bob is right. i sgree with him. as a neophyte, i dreamed of being like some of the 'names' famous 'in the day'. but as time passed, and my eyes opened, and ESPECIALLY after my first 3 week trip to italy in 79, i realized that is is/was apples and oranges. all the role models i had used for myself turned out to be production shops, or near-production shops. lots of people. lots of machinery. nothing very personal. in essence, i let it all go, and then looked outside the cycle industry for my inspirations. fast forward to this thread; there is no way to compare ANYTHING that we all do to folks doing similar work abroad. we live in the suburbs in 'merica and they don't. the cost of living is just plain different. the cost of labor and goods is different. and we use all imported parts and they use all domestic parts. it's not at all an even playing field. no matter! the demand is continually high here and i hope it is for our brethren in europe. e-RICHIE chester, ct POSTSCRIPT ...and i know people hate when i say stuff like this, but until your bicycle 'goes by itself', there may as well be no bar to get raised! that is, let's not disect this stuff. just go ride!!!!
On Sat, 27 Jul 2002 23:16:47 +0100 Bob Reid <bob.reid1@virgin.net>
writes:
> The more I hear of this topic, the more I would question if in fact
> the bar
> had been raised at all, but would offer up that in those you mention
> were
> not in any position to compete, but actually moved off and started
> their own
> game. In the US boom years, would yet another builder of exotic
> italian-like frames have had much success playing the same game -
> did anyone
> do it and survive and not get burnt ?
>
> As I'm from the wrong side of the pond, can any of the current and
> ex-builders from that era in the U.S.A. enlighten me as to the
> comparitive
> cost of those machines they were constructing against those they
> were trying
> to compete with in raising the bar. ? I would suspect that there
> were no
> direct equivalents as such, and in fact they were offering something
> of
> superior "quality" but not at a similar cost - a case of comparing
> the
> incomparable..... apples with pears - as there never was a time
> when they
> were turning out " the standards of craftsmanship, precision, and
> accuracy"
> for the same bucks as the latest Euro import - now that would have
> been a
> coup, and a classic case of "raising the bar".
>
> I know of no present day builders in the UK, producing machines
> comparable
> to the likes of those by Richard Sachs, that said they're me be
> builders
> capable of doing so. There is no obvious market here for those
> machines at
> that price. I wish there was, but I would doubt Richard would get
> out of
> bed, or Brian would stop playing Drums and sticking breadsticks up
> his nose
> (I have the negatives) for what most riders here would pay for an
> exotic
> lugged steel frame, so the game remains the same, and only a few
> hanging in
> there and benefitting from the kudos of "classic" names.
>
>
> Bob Reid
> Stonehaven
> Scotland
>
>
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