Hi Curt,
You made some good points. Clearly, somebody simply attaching fenders to a bike you made (and designed for fenders) is not a constructeur.
This case is a bit different: Lionel Brans was a constructeur who made his own frames. For the trials, he procured a Caminargent frame for his bike. The point here is that he remains the constructeur, no matter where he got his frame. But even so, it probably was somewhat unusual, which is why this was specifically mentioned in the article.
In the end, it is not that different from you making a Rivendell frame/fork. It's not a Goodrich, because it was designed, marketed, etc. by Rivendell.
On a randonneur bike, there is so much more than just the frame. Custom racks, lighting, etc. all carry the signature of the builder. On my Rivendell, while the frame is Rivendell (more or less), the custom rack and other parts aren't. So it's a bit murky.
(BTW, for those who don't have the magazine, my Rivendell can be seen
at http://www.mindspring.com/
I should also clarify that I don't claim to be a constructeur with my bike... I just feel that Grant probably would say it isn't really a Rivendell either. At least he wouldn't be prepared to sell you a complete bike like that!
Jan Heine, Seattle
>My question is if I build a rando frame for a customer but he or she puts
>the parts on, are they the constructeur? I believe what you posted is
>historically correct but it sounds a little pathetic that the guy that
>screws on the fenders gets credit for the bike. This doesn't seem
>consistant with your earlier postings about how cyclotourists saw the bike
>as a whole rather than a frame with parts hung on it. If the frame wasn't
>designed and built to accomodate the appropriate parts to create the
>cyclotourist whole, try as the wanna be constructeur might the whole package
>won't come together.
>
>Curt Goodrich
>Minneapolis, MN
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jan Heine" <heine@mindspring.com>
>To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 9:05 AM
>Subject: [CR]Constructeurs/technical trials/drillium
>
>
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