snpped: "Jon M. Schaer" <jschaer@columbus.rr.com> writes: I don't feel having the name on the bike being the only hands touching it makes it superior. A group of six caring craftspeople dedicated to their work and the quality and character of the finished product will make a better bike than a 2-3 man shop where low production costs and efficiency are the thrust and the "owner" of the name just hires manual labor to make frames to arbitrary average geometries and popular colors. The DT name doesn't have to be only builder, or even a builder at all, but it should symbolize something unique about the bike, about what the rider will experience. Something that would be lost if that person removed their work or their guidance. bill. Comments? Jon Schaer Columbus, OH
think '4 star restaurant'. the chef is the 'chief', not the cook. it's no different in any other environment, commercial or otherwise. somebody has a vision, and like-minded, well trained staff members carry out the tasks. it's not reality to expect or assume that a buying from a one-man shop guarantees a better product. some shops excel as production facilities while others produce very little, however fine it may be.
when this thread was a seedling, it seemed off-putting to suggest that someone, said to be the <actual> builder of a bicycle, maybe wasn't the builder at all. as we've discussed, 'what does _he-built-it_mean?' is hardly a defineable term. it almost always is a collaboration, not a product made by a person. in the end, it's almost always better that way.
e-RICHIE
Richard Sachs Cycles
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