This question has puzzled me for years: Clearly a handcrafted frame made by a small shop, where almost all steps are followed up by a single set of hands is a time consuming thing. This must be true especially when the highest standards of craftsmanship are desired. However, most of the frames that were made during the 70's bike boom were made with assembly line approaches and with certain tasks assigned to one worker and no single oversight seeing each frame from conception to finish. Obviously the Japanese capacity to turn out good acceptable product during the late 70's and early 80's was remarkable. I read brochures which indicated that the Fuji factory and others were using computerized this and that and high tech such and so. These bikes had quad butted cr-mo tubing and lugged frames that rode straight and had no gaps and lovely paint jobs with no orange peel nor drips. Also these factory bikes were inexpensive due to favorable exchange rates and efficient productivity. The question is, how long did a bike frame take in man hours from tube cutting to final paint finishing? How does this compare in hours to say an Italian factory that made only a thousand frames a year or an American shop that turned out 50 frames a year?
As a novice in this whole field, I am astounded by the how much a modern computerized welding factory like Honda or Mazda is forced to charge for a frame or sub frame part in a car. One must pay hundreds of dollars for an upper control arm that has no standards for appearance, no hand labor, no esthetic appeal, no carefully tapered tubing, and then I look at a $400 Japanese bike from the 70's which obviously has high quality steel, high standards of fit and finish and the frame must have been manufactured for something like $100. How was this possible? In a day and age when I am guessing that the cost of quality tubing alone was substantial, the cost of labor was not free, paint, shipping etc...; How could such a thing have been done for $100 say. Italian shops, during this same period were selling their finished frame, including shipping, mystique, minimal advertising, office staff etc for $350 to double that and more. This pricing scheme seems more in line with reasonable profit and yet in no way seems excessive. From any angle, the bikes manufactured during the late 70's seemed like a bargain, whether Japanese or European or for that matter American. What seems like less of a bargain is a modern aluminum extrusion that today sells for $1500, where the stem looks like it was assembled by Mrs. Hoffman's 5th grade metal working class, and the fork appears to be a replacement part for a Bowflex.
Garth Libre in Miami Florida (by the way the Brian Bayliss black bike with leather seat and handlebar tape is a truly lovely sight)