In a message dated 4/13/2006 10:31:32 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:
Mark, Bob, Masi-philes...
What was it about the end of the 70's that made Masi owners go out and pay good money to have braze-ons and paint added to their original Masi bikes! Arrrrgh!!
How ironic is it that these attempts to "modernize" these classic bikes back the 80's ended up reducing the "value" of the bikes to those who cherish original condition. At the very least, E-Richie's restorations work with the spirit of the material.
Would they remodel the Pantheon to modernize it ?
http://www.greatbuildings.com/
Grant McLean Toronto, Canada
I'm not so sure it was just the end of the 70's... I think this has been happening in some form or other since the bike was invented. Well, let's say just long enough AFTER the bike was invented for that first owner to decide he'd rather modify his present beloved steed than trade it in on a new one.
We are looking at two different kinds of bikes here. Though they can sometimes be the same, a working bike and a collecting bike are more often miles apart, just as a lived in house is very different from a historical landmark. Take the Hanna house... it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright but the couple that commissioned it ended up having a family and lived in the house for decades. Eventually, the kids grew up and moved out. In each stage of the family's evolution, the house changed. Though the family was careful to keep Wright's style in mind when making alterations, the fact that walls were knocked out and rearranged appeared to some as sacrilege and to others as a natural process of change (Wright himself was probably pissed, but from what I've heard that was a pretty normal state of affairs for him). All in all, the family tried to balance Wright's original vision with their own needs... but as soon as you get into that kind of decision making process there are going to be issues that are going to cause disagreement. In this case, the only folks whose opinions really mattered were the people who commissioned the house and who were still living in it.
A guy who rides his bike hard every day may decide that not having top tube cable clips makes it easier to wipe down after a ride, making the possibility of rust less likely. Ditto for braze-on shifters. He's sick of chipped paint on the chainstay so he gets it chromed. He takes long rides so he mounts a second bottle cage. To those of us for whom a bicycle may be representative of a builder's art at a certain given time, these changes may seem anything from merely sad (when we see them on someone else's bike) to a real major pain in the butt (when they are on a bike we purchase to restore). But to an owner who rides often (and who probably loves his bike as much or more than the most doting collector), these changes can be a form of personal expression, greater efficiency, an added convenience, an effort to avoid buying a new bike, or all of the above. And as much as I love all-original bikes, I find it hard to fault a guy for that.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA