Chuck,
The "Mutt" bike. Haven't thought much about that until recently. As a "racer" I think we tend to think in terms of parts groups and sleek racing machines. The "tourist" has always been at home with the Mutt concept as far as I can tell, not ever having been one. The reason is obvious. Race bikes most often come "turnkey" and ready to go. A touring bike is far more individualized and therefore a selection of components to meet a wide range of needs and riding styles is practical.
Since I've been putting together several bikes lately using only parts on hand, with very few exceptions, I've spent a fair amount of time deciding which parts should go on which bikes. Race bikes are easy, Campagnolo N.R. or S.R. for most things. The Lippy on the other hand and my Hetchins Millinium both are getting mostly French parts along with an occassional Campag. bit. As it turns out, there is almost no such thing as a French parts group in older parts. Just make everything work and that's it. I'm finding that all that French stuff I got cheap at swap meets 5 to 10 years ago is comming in real handy as I put together non-racing style bikes to ride. Where else am I going to use my NOS Stronglight cranks with 34-49-64 chainrings? It's great to have the options to throw almost anything you want at the bike and not really end up with something so homely that people couldn't stand to look at it. Kind of liberating, actually. A practical bike with character. Bikes are like dogs; some of the best ones are Mutts!
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA Father Brians' Home for Wayward Bike Parts. Accepting donations.
>
> Grant McLean wrote:
> >
> (cut)
> > Personally, I prefer the integration of my "all group" equipped bikes, and
> > not the mixed bag of parts mutts that so many bikes are... but that's mostly
> > my bike shop mechanic past reaction to the ugly "mutt" bikes that I've
> > worked on for so many years, when people put purple anodized titanium things
> > all over their nice original bikes.(cut)
>
> Here in Southern California in the 70s the shop mechanics in the various
> bike shops loved to outfit their personal bikes with not a single
> matching part! A real point of pride with the shop wrenches. (My
> Generation by The Who, "Don't try to dig what we all sa... sa... sa...
> SAYYYY!" in your face kind of thing).
>
> If I ever put together a Rivendell, I'd make sure that the brake
> calipers were a different brand, front and rear, brake levers were
> different side to side etc. I would even mix spoke gauge, butted and
> straight and mix aluminum and brass nipples in the wheels! The ultimate
> bike shop wrench's bike... YEAH BABY!
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> SoPas, SoCal
>
> .