[CR]Re: Aluminium bikes, pieces of crap and other nonsense...

(Example: Framebuilders:Tony Beek)

In-Reply-To: <105.6bffbb0.2891bbc9@aol.com>
References: <105.6bffbb0.2891bbc9@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 17:46:54 -0400
To: OROBOYZ@aol.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Sheldon Brown" <CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com>
Subject: [CR]Re: Aluminium bikes, pieces of crap and other nonsense...


Cousin Dale wrote:
>Re: Sheldon's calling a spade a spade (Corso bikes).. I think it is probably
>unwise to be too blistering in one's assessment of someone else's bike.. I
>recall in the shop some years ago one of my employees telling a woman that
>the bike she wanted to have repaired was "not worth it and a crummy bike",
>etc. only to learn later, after she left in tears that the bike had been
>given to her by her recently passed away husband.
>People value things differently... Bikes cause a problem though, as there
>are definitely bad, unsafe and poorly operating bikes and it is a shame when
>people acquire an affection for them...

I pay attention to context and to my audience. If a stranger on a ride asked me about the bike they were riding, or a customer came into the shop with a bike, I would be gentler and more diplomatic.

It is true that many people are deeply bonded to older bikes, often bikes that none of us would give house room too. I respect this bond, and sell a lot of parts to people who are maintaining/updating such bikes.

In this instance, however, the person asking was not a stranger, but was someone I consider a friend. Although I've never met Steve in the flesh, we've been tossing electrons back and forth for several years, and each of us has done favors for the other. Moreover, he was asking about a bike he'd just acquired, and, in fact, his post inclduede the word "junk."

These bikes are possibly the most loathesome junkers ever to come out of a European factory, even worse than Portugese Flandrias, and are NOT worth putting money into. They have horrible parts, cheap frames, and require Italian-thread bottom brackets. There are lots of decent quality bike-boom ten speeds around for people to restore/resurrect, but these are from the period when the big Euro factories were working multiple shifts to pump out units for an unsophisticated American public desperate for "ten speeds."
>Carlo Carr wrote:
>I suspect that you misinterpret Sheldon's intent. Some months back I posited
>a similar question to the list regarding a Flandria which I'd recently
>discovered. Sheldon 'set me straight' in a similar vein, with an appraisal of
>the item as "bike boom junk". Doubtless he saved me from a foolish
>expenditure, which would have been aggravated by further costs of upgrading,
>plus time and effort.

That was my intent.
>I hope that such scathing criticism of Mr. Browns honest candid assessment
>does not have a chilling effect on his willingness to offer his educated (and
>free) advice in the future.

How DARE you imply that I'm thin-skinned!!!!! I'm DEEPLY offended by this!!!

;-)

Sheldon "Not Easily Muffled" Brown +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | "The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a | | thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that | | cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be | | impossible to get at or repair." - Douglas Adams, RIP - HHGTTG | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+

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