Mike DeSalvo at DeSalvo Cycles has been making badass racing/touring/cruising frames for almost ten years.
I can still remember when I contacted him in the summer of 2002, or was it 2003?, I can't remember, to have him build me a white ciclo frameset. It really does feel like a lifetime ago.
In the past, I have been lucky to have both a road and a cross frame made by Mike. Recently I have decided to only have frames built by guys named Mike.
Although I have never seen another DeSalvo frame in person, I have seen many of them on the internet. I know there are more out there and I wish more people would post their DeSalvos.
Much like a Dutch Frite, each one has its individual texture, flavor, and color to them. Each one a little treasure.
This year I am going through some new and exciting changes. It seems like many of my close friends, as well as members of my family are going through some large changes as well.
I sold my two DeSalvos this year. I really loved them and never thought that I would sell them. I felt very guilty about selling them, as it is rare in this life to have someone build something just for you. But in many ways it felt really good to sell it so that someone else could really enjoy the frames, as they are amazing frames, built to last a lifetime. In the end, I felt that it was better that someone was putting in some big winter miles on the DeSalvos then having it sit in my basement.
P.S. One of the only times I cried in the last ten years was when someone stole my DeSalvo Cross bike as I was quickly checking email at the HAC Lab at Hopkins...
