Darren' D's generosity... and it's rewards

[Rody]

Hey folks,

This started off as a private message I was responding to, but with a full inbox, I could not send it back to Darren, so I thought you'd enjoy knowing of his random act of kindness and how it benefitted some of us.

A number of years ago, Darren had contacted me about a Serotta T-Max mtb frame that he possessed with bad cancer in the chainstays. Unable to get it repaired locally and unwilling to just toss it in the scrap bin, he sent it to me in hopes that someday I'd have time to correct it's issues and have it see new life, even if he was not to benefit from it.

My smoked out article sparked his curiosity and prompted this pm...

Serotta MTB frame
Hi Rody:

Welcome to VSalon!

I am not sure if you remember me, but I shipped a broken Serotta Max OR frameset to you about three years ago and I was just wondering if anything ever came of it? Did you repair it or . . . . . trash it?!

Just curious - I was sad that I couldn't use that frame, but was happy that you took it on as a project.

Great story in Smoked Out too - Mr. Sachs had a great idea with this section of the forum.


Hope you are doing well,

Darren

and this response, which I was unable to send due to a full receiving inbox...

Darren,

Thanks so much for the contact, it is a pleasure to hear from you. You will be pleased to know that the Serotta frame lives on, albeit not as either of us may have expected.

The rust was much more pervasive than originally thought, extending into both the seat and chainstays, the lower half of the seat tube, and the distal end of the down tube. The knowledge of the extent of repair necessary forced me to shelve the frame until a a restoration project I was working on sparked the interest from a number of younger builders. Questions of how to fill rusted holes, replace tubes, and feather in to existing paint were all posed.

I'm pleased to tell you that the T-Max became the patient for demonstration purposes for numerous blog posts, allowing me to pass on these skills to the next generation of framebuilders.

Although the frame will never see service again on the trail, I'd like to extend my thanks for your generosity in sending it to me, as it has become an instructional vehicle of inmeasurable value.

cheers,

rody

So, a big pat on the back to Darren...thanks!

[EricKeller]

that's an amazing collection of holes in that frame