On 4/1/07, Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Robert Clair wrote:
>
> > ... and the new project is a little ViValo from the far east. yes
> > it has the proverbial "keirin" ding in the top tube, but it's not
> > so bad. sort of a badge of honour.
> > (snip)
> > ... so much nicer in it's traditional build than the current cut
> > and plug keirin frames like Nagasawa etc.
> > ... and no sparkles in the paint either !
>
> My four(?) year old Kiyo Miyazawa has none of the cut and plug
> construction and has beautifully filed and pantographed investment
> cast lugs and lots of colored glitter in the silver metallic paint
> (thanks again Joey Ramone)!
>
> I was informed that the sparkle paint job was called rame and done to
> catch the lights on the keirin track, the sign of a true keirin
> racer. Maybe I'm just shallow and luv the bling-bling?
Nagasawa's drifting into cut'n'plug and huge, garish decals is one of the saddest things in framebuilding, IMHO. I've seen late 1970s Nagasawas with a vast amount of handwork, and really modern ones with significantly less, and the amount of mojo in each frame just isn't the same. I find it interesting that Kiyo (who trained under Marc Rossin) has stuck with the older methods while Nagasawa-san has moved to seemingly more production-line oriented building. I'd be curious to hear what his reasoning behind it is.
As to modern builders, I had a Kalavinka built by Akio Tanabe for me last summer with all investment cast Kalavinka lugs and no plug-ins... turned out beautifully. I also went with the sparkles, for sheer shallowness purposes ;) Truly a KOF builder of the highest merit!
http://boxwood.subtle.org/
sasha 'big into japan' eysymontt/nyc.
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,+'^'+ sasha eysymontt
sashae at gmail dot com - http://subtle.org/
`+,.,+` new york city.