Don:
Way to fit in a political rant with your vintage bike monologue! Worker's Unite!
Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA http://www.GitaneUSA.com
Don Wilson <dcwilson3@yahoo.com> wrote: Most persons don't know, or care about what a Dusenberg is. Most persons don't know or care about what a Hans Wegner Danish Modern Ox chair and ottoman are. Most persons don't know or care about anything exceptional. Most persons just have the resources to get intensely interested in one or two exceptional things and so it is not surprising at all that even in the best times "most persons," even most bicyclists, are not interested in classic steel lightweights. Contemporary hitech bicycles are so good in so many ways (including rock bottom cost to produce in mass quantities) that classic steel's virtues are simply not decisive in holding "most person's" interests and devotion. Most persons can't even feel the difference between a steel ride and an aluminum, or ti, or composite, ride; much less prefer it. And even if they can feel it, they are brain washed by advertising and PR and peer pressure to prefer being brutalized by the ride and geometry of these new bikes. Until Alberto Contador swaps his latest Trek for a Richard Sachs steelie and wins the TDF, "most persons" aren't going to switch to steel, or even remember them. Classic steel lightweight ride is like all subtle things, it takes awhile to acquire a taste for it, but when one gets it, there's no substitute. Never fear, there will always be a few of us who love these bikes. Prices are apt to fall drastically for them as mandated "demand destruction" continues to purge the American economy and ready it and our government for subordination into the North American Union via the interim Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. Many people are selling off stocks and real estate and every other kind of asset in anticipation of this wring out. Classic steel bikes are just part of the same cashing out phenomenon that is occurring across the economy right now. All maturing generations have a history of getting out while the getting is good, regardless of the wider consequences for society. Boomers are no different. The good news is that the days of the $5,000-$6,000 Rene Herse will probably soon be behind us. The bad news, is that however much the prices fall, so too will discretionary incomes and IRAs, and so only the very fortunate few of us with huge amounts of coupon driven income will be able to afford the $2000-$3000 Rene Herse. :-( But that's life until leadership and popular opinion arrives that favors broader wealth and income distributions.
Don Wilson
Los Olivos, CA USA