Bike Builder in Rogers Park 30 years ago

I am looking for any information about a Bicycle builder who built my father's bike. His name was Berkeley (or Berkley). My father's riding days have recently ended at age 83. This frame is now 45 years old.

Does anyone remember this bicycle builder in the Rogers Park area circa 1980's?

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Permalink Reply by Tom Cooper on June 1, 2015 at 9:14am

Thank you Michael. He had suffered a stroke and I remember him working in his shop with a slight limp and paralysis in his left arm. Cyclery North may have been the shop.

I hope we get more responses.

Tom

Permalink Reply by Tom Cooper on June 1, 2015 at 10:13am

Michael,

 I got my brother in law to send me one. It is clearly from the Cyclery North. I just couldn't read the design and couldn't remember having been so long.

Ron Boi should have been working with him. Unless my father has completely got the name wrong (a possibility at 83). Clearly the front fork is bent from his mishap.

Permalink Reply by Marcus Moore on June 2, 2015 at 2:33am

The owner of Cyclery North built a number of triple triangle frames...  Don't remember his name.  I think he passed away around '95-97?
The aforementioned Ron Boi and Mark Mattei will have more information.  Take your father's bike into one of those shops, while the owner is around, and you'll get some great info I'm sure.

Permalink Reply by Tom Cooper on June 6, 2015 at 2:55am

Thank you Marcus!

Permalink Reply by mike w. on June 2, 2015 at 9:06am

The fellow with the limp from the stroke was Eddie Weissler (Sp?) , the owner of Cyclery North. He was better known as a frame painter and my personal opinion is he suffered from exposure to fumes from the Imron paint. The builder that i remember from that shop -IIRC- was Scott Padiak. Padiak or Ed may have built that frame, i don't think it was one of Ron's, but you could talk to him at his shop on Green Bay rd. and ask. i believe Ed painted Ron Boi's framesets for awhile before Ron opened his own shop, but my memory isn't that reliable. i last saw Eddie in Rogers Park in the mid-ish 90s sometime after the close of the Clark St. location.

Permalink Reply by Tom Cooper on June 6, 2015 at 3:08am

Thank you Mike. My father is on the mend although a little depressed that his bicycling days may be behind him. His memory hasn't proved very reliable either on the bicycle builders name but when he finished his cross country ride (15 years ago), he rode into a bicycle shop in Portland, Oregon and the shop owner knew the bicycle builder (so he says) and he referred to the name Berkeley.

I am now beginning to think that the triple triangle frame design may have been popular with builders around the country and perhaps my father mistook the credit for a bicycle builder in Berkeley, California. hahaha

This has been a great journey. I do not live in Chicago any longer but I am going to forward this information to him. When he is mobile again, I would like to see if he would consider a trade in for a 3 wheel for the occasional ride in a forest preserve (someplace where his lack of hearing will not be such an event liability).

He is such a purest that he fears being laughed at.

Permalink Reply by Tom Cooper on June 6, 2015 at 3:08am

Awesome.

Thank you

Permalink Reply by Alex Kogan on February 18, 2019 at 4:01am

If you're still looking, that was Eddie Weissler.  He's still around, but not working anymore.  My best friend growing up was Eddie's son and we grew up in that bike shop and in the alleys and vacant lots behind it and next door.  

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