[CR]What does it really mean?

(Example: Racing:Jacques Boyer)

Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 06:23:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Tom Dalton" <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
To: brandon@ivycycles.com
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]What does it really mean?

Brandon,

I'm with you on this one. If some dude's OS Nivacrom frame with precision milled mitres, Taiwanese IC lugs, 1 1/8 threadless steerer and high-tech solder is KOF because it "looks like" a pre '83 Masi, then some other dudes CAAD7 is KOF because it looks like a pre '83 Klein. These guys can't have it both ways. They can't ride the KOF high horse if they are riding a 2005 Sachs... cool as such bikes are. In fact, I think it's a bit of an slight to e-Ritchie and the like, because it portrays them as dwelling in the past, while the frames are state of THEIR art.

Then again, frames built by guys like Baylis are true to the olde worlde ways, but do we really want to include his newer bikes and not Sach's? It seems that it would be a lot easier to just say sorry, pre 1983 (?) only, period, or to really loosen things up a lot.

The funny thing is that this KOF thing has actually become a pseudo institution. I was checking out some current Milano/Alberto Masis at a consumer show last winter, chatting with the distributor. He's on to the whole Masi nostalgia that's happening here in the US. Apparently Mr. Masi bought a bunch of Richards new Taiwanese lugs to build up some updated GC style bikes. Makes sense, because I think the GC lugs were a big influence on Richards design. Anyway, I almost got the sense that Alberto bought in due to his US distributor's urging, but that could just be the distributor blowing his own horn. In any case, the bikes are cool, but hardly as "gee whiz" as some of the other Masi offerings. Oh, but my point... as I was checking out the frames, some other guy came up to have a look and started talking to us and saying how he liked this KOF stuff. He said it in a way that assumed we would know what the hell he was talking about. I did, but the distributor guy, well, it just went in one ear and out the other. It seems like some CR guys just don't get how insular our little community is. Our KOF jargon is not used in the bike world at large, even the vintage collecting world. There is, after all, more to vintage lightweights than CR.

Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA

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