Hmm......
My "team" Lejeune has always been "the one I shouldnt have sold." Who has
the rights to that brand? Would a "Lejeune works" in Washington making
three lugged steel frames a year fly?
Just kidding
David Feldman
Vancouver, WA
> Jerry wrote:
> > The current Bates bikes or current Hetchins bikes lack
> > the continuity of personnel or organization, but replicate the
traditional
> > construction about as closely as can reasonably be done with currently
> > available materials. They have continuity of design... (snip)
>
> continued:
> > To buy one (Motobucket or Mercier) would be, for me, to become one of
the
> gullible
> > people easily manipulated by a popular culture in which spin, image and
> > advertising have become all-important, and quality, substance and
> tradition
> > of no value.
>
> Are you sure about what you are saying here? There can be no gullibility
> question here whatsoever with regards to Motobécane and Mercier. The new
> offerings from both are being offered at price points where their quality
> and substance are on a par with anything else in the market at that same
> price. They are therefore not riding on the coattails of others to
personal
> gain. They will necessarily be paying somebody for use of the name. This
> choice is therefore strictly a business decision, hopefully based on sound
> economics. As they haven't raised their prices to cover the additional
costs
> of the usage of the name, the consumer is not being duped, the licensees
> must have calculated that the goodwill associated with the name was a
> sufficiently large marketing lever to be beneficial to their bottom line.
As
> Motobécane and Mercier both offered a full range of bikes, there have
never
> been any 'defining features' of the brand, and as such the new offerings
can
> no more be considered abominations of the brand that could new models
being
> offered by Bianchi, Raleigh, Peugeot and all other bicycle companies who
> have remained in mass-market existence for over 30 years... All now sell
> bikes similar to those of Motobécane and Mercier. Technology has evolved
and
> so have their bikes. One could take the position that evolution in the
bike
> field has not always been positive, but that has nothing to do with duping
> gullible people.
>
> In my personal view, the modern builders of Hetchins and Bates are the
ones
> who are cynical. They are leveraging the reputation of others to their own
> personal gain at the expense of the general public. It is unlikely that
they
> have paid any more for the use of the brand name than was paid for the use
> of Motobécane or Mercier, but they are attempting to sell a product that
has
> neither additional quality, substance or any earned tradition for prices
> that are far superior to their market counterparts. That, in my opinion is
> spin!
>
> In my books, I would far prefer to spend my hard-earned money on true
> 'original' works of art such as the top-prize winning Art Stump from Velo
> Rendezvous, a Dave Bohm masterpiece, or better yet, any vintage
1930's-50's
> lightweight race machine. Back then, because of the limited numbers of
these
> bikes made, they were all 'original' and groundbreaking in one way or
> another. Back then, the minor changes usually came about when true
> advancements became available. Today, most changes are being dictated by
> other, somewhat less pure, considerations. Changes in cosmetics, or call
> outs about changes in tubing and such were never used to sell the new.
> Often, nothing was even made of major improvements in performance. As an
> example take the Vittoria Margherita gears of the 30's. With the first
> iteration you had to move the chain from one cog to the next with your
> finger tips. In the second iteration, an ingenuous system of chainstay
> clappers was used to prevent the rider from risking dirtying or worse yet
> loss of their finger tips. No bike maker that I know of ever made any ado
> about this change. When the third iteration came out whereby the gear
could
> now handle 5 cogs, there was again no big marketing campaign, just a
simple
> marking 'Tour de France' on the ratchet case.
>
> Yes, I am happy that somebody is attempting to revive old bike names for
> road bikes instead of trying to elevate BMX (Haro as one example) or
> mountain bike (Scott for one) brands for the same purposes.
>
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ
>
>
>
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