I'd say that bikes like the Team Pros are usually well crafted like the roll cage in your car. Good brazing, not a lot of fuss with cleanup, which doesn't make the bike faster and can even weaken the joint. The Peugots I've seen are not like that.
Indeed you can see the skills behind the product when looking at many bikes that are less fussed over than american lug-sniffer art bikes, and this too is craftsmanship. But when you see the lack of skill in a bike... that's not craftsmanship. Maybe it's the diference between skilled hands doing only what is necessary and unskilled hands doing the least they can get away with. My tidy Team Pro is an example of the former, my gap-jointed Viner and my bulgey-lugged Benotto are examples of the later. I like them all, but as with my children, I have favorites. (just kidding, I have no children)
Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA
Forbes Bagatelle-Black <diarmaede@yahoo.com> wrote: Dear Tom and Others,
My post was not in response to any one post, just to
the discussion in general. Many valid viewpoints have
been expressed, including yours.
> But I also stand
> by my asertion that such bikes are objectively
> better crafted than mass-produced PY-10's, cool as
> PY-10s may be.
If I may go slightly off-topic for a moment... The roll-cage in my race car was MIG welded. The welding bead penetrates perfectly and the cage has been praised by many, many racers as being magnificent. That said, there are blobs of steel around the bead that could have been sanded off. The cage is unpainted. It is not a work of art.
So, my question to the list is "Who is the better craftsman? The person who built my cage? Or some guy that built something pretty but not nearly as strong as the one I've got?" Imagine yourself in the first moments of a roll-over as you answer...
Similar questions can be posed regarding bicycles. The terms "craftsman" and "artist" are not synonymous. There are certainly craftsmen (and craftswomen) who focus on aesthetics, but there are others who focus only on function, letting the final product look the way it looks. Neither group is inherently better than the other.
Sincerely,
Forbes Bagatelle-Black Santa Clarita, CA
Join the "Bicycle Restoration Group" at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/
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