, the master bike but not in a direction he was comfortable him up in his current workshop in Bellows
with bike manufacturer Mongoose, where builder insists the bikes clustered in corners with. He left Yeti in 1992 to pursue a more Falls. He’s been working there since.
and hanging from beams aren’t just rare The nondescript building just off
he was a shift manager and a production hands-on approach.
engineer.
items, for him they’re important examples “I could make money designing stuff U.S. Route 5 is one of the oldest buildings
After Mongoose moved their fabrica- of design and craftsmanship. Some are for someone else to make, but I happen to in town and has at various points served as
tion abroad he was invited to join Yeti, a more exemplary than others but for a mas- like making things,” he says. “So I decided a slaughterhouse, shoe factory and a safe
new company started by John Parker and ter craftsman, they’re case studies of what to stick with that. I helped small brands house on the Underground Railroad (a
Chris Herting. The company started out as worked and what failed.
start up so I could do the prototype and 125-foot shaft under the bathroom leads

a team of three; Parker brought the busi- “I love nuts and bolts, technology development work. I’ve always liked to de- to the Connecticut River in the event of a
ness know-how, Herting was the mechanic and the way things work,” he says. “And velop new things and to get paid for it, I’ll quick escape). When he was working out
and Frank was in charge of design and pro- all of these bikes have qualities about them make whatever anyone else wants using my West, he was able to subcontract or out-
duction.
that make them unique. They all have capabilities.”
source some portions of production. Now,
The company started in a burned-out something that means something to me be- Frank continued his work with vari- he has the means to complete almost every
bar in San Fernando before moving to an yond the fact that it’s a device; the technol- ous start-ups and came east to Connecticut phase in his shop.

empty space in a Hollywood prop shop. ogy that goes into them marks a point in to work for Spooky Bikes in 1995, later Wadelton’s work is, as he puts it,
Using the resources of the space, they were time.”
transferring to a new startup, Sinister in “hardly cut and dry” and can involve any
able to work on the bikes at night while From his modified rides made as a kid Bellows Falls in 1999.
number of projects at any given time. Some
fabricating props for movies or commer- to designing industry standards, Wadelton Wadelton says he found the new sur- projects are more secretive and require
cials during the day.
says producing the bikes is a “cure for ev- roundings to his liking.
nondisclosure agreements, but he readily
erything.”
“I found that the more north and east describes himself as a “gun for hire” and
When a director couldn’t pronounce
his last name and referred to him by his “I get up and go to work, where it’s I got, the better the riding got,” he says. “It can do whatever the job requires – ranging
trade, the name “Frank the Welder” stuck. safe,” he jokes. “Nobody comes in here to gets a little harder to survive, but it keeps from early phases of product development
Meanwhile, the sport continued to grow.
hassle me.”
all the weenies out. I fell in love with this to restoration of older models he designed
Races were springing up around the He’s done all of this without a high place.”
years ago.
country and the National Off Road Moun- school diploma and has taught himself ev- When Wadelton wasn’t making His variety of talents allows him to
occupy a niche all his own within a huge
tain Biking Association (NORBA) started erything from metallurgy to HTML cod- bikes, he was racing them. He placed sixth
up with just 112 riders.
ing. He’s designed and made his own tools in the world championships at Bromont industry and he says he’s struck a balance
“It was a time when everything you and machines for shaping, bending, cut- Mountain in Quebec in one mountain bike between the work that he really wants to
were doing was of interest to people,” he ting and everything else he needs.
race and even raced at the first NORBA do, and the work that gives him the free-
says. “When we went to races, people were Wadelton takes a pride in his work races at Mount Snow in Dover. The race dom to pursue his passions.
five-deep at the trade shows. We were just found in the people willing to go the dis- tags and medals from his 13 consecutive “You don’t want to do anything

a bunch of kids onto something that was tance for their craft. And for him, the ca- years of racing are nailed to the walls of his that’s completely stupid,” he says. “Doing
going gang-busters.”
maraderie among riders is the best reward.
workshop.
something that’s a little stupid and getting
As the sport grew, many of the “You meet the nicest people on When the principal investors of Sin- by is fine. That’s healthy living when you
people that had been in the shop became bikes,” he says. “And being able to make a ister wanted to back out, Frank was able can find that balance and I think I’ve been
more interested in designing the products
living is just icing on the cake.”
to buy the company at a bargain basement
able to do that here.”

JUNE 2014
VTSPORTS.COM 15