Brian: I find your comments very enlightening and, to be frank, they make a lot of sense. I can only view my bikes as finished products. I lack the 'eye' and knowledge that a professional framebuilder such as yourself has, and see no reason to disagree. Does the chrome cover a multitude of sins on the Paramount? Perhaps, and looking at it now, the chrome does make it a bit more difficult to assess how the frame was assembled. Is there a way that I as a layperson can tell? Probably not. Can a pro tell. God, I would hope so!
Does any of this make me appreciate my Paramount any less? Frankly, no. The Paramount represents for me something that, when I stepped into a Schwinn shop as a child, was the 'unobtainable' -- that bike carefully kept behind the counter, where only the older, more wealthy and more sophisticated riders could inspect, let alone posses it. Always wanted that chrome Paramount. Waited forty five years, but finally got what I wanted.
The Masi? Again, I can't disagree with these comments, but I do lack the fine eye of a framebuilder to pick up the details set out in this note. I do know how it rides (superb) and hope it appears to be finished (equally superb.) I am very happy I found one in my size (short legs, bad back) and don't plan on disposing of this bike in the near future either.
The Team? The 79 was a frameset, and while the note confesses that this is one Raleigh frameset that has not 'gone under the scope' I spent some time looking very closely at mine. The lugs and the workmanship, again to my untutored eye, are markedly different on this frameset than one I saw from the mid-70s. Were these built with more skill and care than the average Raleigh? It would appear so. The lugs on mine are very nicely done and appear to have had some hard work put on them, but again, I lack the framebuilder's eye to really tell. I trust we have some more knowledgable Team experts out there who can respond as to how these frames were built.
But the bottom line here is that the way a frame is actually built and the skill lavished upon it is something that it may indeed take a real professional to apprecaite. I sent Richie Sachs photos of my new Nagasawa, and his response was overwhelming. I spent a great deal of time looking over the workmanship before the frame was made into a bike. At the same time, the same photos elicited a comment on the Serotta User's group that one rider was thoroughly unimpressed. Not enough carved lugs and glitzy paint. He suggested that his $500 frame was just as nice, if not better!
Thank God my eye is a TAD better than that.
Dave Novoselsky,
Chicago, Illinois