okay, wiseguy...
let me tell you what i've stated to others today,
and at other times, regarding this 'owner/operator'
issue, (for lack of a better term.).
what i have written about this and related subjects
is based on my personal experience as a frame maker,
a racer, a oft-time visitor to most of the italian frame shops
cited, and as a person who likes to think his antennae
is working properly. i think there's a lot of myth and mystique
in this business and much of it comes from lore, marketing hype,
ignorance, innuendo, and also from bits of each of these
when thrown into a stew.
when i chime in to the list, i try pretty hard to keep it from
being a 'shop at e-RICHIE's bike o'rama' kind of thing.
i'm opining based on my first hand knowledge, not speculating,
but i try not to personalize it. but here comes the exception:
yeah-i work alone. what i do here exists outside the lines of
the typical industry model. other people have made their
career choices based on the economy of scale relating to
the environment or personal situation in which they exist.
since i never chose to be someone's boss, i remain alone.
period. that doesn't mean one man shops are better than
production shops, or vice versa. and for me to choose to remain
a one man shop and, at the same time, have first hand experiences
that enable me to form opinions about production shops, does
not constitute an indictment of situations in which a brand name
is slapped on the wares made by a staff member or under license.
it all works. there's a market for what i do. and there's a market
for copycat/reproduction/licensed stuff. my only beef is that
people expect that, FOR INSTANCE, if faliero masi's name
is on the bicycle, that somehow, it's "wrong" if it was made
by someone else. the issue of quality, or collectibilty, or
desireability-that's a dfferent subject.
i gotta go to work...
e-RICHIE