RE: [CR] Repro Campy hoods

(Example: Framebuilders:Norman Taylor)

From: "Dave Patrick" <Patrick@aardvark-pro.com>
To: <GPVB1@cs.com>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: RE: [CR] Repro Campy hoods
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 12:34:00 -0400
In-Reply-To: <35.287e1a51.2a435740@cs.com>


Actually,

You can cut your mold costs significantly by going to Taiwan/China/Hong Kong etc. Expect to save 60-70% over U.S. prices for tooling, which makes the proposition a whole lot more attractive. I source parts from Asia all of time, including custom plastics etc., and their quality is excellent. And you could then lower your price point, if so desired. The kicker would be to get Campagnolo to authorize a third party to use their registered trade-marks, as I suspect that they would protect them very aggressively. Without the world logo, the repro hoods would not be worth replicating, in my view at least.

Candidly, as a collective unit (the CR list) perhaps we should try to petition Campagnolo to maintain or start up some sort of "historical" division, as they could possibly replicate other sought after parts from time-to-time. As the Reynolds tubing ad used to say, "there's strength in numbers". Take the issue right to the Campagnolo family (Valentino?). There must be quite a few projects/items they could reissue. The pricing would be steep, I'm sure, but it seems market prices may be support some of this. How about a reissue of the Cambio Corsa? Do you think they could sell 500 pieces world wide? 1000 pieces? I'm sure they could contract out some of the manufacturing to third parties. Then we could get Bianchi etc. to build a replica bike to incorporate the Cambio Corsa dropouts etc. Look out, I'm getting carried away here! I feel light-headed!

Anyway, just a few thoughts.

Dave Patrick Chelsea, Michigan

-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of GPVB1@cs.com Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 12:05 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] Repro Campy hoods

Hi Ben:

I don't see anyone on CR "expecting" Campy to make us any hoods.

What folks are concerned about is the fact that there aren't new hoods currently being made anywhere in the world, ergo the supply of this common wear item that's on hundreds of thousands of old Campy-equipped bikes will run out at some point. To imply that what's out there now (much of it already twenty+ years old) will last forever is just plain silly!

Let's do some math: perhaps $10,000 US for a mold. Sell 2000 sets at $50/pair (that's less than what NOS world-logo ones are selling for right now. Like I said, this won't be cheap). That's a ten-to-one ROI, perhaps reduced to five-to-one after other costs are considered. Sounds laughable to me - not!

If there's money to be made, someone will do it eventually.

FWIW, my recollection is that replacement world logo hoods were about $15-30 per pair in the late '70s.

Greg Parker A2 MI USA

Ben wrote:

<snip>
> none of this becomes the CR list.
>
> would my life be richer if i had an original remote for 4 year old sony VCR
> - no the Tandy universal model for $14.99 does just as well. sony would
> laugh at my request to remake one for me just as Campy is laughing at
> requests for their hoods. its cute and flattering but they will never take
> it seriously as they are in business to make money. if tullio were alive his
> response would be the same. it should have dawned on some of you that what
> you live for isnt getting cheaper.
>
> ciao,
>
> ben "still waiting on repro door sills for my Yugo" kamen NYC