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
> 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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