Jay Johnson, John Basile, Owner Steve Garn of BREW, Chris Bishop, John Noerenberg and Derek Ford are participating in the first BREW frame building class, which is one of the few frame building classes offered in the nation. Photo by Fawn Roark Participants pick out supplies and materials for their frame building class. Photo courtesy of www.brewracingframes.com BREW Bikes Offers One Of A Kind Frame Building Class By Fawn Roark BREW Bikes of West Jefferson is offering a frame building class this week that is basically one of its kind nationwide as it is a class offered by a manufacturer, according to Owner Steve Garn of BREW Bikes. Five participants from across the country are spending the week at BREW building their own bike frame and powder coating it themselves. The class includes a welding course and assistance in final welding and at least 50 hours of instruction along with hands-on experience. John Basile from San Jose, Calif.; Jay Johnson from Tampa, Fla.; Chris Bishop of Baltimore, Md.; Derek Ford of San Jose, Calif.; and John Norenberg of Kenosha, Wis. are participating in the first class offered by BREW. “I’ve been asked to do a class like this for about 20 years and finally I decided to give it a try. I put it on our website to see what would happen and we had over 30 applications. I wanted to limit it to about five or six participants per class,” Owner Steve Garn of BREW explained. “We will be working on design and manufacturing this week. Some of the guys said they would like to start their own company and that’s great. I don’t consider it competition because it will help us out and will build more of a manufacturing base here in the U.S. The more companies we have will help make us stronger,” he added. The next class is scheduled to take place in March. Information is available online at www.brewracingframes.com. According to the company’s website, BREW is serious about being a leader in the bike industry. Being a smaller company means they can prototype, design and test a product in a very short time. Most times they have the product tested while bigger companies are still deciding which path to follow. BREW Bikes LLC is a machine & fabrication shop located in the mountains of northwest North Carolina. The name BREW is the acronym for Blue Ridge Electric & Welding. Steve Garn started Blue Ridge Electric & Welding in 1983. The first frame with the BREW name was built in 1987 and since then, the company has received lots of national and worldwide recognition.