I hate to jump into this again, but this has been the way of things for a long time in Europe. I remember seeing just about every famous name made a cheap bike at one time or another, or at least put their name on one. I remember seeing a Colnago mixte frame with mid to low parts that lived around the corner from The Hopduvel in Gent. Sure it looked unlike any other Colnago I'd ever seen and had none of the trademark stuff except the fork crown. My best guess is it was from some bikes that they had made in the 70s and didn't make for very long. Almost every time I visited a new town during the year that I lived in Belgium I saw another famous makers decals on another omafiets (grandma bike).
I know we all want to believe that our fave makers only made superior
top-of-the-line bikes, but they're in the bike business to make money
at the end of the day. You should take a look at
http://www.eddymerckx.be/
On Monday, Mar 7, 2005, at 12:06 US/Pacific, Angel Garcia wrote:
> Colnago has issued a statement that low and mid-tier bikes carrying the
> Colnago name are going to begin to be built in Asia. I believe that
> none of
> these are destined to the USA market but rather to Europe, etc. But,
> the
> writing (or more writing) is on the wall. Maybe things will have to get
> worse before they can get better.
>
> Angel Garcia
> Long Valley, NJ
>
>
>
>
> Well, Faliero's got his son to carry on his name and some would argue
> he's
> doing a better job of it than Haro.
>
> But my "depression" is not caused specifically by either the US or
> Italian
> Masi but rather the bike industry in general. Faliero came to this
> country
> and
> saw to it that the bikes that were built here met his standards of
> craftsmanship and his basic design philosophy (one tenet of which was
> never
> to make a
> "B" model, or "price-point" frame). And when he subcontracted work
> out it
> was
> to folks like Confente in the next city, folks he always kept a close
> eye on
> ,
> not a huge factory halfway around the world that makes bikes for them
> and a
> dozen other companies at the same time.
>
> Everybody does it now (including Alberto) and the situation's probably
> never
>
> going to change, but it still makes me sad. The bit of warm fuzzy I
> feel
> when I see something like Alberto's Nuovo Prestige with Sachs lugs,
> nice pai
> nt
> and a bit of chrome, or Pegoretti's beautiful lugged frame with the
> twin pla
> te
> crown is just not enough to counteract the blue funk I descend into
> every ti
> me
> I walk into a modern bike shop.
>
> Which is why I am here.
>
> Bob Hovey
> Columbus, GA
>
>
> http://www.cbike.com/
>
> http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/