How it all started

I always had a bike growing up, cruising around the neighborhood with my friends, seeing who could skid the farthest. I didn’t truly get hooked until my 12th birthday and a silver Raleigh Record 10-speed. We had moved to a rural area of upstate NY a year earlier, and the kid's bike I had been riding wasn’t cutting it on the hills around our new house. Suddenly I had the ability to get up all those hills and see the countryside, and I’ve never looked back.

I moved on from the Raleigh to a mountain bike a couple of years later and began to explore the motorcycle trails in the valley near my house. My friends and I would plunge into watery ruts up to our cranks and see who could make it the farthest. I learned very quickly the skills needed to keep a bike functioning, as most nights after rides were spent overhauling my bottom bracket and hub bearings. I got my first job in a bike shop during my Junior year of high school assembling kiddy bikes in a small windowless room upstairs from the “Bike, Golf and Ski Warehouse” in Schenectady, NY. I can laugh now, but it wasn’t very glamorous working in that little room next to a chain smoker who assembled bikes with an impact wrench.

I steadily moved up to nicer shops over the next few years and in ’94 I got a call from a friend who worked at Serotta, they needed someone in the shipping department. It wasn’t the most exciting job, but it got me in the door. It was here where I would meet Dave Kirk and Kelly Bedford, two builders who had the most influence on my development as a frame builder.

I didn’t pick up brazing immediately, but one day after work Kelly showed me how to use the torch and I was off melting metal. My early work didn’t win any awards for beauty, but I still have a set of bar-ends I built for myself. It was only after Ben Serotta reacquired the business from his investors that he asked if I would consider becoming a frame builder. I leapt at the chance and threw myself into learning the trade. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from Dave Kirk at Serotta, he patiently answered my questions and showed me the subtle differences that separate a good frame from an exceptional one. These were the most important two years in my development as a builder, from learning the trade from Dave to learning to problem solve on my own after Dave and his wife moved to Montana.

As the year 2000 began, I moved on from Serotta to one of the only other shops still building lugged steel production bikes: Waterford. I wanted to learn new skills and loved the stainless lug bikes that I had seen on Waterford’s website. I called, introduced myself and asked if they would be interested in my skills. They were, and I never looked back: I loaded a moving van and headed to Wisconsin.

The last eight years have been the best of my life. I met my wife in 2002 and we are approaching our 5th anniversary in May. Professionally I have enjoyed challenge of expanding the offerings at Waterford and developing the custom lug aspect of the business. I was afforded a great degree of creativity in creating one-of-a-kind bikes. I always enjoyed the chance to work directly with the customer in creating their ideal. My new venture is the next logical step.

This brings us to the present, and the beginnings of Ellis Cycles.

So Who’s Ellis?

Those of you who know Dave Wages may be wondering: "Who’s Ellis?" It’s my middle name, and my great-Grandmother’s maiden name. I never met her, but my Grandfather Wages always spoke very fondly of his mother. It is with pleasure that I use this name for my bicycles; I’m sure he’s proud as well.