Greg writes interestingly:
> Tom: If I could get a mint Confente in my size at the current market price,
> I'd ride it, not hang it on the wall. To be sure, I would pamper it, and ride
> it on dry, sunny days, but that's what I do with many of my bikes / cars /
> cameras / etc. I pamper 'em, but I don't baby 'em. I like them to last as
> close to my lifetime as possible.
I suppose it's as simple as if you can afford it and love it then you can also _enjoy_ owning it. But to enjoy owning something as if this were at another's expense (I have one, you don't, I'm cool because I have this or that and what do you have, etc.), strikes me as all too puerile. I guess I don't really care what someone pays for anything anymore, that's their busienss.. (A dear pal of mine just brokered a 1.5mil Kadinsky for a collector-client...the buyer could buy 50 at this price, so what?) But what comes with things are sometimes attitudes that go well past "these are my tastes" and become the rather less genial views such as "what I do or think is superior." Certainly appreciation is commensurate with education but all of this still leaves the matter of taste. And I like to appreciate fine things, share them in ways that others might enjoy: the whole point is loving wonderful things.
I don't lust the Confente or any Confente. I think I deeply appreciate it. I don't care for Brahms or Dogen either, which has nothing to do with their greatness or my getting it. Because there are so few of these bikes and no more of them, I think of them _more_ as art than bikes. Herse is rare but turns up, Singer is still made, and may Sachs, Baylis, and JoeStarck/CurtGoodrich, Dave Bohm live LONG and prosper!! I don't collect bikes as art but _why_ should I bother to I think less of anyone who does? My tastes run to things French and other bikes that I really love to _ride_, like the Rivendells, Sachs, Mariposa, and even some bikes that way beyond this List's interests or, dare I say preferences or good opinions. Isn't it more that we share what we like with others and invite them to enjoy it? I find this thread unnecessarily confrontational but such is passionate love, no?
Too many words but I think the Confente is just swell and I hope whomever buys it, loves owning it and passes it along to the next person who feels just as strongly about it.
happy to have had my share of neat things, and still
curious about the final price the same way I am interested
what folks pay for art,
Douglas Brooks
Canandaigua, NY