Back in 2023, iconic frame builder Waterford Bicycle Factory shut its doors. Waterford has a rich history as a premier USA frame building company. Based in Waterford, Wisconsin, this small company produced high-end, custom, hand-built steel-frame bicycles, particularly for road, criterium, stage, track, and cyclocross racing. Waterford was founded in 1993 by Richard Schwinn, the great-grandson of Ignaz Schwinn, the founder of the Schwinn Bicycle Company in 1896.
It was sad to see Waterford close its doors. But the sadness didn’t last too long. After the closure, Waterford was purchased by Colorado’s Sanitas Cycles, and they swooped in and saved the day.
Closure: The Final Days of the Waterford Bicycle Factory
Today, Tucker Schwinn has launched a new coffee table book documenting the Waterford closure. Closure: The Final Days of the Waterford Bicycle Factory is a beautifully curated, 240-page photographic essay with all storytelling and photography by Tucker.
It’s an intimate portrait of domestic manufacturing as told through Tucker’s unique perspective from growing up in the shop to co-managing it until its closure in 2023.
It’s a beautiful visual narrative that’s expressed through amazingly unique portraits. The visuals of well-used machines, processes, and textures have a personality all their own. It’s something that comes from decades of use and wear at the hands of skilled, expert framebuilders and craftspeople.
If you have a passion for hand-built bicycles and framebuilding, the tools they used, the processes they’ve developed and honed, as well as the personality of a well-used frame-building shop, this book should be on your coffee table.
The book’s first five chapters are an intimate tour of Waterford. The final chapter captures the factory’s closure as it unfolds. It pays homage to the Schwinn family legacy and Waterford as a part of American cycling history.
Get Your Copy
Retail: $64.96
Closure: The Final Days of the Waterford Bicycle Factory is available now for pre-order here. Books should ship by the end of November, arriving in time for the holidays.
