dear ??,
this isn't apples and oranges. at the core of the past two day's
threads are issues about 1) modern framebuilding versus frame-
building that was modern a looong time ago, 2) the virtues of
doing something by hand versus designing it by hand and then
having it 'produced', either by assistants or mechanically,
3) whether people still do things the 'old' way with sweat equity
and the like...
as we've discovered vis-a-vis* the hetchins history piece that i hope
you read, even the progenitors of the 'handcut lug', that bastion of
bespoke british framebuilding, hetchins, sought to eliminate hand-work,
tried to maximize efficiency, and, heck, made no bones about the
'myth' that a caring framebuilder lovinginly caressed each and every
friggin' lug and imparted his spirit into every frame that bore the
hetchins marque, a marque that is the identifying brand associated
with ornamental frame detailing. they were not doing what most
people hoped to, or wanted to, believe. and ya' know what? they
did an XLNT job in spite of, or even because of, their desire
to make the most amount of frames whilst using their era's equivalent
of pre-fabbed building supplies. it's all in the history text. you can't
unring the bell!
as far as my question posed several times lately, "Where are the
customers?" it was a rhetorical question at best. you have work. i
have work. peter, dave, curt, tony...we all have work. there is
no shortage of people who want we we offer. things are good.
all of us, together, produce so few bicycles that, luckily, we are
insulated from the pressures of this or any market. all of us can make
frames the old way - with 'rough' parts, etcetera... - or we can make
frames with parts that represent the vanguard. either way, we're
keeping people on handmade bicycles. apples to apples.
e-RICHIE
* i just wanted to use "vis-a-vis" in a sentence...