[CR]Gios being stripped of parts...it's an individual decision by an individual

(Example: Production Builders:Pogliaghi)

From: Tom Sanders <tsan7759142@comcast.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 08:02:45 -0500
Thread-Index: AcTtprBfbAnCIrBnT1uebzd28fLiNg==
Subject: [CR]Gios being stripped of parts...it's an individual decision by an individual

I am wondering if those who object to this seller stripping off the parts from his bike feel as hostile to those like myself who buy a nice bike, often decide that the components are not what I want on it and change them around some. If given the opportunity, I would gladly sell any unwanted parts removed from such a bike for a profit, although I have to say they usually go to CR List members for about what I figure I have into them (often less), and no one is getting rich on my end of things.
    Obviously there are some bikes that I would not alter, but these are rare (by definition). That Gios certainly does not rise to my standard of something so important or rare that it must be preserved as is. Especially when the "As Is" was nearly certainly defined by a previous owner, distributor, or bike shop owner/assembler, not some artisan/creator whose vision is realized in the assembly and construction of the bike. There is a world of difference in my mind between parting out a rare Rene Herse of its constructeur parts for profit and stripping a fairly run of the mill bike for parts. As Chuck said "Parts is parts". I agree with him completely. For any but the most special of bikes, the owner can do what they want with it as far as I am concerned. Even for those special bikes, I might resent their being stripped, but I am not going to appoint myself as the arbiter of what other bike owners must, or even should do. This argument can be (and I suspect often is) extended to those who do not keep their bikes to other's concept of originality. Who knows what is "right" in these things? These are pretty subjective judgments and without the inclusive tolerance of other's views any intelligent discussion of the whole classic bike scene gets pretty difficult. Perhaps we can all back up a minute, take a deep breath and realize that while other's ways may not be just the way you would do things, this does not make the other person any less of a class person, just a person who has formed different opinions. Let us celebrate diversity! Tom Sanders Lansing, Mi