Seattle friend Mark Thomas emailed to let me know one of the riders from the Pacific Northwest has moved to rural North Carolina. Talk about culture shock…
The rider is Charles Lathe, the man behind the custom lugged steel Coho Bicycles.
You can learn more about Charles’ bikes on his Web site and blog.
Welcome, Charles!
Charles has settled in to Franklinville, a small Piedmont town just west of Ramseur. That’s not too far from the 300K and 400K routes of our brevet series, and slightly southwest of the town of Liberty, the site of our near abandon on this spring’s flèche ride.
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Poking around Charles’ site, I learned that his bikes are named after the Coho salmon.
I also learned that the Coho is not Charles’ only tie to the sea. He worked for several years as a clamdigger. Check out his interesting blog entry about that career.
Perhaps there’s something about the Piedmont region that attracts framebuilders. McLean Fonvielle, the maker of Silk Hope and McLean bicycles, once had a one-man frame shop in nearby Saxapahaw. Although McLean died in the early 1980s, his elegant frames are still sought by collectors.
You can see samples of McLean’s work here.
For more information about McLean, see this interview I did with him in the 1970s.
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