RIP Jon Williams - Drillium Revival

Photo from the Biciak blog. There's a nice article
there about Jon and his work.

The vintage and classic bicycle world lost a good friend this week. Jon Williams, whom some may know through his Drillium Revival work, died suddenly of a heart attack while riding his bike Wednesday. I don't know exactly how old Jon was, but he was young enough that his sudden death comes as a real shock. Jon had really built a name for himself with the vintage cycling crowd for his creativity and taste in modifying bicycle components.

I won't go into a lot of clichés about how a man's death reminds us to live every day like it could be our last. And I can't give a lot of biographical info about Jon. He was a friend and regular contributor to the discussions on the Classic Rendezvous group, and I have exchanged a few emails with him over the years, but we never actually met face to face, and I can't say that I really knew him personally. But like a lot of people, I did admire his work and had thought about having him drill and modify some components for my Mercian 753 Special - of all the bikes I own, that one seemed like it would have been the one for which some tastefully lightened parts would have been the most appropriate. Now I really wish I'd gotten that done.

I mentioned Jon's work a few years ago in an article about drillium, and he had a lot of pictures of his work on Flickr. I don't know how long that account will remain available - but I'd like share a few of my favorites:

Really nicely drilled Campagnolo Record crank. Notice that the spider arms are slotted all the way through.

This Nuovo Record derailleur almost looks like it was made of lace. This would pair up nicely with the crank shown above.

Another angle. Like I said - like lace.

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to modifying something like a stem, where breakage would be exceptionally bad for one's teeth - but the milling on this Cinelli is tasteful and not too excessive.

Jon didn't just modify vintage components - he would sometimes modify current production pieces as well, like this more modern Campagnolo Athena crank. . .

. . . or this Compass Bicycles Rene Herse style crank. This one was only minimally modified as a special touch for a Peter Weigle-built bike that competed in the Concours de Machines Technical Trials in France. You can see the bike at Jan Heine's blog.

For those lucky enough to have examples of his work, Jon's artistry will be a lasting reminder of the talent that was lost this week.