UBI Faculty

Every UBI faculty member has years of bike industry experience and was chosen for their extensive backgrounds in mechanics, frame building, shop operations, and other industry endeavors. Their teaching style creates a fun and creative learning environment which stimulates the mind and allows easy comprehension of each mechanical procedure.

The size of our faculty roster means that UBI has the best student-teacher ratio in the industry. In our mechanics classes, our student-to-teacher ratio is 5.3 to 1, and in our frame building classes it is 4 to 1.

Ron Sutphin, president of UBI, has been working professionally in the bicycle industry since 1978. His experience includes several years as a retail bicycle shop manager and master mechanic and has been a UBI instructor since the school was founded in 1981. He is intimately familiar with the many problems and benefits of bike shop operation. Ron is also a master frame builder, having produced scores of high quality custom framesets over the past decade. His skills as a frame builder and master mechanic provide a background that gives a perspective few instructors can match. Ron's easily understood style of teaching makes learning bicycle repair and frame building easy and enjoyable.

Gary Mathis brings both shop mechanic and frame building experience to UBI. His career started in 1988 at Topeka Schwinn in Kansas. He later did brazing, finishing and product development for Fat City Cycles, and went on to be a brazer for Independent Fabrication. Gary has also been a mechanic and instructor at Broadway Bicycle School, the worker-owned co-op in Cambridge, MA.

Matt Eames has worked for 20 years in the bike industry, including seven years with Shimano as lead mountain bike technician and OEM sales. Before that, Matt was a mountain bike race mechanic with Diamondback Racing. In 2010 he was chosen to be a team mechanic for the US at the World Mountain Bike Championships. Matt also has seven years in the ski industry.

Steve Glass has over ten years of bike shop experience, including positions as Service Manager and General Manager for one of the Pacific Northwest's leading shops. He also has been trained as a race mechanic, and recently provided neutral race support for both the Cascade Classic and the Tour of Missouri. Steve is also a successful mountain and road racer, a certified river guide, and an accomplished back-country skier.

Jeff Menown brings a wealth of experience in the bicycle industry to UBI. His career started with wrenching in several large Seattle-area bike shops. Jeff later moved on to the manufacturer side of the industry, and he's served as product manager for both the American Bicycle Group and Giant.

Nathan Riddle's ten years in the bike industry include positions as a shop mechanic and work for a parts distributor. Nathan is also an elite-level downhill racer. Come to think of it, he's elite-level on the uphills, too.

Rich Arvizo started in the bike industry as a shop mechanic. He's also worked for Yeti and the custom frame fabricator Black Sheep Bikes. Rich is our resident engineering expert, holding a Master's degree in structural engineering. He tends to win all the geeky tech arguments around UBI. He is also the Oregon State Masters swimming champion in the 50 meter butterfly.

Dylan Robbins joined UBI after working as production manager at Portland’s Beloved Cycles. His cycling resume also includes work as a shop mechanic in Ashland and Austin,TX, and as Sales Manager at Ashland’s United Bicycle Parts. Dylan has a degree in anthropology, and holds an unspecified rank and security clearance in Jens Voigt's Army.

Bob Kamzelski joins UBI after six successful years as head frame builder for Bilenky Cycleworks in Philadelphia. When not brazing award-winning frames, Bob worked as a community bike program volunteer with Neighborhood Bike Works in inner Philadelphia. Prior to picking up a torch, Bob studied building on a larger scale, earning a degree in Architecture from Penn State, making him the only UBI faculty member who can build you both a lugged touring frame and a scale model of the Parthenon. A dyed-in-the-Merino bike commuter, he has never driven a car, and often undertakes long bike tours with his family. His CIA dossier notes that he earned a black belt in tae kwon do at the age of eleven, and should be considered extremely harmless.

Jim Kish teaches UBI's Steel TIG and Titanium frame building classes. A frame builder based in North Carolina, Jim has earned a reputation as one of the best TIG welders in the business. He won the award for "Best Titanium Bicycle" at the 2011 North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Austin, TX. You can learn more about Jim's bikes at www.kishbike.com.

Mike DeSalvo teaches UBI's TIG Welding Seminars and Steel TIG frame building classes. A native of northern California, Mike now calls Ashland his home. A multiple award winner at the North American handmade Bicycle Show, Mike has established his name as a versatile frame builder in steel and Ti. You can see Mike's frames at www.desalvocycles.com.

Paul Sadoff joined UBI's staff as a guest frame building instructor in 2008, and he teaches a session of UBI's Steel TIG Welding Frame Bulding class every year. Paul has been building frames full time since 1988, and is best know as the creator and builder of Rock Lobster Cycles.

John Baxter, UBI’s Administrator, joined UBI's staff in 2002 after a 25 year career in media, including public radio, TV, publishing and the Internet. He’s also been working on bikes since he was old enough to drop a wrench, and has been a bicycle commuter and advocate since high school (which he kind of remembers). John is an avid cyclist, speed skater, skier and hiker.

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