Anthony":38va0sna said:
I'm not sure if you aren't confusing Syncros with Race Face here, who had the same owners as RM in the mid 90's. I'm not too sure they shared the same premises either, and much of RF's work was "outsourced" to different local machine shops around Vancouver at that time. I know there was a warehouse, which probably housed frames and RF parts. When I was back home last month I went out to dinner with my buddy and one of his friends. The subject turned to bikes, as we had been riding the Shore, and lo-and-behold, his friend was a RF employee in 1995. Naturally I pumped him for some insights and stories. We had about a 2 hour conversation about BITD in Vancouver, where lots of stuff was happening mtb-wise. Pretty interesting stuff. I wished I had had a tape-recorder, and couldn't persuade him to write down some of his recollections for this forum. I think it was a period he was glad was over, and he didn't like his job or the company (owners) back then. I belive he referred to it as "The Gulag." I did get a half-finished RF Turbine crank arm from him. Kind of cool to see it half-way machined out. I also got a list of old stuff he had lying around, including some NOS XT derailleurs and a few other NOS goodies, plus some used but good condition wheels, hubs, stems etc. I should probably contact him and get the list again. Maybe I can get my hands on some of the stuff. Next year I'll be taking notes when I pump him for insider info on the scene back then (Van isn't so big, and the mtb community was small enough that he had stories on Brodie, Chaz from Cove and everyone else you can think of.)
