Re: [CR]Bicycles are first meant to be ridden

Doug,

For some reason I think many have missed the original point of the "disc ussion", or have chosen to deviate from the point for some reason. The d iscussion did not have anything to do with wheather we should or should not ride our classic bikes, valuable or not. I don't know a single perso n who accumulates bikes (the word "collector" here seems to have come t o mean one who owns a lot of bikes but does not ride them) who doesn't n ot intend to ride every bike they own at least upon occassion. Even the most valuable of them. A few people may own a bike or two that is not ri dable or maybe even one they consider too valuable to ride; but this not ion that anyone here is hanging stuff on the wall and claiming it's "Art " and only art, is crazy. I know most of the people in this caper in thi s country that have VERY large accululations of rare, and not so rare bi kes; and most of them are by far the most entheusiastic riders of said b ikes. Where has this notion that there is even a single person among us that is actually doing this. I believe the answer is NONE, or very close to that. I certainly don't know who it might be.

The original point had to do with a particular Masi, which is unquestion ably in the catagory of do not repaint. A careful touch-up might be a re asonable move. The "value" of the bike really has absolutely nothing to do with money. The reason to leave the good or even medeocre examples of the less common (rare is not really approiate for a Masi anyway) classi cs intact is for historical and reference reasons. The examples of these bikes is dwindleing. My feeling is that the intact originals are the on ly valid references we have for the purposes of restoring the examples t hat have not fared as well, been damaged or modified, or already repaint ed. No loss in painting one of these. You like them pristine; take one o f the beat up ones and make it pristine. I do that all day long. There i s no shortage yet of candidates. But one as well off as the one from Cra igslist is far too good to make pristine from the state it is currently in.

Please stop thinking of value in terms of what it is worth in dollars an d cents. There is very little real money involved in these bikes. It is childs play. The true value of the serviving originals has to do with hi story and reference. The owners of the historically valuable bikes ride them. The bike is going to ride the same regardless of what the paint lo oks like. If the frame needs to be fixed on account of a minor issue to make it ridable, then do it; carefully if possible. Leave it alone and r ide it whenever possible. Please don't buy one that is plenty good to ri de as is and make it pristine because that's what you prefer. Find one t hat needs the TLC and give to her. This is not a matter of dollars and c ents. It is deffinitely a matter of dollars and sense.

Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA