All Hail the Cottage Industry!

In 1997 I met with framebuilder Chris Kvale at his Minneapolis workshop. It was then that I first became aware that making a product not in a factory is something of an homage to that thing. The next year I took a job at Waterford Precision Cycles in Wisconsin, the last production shop in the USA that embraced building with lugs and silver-brazing. There I learned the process from some of the most practiced builders in the country.

After a bike tour in 2005 I wound up back at home in Kenosha, Wisconsin with some time to spare. It was then that the first Capricorns were built in my parents’ garage. My goal wasn’t to make something beautiful or perfect, but to make something useful, simply. From there I spent a few years honing my work in a Minneapolis workshop of my own.

Now I’ve moved again to Eugene, Oregon, where within a few miles I can be riding through hills and forests on quiet backroads perfect for long rides. I know bicycles have the capacity to help us accomplish extraordinary things. It’s because of this that I make extraordinary, traditionally-crafted products for bicyclists.

Bradley Wilson, Fabricator/Cottage Industrialist
Capricorn Bicycles