| Country: | United States | Primary Focus: | Bicycle Frames |
| Years of Operation: | N/A |
| General Information |
The start date may have been late 1972. According to Richard Sachs,
Witcomb USA started in 1971, but the frames we now know and love didn't
start being made by Richard and J. P. Weigle until a couple years later,
when the original business plan wasn't panning out. Weigle was at
Witcomb England during most of '72. Witcomb USA serial numbers start
with a 2-digit year, followed by the sequence number of the frame, so
7529 is the 29th frame made in 1975.
|
| History |
Witcomb USA was bankrolled by Ed Allen of Sports East, a cycling and outdoor sports sales rep business, through a licensing arrangement with Witcomb England. Richard Sachs and J. P. Weigle both did short apprenticeships at Witcomb England and were asked to start building frames to bring some cash flow into the stalled, American enterprise. Ben Serotta also did an internship at British Witcomb, though did not join the US operation. Eventually Gary Sinkus and then Chris Chance were brought in before the operation shut down in late 1977. Weigle bought some of the fixtures and equipment to transition to his own frame business, as Sachs had already done. Most of the others went on to similarly craft frames in their own eponymous framebuilding operations.
|
