Re: [CR]Do great frame builders bikes keep building better bikes?

(Example: History:Norris Lockley)

Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:41:19 +0000 (GMT)
From: <joebz@optonline.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Do great frame builders bikes keep building better bikes?
In-reply-to: <20060605235752.45592.qmail@web52505.mail.yahoo.com>
To: Don Wilson <dcwilson3@yahoo.com>
References: <20060605235752.45592.qmail@web52505.mail.yahoo.com>
cc: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>

I think true custom builders are generally perfectionists and don't move backward. There are some exceptions as people either work past their prime or make economic decisions. For example, I have seen 1960's Alvin Drysdales that are not as ggod as earlier work (which was usually more proficient than great anyway).

Sometimes builders try and make a simpler, cheaper line. Most eventually don't compromise if they build it themselves. Bruce Gordon Chinook, McLean Fonvielle McLean (vs. Silk Hope). Just a a few dropped features.

Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ


----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Wilson"
Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 07:58:00 -0000
Subject: [CR]Do great frame builders bikes keep building better bikes?
To: "Classic Rendezvous"


> Do most great frame builders do their best work early,

\r?\n> like many scientists and artists, and then kind of

\r?\n> muddle along skillfully but not reaching those same

\r?\n> heights again? Or do most keep building better and

\r?\n> better bikes? I'm not talking about the builder's

\r?\n> skill level here. I suspect their skills keep getting

\r?\n> better with practice until old age begins to

\r?\n> interfere. I'm asking about the bikes themselves. Is a

\r?\n> 1980 Weigle, like the one on EBAY today, just as good

\r?\n> of a bike as a 2006 Weigle, or is a 2006 Weigle

\r?\n> better? Same for a Bayliss? Or anyone else? Do gifted

\r?\n> frame builders do a few masterpieces, the way so many

\r?\n> other artists do, and then the rest of their output is

\r?\n> merely exceptional? Or are there no masterpieces in

\r?\n> bicycles? Just lots of exeptionally fine pieces of

\r?\n> work?

\r?\n>

\r?\n> I'm asking, because I haven't ridden custom frames by

\r?\n> KOF builders from different time periods and so I

\r?\n> can't compare. I'd like to hear the thoughts of both

\r?\n> KOF builders and the thoughts of persons who have

\r?\n> ridden older and newer bikes by the same KOF builders.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> D.C. Wilson dcwilson3@yahoo.com

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