SANTA CRUZ, CA – Paul Sadoff’s small Westside shop is crammed with bicycles. More than 30 orange, pink, blue and purple bikes dangle like Christmas ornaments from the ceiling, line the walls, and fill the floor in various states of assembly. The music is cranked loud and Sadoff, in jeans and T-shirt, is hunched over a bike stand doing what he loves best, building frames with artistic fervor.

Sadoff’s specialty is making custom bikes – bikes that are tailored to a person’s measurements instead of set stock sizes. He designs and builds a variety of frame styles, including cyclo-cross, single speed, road, mountain and track, all of which are made primarily of aluminum or steel.

This year, his Santa Cruz business, Rock Lobster Cycles, celebrates its 15th anniversary and Sadoff, the sole proprietor, marks his 25th year of building bicycle frames.

“This is not a business you can run from your home,” explained Sadoff, 48, who lives with his wife Holly on the Westside. “This is totally hands-on,” he said of the one-man operation. “I do it all, from taking the orders to shipping the bikes.”

Sadoff is on a roll right now, handling a huge rush of orders that started in August. Despite the glut of work, he is never too busy to talk to the customers and neighbors in the Mission Industrial Land who stop by to check on their bikes or say hello.

“I got more orders than I ever have at once — 25 percent of the year’s business happened in just three weeks,” he told a recent visitor.

“Last year was the biggest year I ever had. My business has been steadily growing as I gained more product visibility,” said Sadoff, who estimates 35 percent of his clients are Santa Cruz County residents. He also ships many bikes to the Bay Area and throughout the country, especially to Missouri and Arizona. Overseas sales are increasing as well, with his bikes represented in half a dozen countries from Taiwan to Brazil.

“Lots of people don’t need custom bikes,” Sadoff said bluntly. “But many do, especially those who can’t find the right fit or who have injuries. It depends on how serious you are about biking.”

Pat Schott is serious about biking and always has two bicycles on hand, both Rock Lobsters, at cyclocross races. The Santa Cruz resident and topnotch competitor currently owns five Rock Lobsters and estimates he has bought ten bikes from Sadoff since ’86.

“I just let Paul take over,” said Schott about the production of his latest bike. “He is easy to work with and he puts a lot of time into it. He builds them to last. I have never broken a bike.” The reason Schott keeps going back for more is “they just keep getting better – lighter and faster.”

The demand for Rock Lobster bikes, which range in price from $900 for a frame to $3,000 for a full bike, ebbs and flows.

“There was a huge downturn for three months this year in the spring and early summer. The phone just stopped ringing,” said Sadoff, who started outside work one day a week to make ends meet. “I was toying with the idea of a career change, because business was not seeming viable.”

But then the surge of business happened. Sadoff does not know what factors caused the shifts but believes part of it was related to the economy.

“I realized I had to get back to work,” said Sadoff, who is accustomed to multiple jobs.

A professional musician for nearly two decades, Sadoff is currently a member of three bands, including the popular funk and R&B group Muthaship, who frequently play at Crow’s Nest and Ideal Bar and Grille. His passion for music runs so deep that he had a three-year stint as a full time guitar player in the Hydromatics before he launched his bike business in 1988.

“It was my dream to play music in a band since I was 16 years old,” said Sadoff. “I did join a band, play full time and made enough money to survive. But when we started playing casinos, that was the end of the line.”

In his final year as a musician, he completed 16 bike frames and decided to turn that hobby into a profession.

“I always set out to do something artistic,” said Sadoff of his transition from music to bikes.

With his graphic design training, he created the Rock Lobster logo, based on the B52’s song. “I thought about names and chose one that was silly and irreverent,” said Sadoff, revealing his lighthearted attitude about biking. When he is not making bikes or music, the former road bike racer goes for a ride or tackles a cyclo-cross race.

“I feel lucky I can do this business in Santa Cruz,” said the Southern California native who moved here in ‘77. “It’s a great place to live and work. It’s not easy to be a craftsperson here. You have to be tenacious and you have to be fortunate. There is a great cycling community here that I owe a lot to. It’s a two way street. I have had tremendous help and am grateful for that.”

For more information on Rock Lobster Cycles, visit http://www.rocklobstercylcles.com

Contact Karen Kefauver at Gerkin@aol.com for story ideas or assignments to cross worlds.

Click here for a photo of Karen with her sparkly Lobster from Pilarcitos Race #3 c/o Sabine Dukes.