[CR]John Lehoczky on factory vs. custom bikes

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From: "toni theilmeier" <Toni.Theilmeier@t-online.de>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]John Lehoczky on factory vs. custom bikes
Date: 21 Nov 2002 08:56 GMT

Hi list, All list members who can´t stand a bit of blasphemy, please delete the following.

Not having been a member of this list for very long, and not having the time to leaf through the CR list archives, I can´t say whether this issue has been brought up before, but I must say, I´ve been waiting for this question to happen.

Richie´s commendable honesty, which he has displayed several times while I´ve been reading the list, has prompted me to ask myself: If those two bikes, the custom and the exact copy / setup from the factory really do behave alike, which I, too, would say they should, why do we bother with custom made framesets?

My answer is: Because we´re not collectors of bikes, but of legends.

I may be wrong, but aren´t there many great bicycle makers which are not being given their share of attention, not only in these pages, but generally, like the many smaller British and German makers, also the bigger German ones? I would love to read about bikes made by Berry & Bentley, Johnny Berry, Hill, Malc Cowle, Grunewald, Diamant, Mifa, Koethke, RIC, Stollenwerk, Longstaff and many others. The bikes they turn(ed) out are, to my mind, every bit as good as any Bianchi on Cinelli I´ve seen.

Their problem is that they have not made it to legend status. But are they less interesting because of this? For a bicycle collector who is honest, and who would like to build up a collection of nice bikes, certainly not. But for a collector of legends, who is as honest as the other chap, and who has every right to collect his / her legends (if they can come up with the necessary dosh, that is), these bikes are not interesting at all. And this is where the psychology of cycle collecting comes into the picture.

A technically minded person like Richie then has to admit that most high end bikes are just about equal, but someone who has just spent 12,000 US-Dollars on a high-class trip which includes a bike as a not-quite-free gift, will most probably never admit that they can´t for the life of them feel any difference between this new iron (well, alloy, or worse, plastic) and the last one.

That is also why many people write those "unsollicited letters" to manufacturers praising their latest acquisitions, as Ralph Nader pointed out many years ago. Their psychology will just not admit them to realize that their bike is just as good as the next guy´s, especially if they´re not cyclists of a caliber which makes a high end bike worth while.

And even if they are, riding a bike which did win or might have won a stage of the TdF is THE thing. But who asks for the one which came in eightieth? Technically speaking, this cycle must have been every bit as good as the winner´s.

So, the ride of a high-end factory bike probably is no different from a custom-made one, but the feel is so much better on a custom job because you have invested your emotions in it at an equal level to that of your money,

says

Toni from Osnabrueck, Germany, who had a Mercian Vincitore Special made for him in 1987 and a Hetchins track iron four years later.