Stevan Thomas wrote (in part)
"A big part of this can be compared to the difference in hand craftsmanship, by craftsmen who really care about what they're doing, and modern manufacturing methods. I'm going to give a two examples of this. One is the old Italian car industry where there are pictures of teams of guys holding sheets of aluminum (or steel) over a wooden frame, and another bunch of guys are pounding it into shape with mallets to match the forms. These are hand made cars. It's a different level of craftsmanship than what even Ferrari is making now. If you like hand made stuff, the other stuff just
won't do."
Stevan is right about the "different level of craftsmanship". The new ones (Ferrari's), are made better! Richard Sachs says somewhere that "the workforce is the weakness", or something to that effect. (Pardon me if I have misquoted you, richie). The point is, although we cherish those hand crafted items, we don't know if they (the craftsman with the mallets pounding the fenders), really cared from one day or hour to the next, if they were doing a good job. That is the point of mass production - to improve quality control, not to make it worse. Richard also talks about this when he talks of striving for a "repeatable process", in his building. This is why my 2000 VW has a higher quality level than one of those old Ferrari's, and why your neighbors TIG welded trek is better constructed, with more rigid quality controls, than your or mine PX10. You will get no argument from me about the older Ferrari having more "soul" than the new ones. But not better quality. Respectfully, Richard Rose (Toledo, Ohio) P.S. I have it on good authority that steel frames (good ones), never 'go soft".