![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/55131251283_65aae79c61.jpg\")
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Tech features<\/a><\/p>\n This is a story about bicycle painting, but it’s also a story about what matters in life.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Bruno Ratensperger<\/p>\n Bruno Ratensperger, Peter Flax, courtesy Holland Cycles<\/p>\n This story begins in a vacant parking lot behind the Deering Banjo Company\u2019s factory. That\u2019s where the bike painter has his workshop. Bright light and laughter and the scent of solvents spill out of the doorway. This scene unfolds in a place called Casa de Oro, an unincorporated community near the eastern edge of civilization in San Diego, California.\u00a0<\/p>\n He meets me in the doorway with a big grin. His name is Joe Bell. He\u2019s far from famous, but in the relatively small but passionate culture of people who make or love handbuilt bicycles, his dedication to the craft carries a lot of weight. Closing in on 70, Bell has been painting bicycles for his entire adult life.\u00a0<\/p>\n None of his friends or collaborators call him Joe. They all call him JB. Everyone seems to smile when they say JB out loud.<\/p>\n Bell starts with a tour of his workshop. He shows me the compressors, the two interconnected sand-blasting cabinets (\u201cI don\u2019t get a lot of tandem frames these days,\u201d he shrugs), lockers full of specialty paints manufactured by DuPont during the Carter administration. Scraps of sandpaper are everywhere. JB points to a door and mentions there\u2019s a one-sixth scale Learjet behind it, like that\u2019s a totally normal thing to say.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dozens of gorgeous raw frames hang from the rafters \u2013\u00a0each of them somebody\u2019s dream destined to be realized in technicolor with decals for Richard Sachs or Holland Cycles or Rivendell. There are vintage Colnagos awaiting a makeover and a ginormous Holland on display \u2013\u00a0one of many bikes that JB painted over the years for NBA legend Bill Walton, who passed away in 2024. The walls of the expansive space are lined with stickers of deceased bike brands and framed black & white photos and posters of races that no longer exist.<\/p>\n Then it\u2019s handshakes with the guys hanging out in the workshop. All of these guys are regulars here. We\u2019ll explore this brotherhood soon enough, but for starters it\u2019s safe to say that hundreds of years of experience in the craft of designing and building and painting bikes are present, nursing ice-cold Tecates, awaiting the right moment to give JB shit in the most loving way possible.<\/p>\n One of the guys cracking jokes is Bill Holland. He\u2019s been fabricating bikes near Casa de Oro since the 70s. He\u2019s the one who gave a young Joe Bell his first job; the one who taught him to paint frames in a professional manner. Holland points toward the parking lot. \u201cWalk through that door and it\u2019s 50 years ago,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Everyone laughs, but it\u2019s not exactly a joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n An unlikely origin<\/p>\n Joe Bell grew up about 20 miles and a world away from Casa del Oro. Back then, Imperial Beach, which is closer to Tijuana than downtown San Diego, was hardly some bougie coastal enclave. \u201cDown in IB, it was easy to fall in with the wrong crowd,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasted a lot of my youth at the pier, mostly standing around doing nothing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The journey to a different life began with a Schwinn Varsity. Bell lived eight blocks from the beach, so he used that bike to get to the pier and wherever else he wanted to go. When he turned 16, he thought briefly about getting a driver\u2019s license but ultimately decided it would complicate his life. He realized he could go anywhere he wanted on that Schwinn, and he began venturing farther from home.<\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Peter-Flax-portrait-horizontal.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Joe-Bell-26.jpg\")
The work of one master in the hands of another. Photo \u00a9 Peter Flax<\/p>\n
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