I bought my Richard Sachs tourer back in 1978.  I had shattered an elbow on a criterium bike in 1975 and started riding an inexpensive tourer as soon as I could ride again.  Three years later, a new job with disposable income allowed me to finally get that great bike I'd been looking for, a Witcomb of America from a favorite shop, The Bicycle Place.  They said that Witcomb had just gone out of business but they were selling frames from this guy Richard Sachs who they felt had been Witcomb's best frame builder.  They had a show frame that was just gorgeous.  I ordered the bike through them.

I ordered a fast, stiff touring bike, with a high bottom bracket (popular among racers at the time) and built to carry loads, but for mostly fast light touring.  It started out all Campy but for the TA Cyclotourist close ratio triple.  The bike parts were constantly updated to more wide gear ranges, in half step plus granny.  In 1989, I ran into Peter Weigle at a GEAR in Mystic, Connecticut, who convinced me to take the frame back to Richard for work and a repaint.  The dropouts were spread for a six-speed hub, low rider and fender mounts were brazed on, and it acquired the paint job it now has from Joe Bell.  Richard gave me the information to get a Campagnolo NR crankset drilled and tapped for the Avocet granny gear.

Having worked in bike shops in the 1970s, I've ridden a lot of bikes.  Nothing I've ridden before or since handles with the grace of the Sachs.  Its balance and ride has always given me the courage to take twisty, humpy downhills as fast as I can, with riding friends often letting me go first so I don't blow past them while they're just hanging on.  Now, as I'm aging, I just can't quite get to the Sachs' limits the way I used to.  I'll ride other bikes, but it's always like coming home when I get back on the Sachs.

The bike now has at least 50,000 miles on it, but its not going to be retired any time soon.  I plan on having it the rest of my life.  I would like to get another Richard Sachs, a road bike to be a match with this one.  Now that would be something!

Dan Artley
Maryland