RE: Re: [CR]Pinnicle of the vintage lightweight era?

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To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Cc:
From: "stevens" <stevens@veloworks.com>
Subject: RE: Re: [CR]Pinnicle of the vintage lightweight era?
content-length: 2548
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 14:11:59 -0800


But can't an investment cast lugset still be filed and indiviualized just as a stamped lugset would be? Couldn't a builder design a blank lugset and have it cast (which is supposed to make for a stronger lugset as well, no?) and then file each individual blank the same way he might file a stamped lugset?


>--- Original Message ---
>From: Richard M Sachs <richardsachs@juno.com>
>To: Doland.Cheung@sce.com
>Date: 3/23/01 10:49:36 AM
>
>
>On Fri, 23 Mar 2001 09:32:39 -0800 Doland.Cheung@sce.com writes:
>What does everybody think the pinnicle of the vintage lightweight
>era might be?
>
>>>>during the mid 70s, as the 'investment cast' era was being
> ushered in, bicycles would begin to lose their soul. under
> the guise of new/improved/better/etc., the frame makers
> sold the bill that cast pieces advanced the quality of the frame.
> in truth, particularly in that era, all that cast lugs, one-piece
> brake briges, plug-in dropouts, and other similar parts did
> was reduce the handwork involved to produce a finely made
> frame. prior to that, it was a thousand little subconscious
>decisions
> that occured by each framebuilder every single time an operation
> or a sequence was carried out. intuition. experience. training. it
> matters not what you call it. it was needed to build frames then.
> when the little parts started coming from foundries and casting
> houses, most of the decisions regarding interfernce fits,
>clearances,
> aesthetics, etc., were taken out of the hands of the framebuilders
> and susequently were made by mold-makers. in time, all one would
> need to build a frame would be tubing and torches. the phenomenom
> of learning 'how to make frames' versus 'assembling frames' would
> spell the end of the classic bike as we CR listmembers define it.
> it might be easier to state that many feel that pre-fab, cast
>pieces
> are 'imitaion art'. i believe this is so. anything that can be
>bought
> by anyone or used by anyone cannot be defined as 'classic'.
> please don't read too much in to this; i'm not comparing eras
> nor saying 'us versus them'. i'm just answering doland's question.
> e-RICHIE