Peter Johnson may be the finest framebuilder you’ve never heard of. Attendees at the Classic Rendezvous Weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina June 10-12, will have an opportunity to meet him face to face.

There are many giants of the arts that never gave up their day jobs to ply their craft full time. Poet T.S. Eliot was a banker in London. American music composer Charles Ives was a well-paid insurance executive. According to longtime NAHBS Awards judge and Classic Rendezvous Weekend organizer Dale Brown, we can add Northern California framebuilder Peter Johnson to this list.

Johnson has never hung a shingle outside his shop and taken orders by phone or through the internet. In fact, he claims he’s not a big fan of computers and he has no website of his own. However, he does have a Facebook page titled Peter Johnson: Public Figure. On that page is a photo of Johnson in the august company of Tom Ritchey, Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher.

Peter Johnson (far right) with (L-R) Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze and Tom Ritchey at the 2012 NAHBS in Sacramento.  Photo courtesy Peter Johnson

Johnson’s full-time occupation is as a prototype machinist, so it’s largely related to his avocation. But this part-time builder has supplied bicycles to World Champion Ned Overend, Seven-foot tall NBA center Rich Kelley, and has garnered high praise from all of his clients, well-known or more anonymous.

So how did Peter Johnson become the unknown master of American framebuilding?

An accident and lack of money were two key factors. A love of go kart racing as a teen set him down the path to framebuilding.

“I was a go kart fanatic before I got into cycling. I was about 13 or 14 and my dad wasn't into it. If you're a kid with no money and can't even drive yet, go kart racing probably isn't going to happen! I did manage to build a pretty sophisticated chro-moly kart frame when I was around 14 (1971). I made most every part: frame, gas tank,exhaust, even the steering wheel. I had no money, so there was no choice. We had a very nice hobby shop in the back yard, with a drill press, grinders, lathe, sheet metal stuff, wood stuff, air compressor, plus gas and stick welding equipment.

I tack welded the kart frame together with our stick welder, then my dad had the TIG guy at his work finish the job,” said Johnson.

Financial imperative again compelled Johnson to build his own bicycle frame after he fell out of love with karting, and into love with cycling. But a close encounter with a picket fence left him injured and needing a new bike.

“One day I was riding to school, and a car backed out of a blind driveway. I was going downhill about 30 mph and didn't want to skid through my new silk tires ($$$$). I managed to miss the car, but ended up breaking a fence in half. I hit so hard it snapped the forks off and I crushed three vertebrae. I had to wear a heavy back brace for months. Anyway, I had no bike and no money, so I decided to build a frame. I had made forks before and did tube replacements, braze-ons and paint jobs, so it wasn’t too out-of-line,” says Johnson.

Johnson explains that his first effort at framebuilding wasn’t an immediate success. In fact, it was so bad he didn’t mind when it too met with a sad end!

“At that time (1973) the hot bikes were Ron Cooper and Colnago. They were short, stiff criterium bikes. I didn't know anything about geometry, so I thought if short and steep was good, I'll make my frame SUPER short and steep. The angles were 75 degrees, the bottom bracket was sky high with ultra short chainstays and fork rake like a track bike. It also had my own vertical dropouts, a sealed bearing BB, fastback seat stays, allen key brake bolts and loads of cut-outs in the lugs. It looked OK, but the geometry was terrible. It got stolen later and I wasn't all that unhappy,” says Johnson.

Photo: Jan Johnson

Johnson’s next build was for a well-known local racer. “Why he would order a frame from a kid in high school with little experience, I'll never know,” he says.

Word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising, and as Johnson increased his output through the mid-eighties, his handbuilt frames became a prized commodity, if still something of an insider secret. But as his confidence grew, so did his desire to innovate. The eighties were drawing to a close, and the mountain bike craze of the 1990s was beginning.

“I was one of the first guys to play with fillet brazing and oversized tubes. I'm also pretty sure (but not 100%) to have invented the threadless steer tube, the sealed bearing headset and the allen key brake bolt,” Johnson claims.

“I'll probably get hate mail over this!” he jokes.

Johnson says he builds a frame every now and again, “very slowly.”

So a Peter Johnson frame remains a great treasure - if you can get one. Come make your plea at the Classic Rendezvous Weekend, where Johnson will be leading a seminar on Saturday, June 11.