1977 Sampson
1971 Bill Sampson custom
Bill Sampson was a bike builder in Northern California in the late 1960’s through 1980.
His engineering prowess and craftsmanship is evident in the few bikes that we have been fortunate enough to find. Bill kind of dropped off of the bicycle radar in about 1980 and we haven’t heard anything of him since.
This is a custom bike from the 1970’s which means that the procurement process was quite a bit different than what someone would experience today. If your thumbs are sore from texting, and you can’t remember the last time that you conversed with someone who was making an item for you to purchase (beyond a coffee at Starbucks), I encourage you to click on the correspondence between Bill and Philip (the original owner of the bike) and see what the process of buying something custom used to be like.
There was no online template to follow. Sampson’s website didn’t exist, much less offer examples of completed bikes and/or bullet points about frame angles or tubing picks. There were no visual aids or customer reviews for helping with the buying decision. Philip probably heard about Bill Sampson from a riding buddy, phoned or wrote a letter describing what he was after, and here we have correspondence from Bill describing the engineering that only exists in Bill’s mind.
Custom bike via typed correspondence
Headtube almost longer than the fork blades
Campagnolo Nuovo Record
72cm Sampson vs. 50cm Lynskey
The finished bike is pretty stunning, right?
This seventy-two centimeter chrome beauty was built from scratch for a Bainbridge Island local. The chrome and the vintage component choices are pretty arresting to see, but the size is the real scene stealer. This bike was made for a rider just over six foot eight inches in height. To comfortably straddle the top tube of his bike, you would need an inseam of at least thirty-eight inches.