I own several bikes and love to ride all of them. IMHO, the patina of a well maintained bike with plenty of miles is much higher to me than off-the-shelf "shineyness". In fact, I find the latter category kind of boring. Has anyone ever lusted over the richness of a well cared for, broken-in saddle, or that yellow patina from laquer based clearcoats.
I don't know why so many folks lust after "artisan" bikes. I do own a few, and find British craftsmanship on par, and better in ride and design than the Singers and Herses that I own or have owned. My Hurlow is second to none, as are my Gillott, Ephgrave, and to a lesser extent Hetchins. The workmanship is exemplary, the finish superb, and the ride is agile and agressive. I sold few Herse's a year ago that were complete dogs. The frames were whacked out alignment-wise. One actually have a rear chainstay that was noticably shorter than the other to the naked eye. The bike would veer to the left the minute my hands left the bars. it felt like I was fighting to ride it.
My favorites are what I+ would guess most would call an-aesthetic. Those are the tweaked out racing bikes of the 30's through 70's. I'm not talking about "off the shelf" NOS here. You have to look closely at these things and you'll see what the team mechanics or builders did to tweak them, such as crimping the front derailleur cage, pulling the wheel way up in the drops and shortening the chain, cupping the saddle cantleplates to fit the rider, etc.
Then there are th ereal beauties, in my opinion, such as teh Masi that i recently bougt on Ebay that many turned down because it wasn't "NOS". It is a 69/70 GC with Masi "Black & Deckered" (to use a Schmidt-ism) brake calipers, drilled out chainrings, and a drilled out saddle. Even came with an extra front derailleur that was also slot-milled on the outer cage, and an extra milled seatpost - all done in the Masi shop. Sound familiar??? Check Merckx's 1969/70 time trial bikes (Masi Specials) or the great bikes of the Molteni, SCIC and other teams of late 60's early 70's. (Thanks to CS and RS for their comments).
Ken Denny Beantown (highs in high 20's today. Numbbbbbb)
No, I really have no use for NOS. It would only last that way for a moment. I'm reminded of an antiques roadshow (as much as I hate the contrivance of that show) where a person was chastised for removing patinae from a copper vase and cutting its value by 80%. Patina, well worn from use coupled with great care, is everything.
Ken denny
Boston