----- Original Message ----- From: <vergrandis@tesco.net> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 6:06 PM Subject: Re: Re: [CR]Small builders.
>
> Sorry you are leading us up the garden path on this one. You can't use
> manufacturers like Hercules, BSA , Raleigh in your reply, who only
> produced a tiny ammout of club bikes
Which path? Whose garden? You are joking, are you not? A "tiny" amount? Nonsense. Utter nonsense. "Tiny" for any of these companies was 50 times any other builder. How many Lentons were made? Clubmans? . Hercules had their own racing team for heavens sake. They had about six lightweights in their 1950s catalogues. And what about BSA? Like BSA in the Tour of Britain? They don't count in the British lightweight scene? Do the math. How many Clubmans, Lentons etc.remain, seen on VCC rides, offered for sale, on eBay vs. "bespsoke" frames? They are NOT rare and that's the point. Because there were 10 times as many of them to every one custom frame. Probably closer to 25. And don't tell me they don't count.. they were made of Reynolds 531, top components.
Now I know Raleigh, Hercules, BSA et. al. lack that seeming essential in the British club scene.. snob appeal... and that's fine. But to suggest they didn't contribute mightily to the lightweight cycle scene in both the UK and overseas is simply wrong. It's bad history and not based on the facts.
Peter Kohler
Washington DC USA