The folks at Mercian get 10 Pounds for their bike serial number histories. Seems fair to me. I can't make that call on other guy's business. I don't need to know that badly. Right now I need to be frugal. I'm just glad to know they're conscientiously keeping track.
Piles of bicycle paper is one more side-effect of herding bicycles. Sharing your library & parts & vintage packaging can work out well. Or come to no good. Taking some profit from it only makes sense. At some point I may need to do so, too.
Access to the records varys from builder to builder & Archivers with just how they see their mission or obligations.
Hard-Nosers & Zelots see things differently when it comes to information. Most of us are a mix of each rather than one or the other.
Look at the range of "pride" some of the Bicycle literature republishers take in their product.
At one extreme, some do fine scanning & enhancement but then still offer prints inexpensively.
And at the other edge of the spectrum slap-dash CD/downloads with awkward cropping, low res, and pick-pocket prices.
When it fits my budget I can be a sucker for any of it if the pages contain what I want to know.
In a separate category are those guys who've shared reams of copies with me. Open-Source Paper Karma of some sort-----best case, maybe.
Calvert"Yak"Guthrie
Kansas City
Missouri
USA
>
> Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:35:50 -0500
> From: Dmitry Yaitskov <dima@rogers.com>
> To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Subject: Re[2]: [CR]Most Pleasant Surprise in my Email-Now
> Trademark and
> Heritage
> Message-ID: <1881359300.20081212213550@rogers.com>
> In-Reply-To: <370908.67807.qm@web82205.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> References: <f7e9b704178b.4942aef9@optonline.net>
> <370908.67807.qm@web82205.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: Dmitry Yaitskov <dima@rogers.com>
> Message: 1
>
> Hi,
>
> Friday, December 12, 2008, 3:51:05 PM, Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
>
>> I don't agree that most framebuilders lack interest in their past
>> productio n. Many of them maintain extensive build records and most
>> can be quite h elpful. But they are trying to make a living in a
>> difficult business, so they have limited time to talk about bikes
>> built years ago.
>
> FWIW: a few years ago I saw a custom Rivendell on the internet, for
> sale from a used bike dealer. I called the dealer, found out the
> serial # from him, and called Rivendell with that info, asking about
> the frame sizing. The Riv guys on the phone were most helpful, they
> gave me all the relevant details about the bike in no time, and after
> I'd bought the bike, they even sent me a paper copy of the original
> order (with the name of the person who ordered it blacked out) - with
> all the frame details. I was very impressed with that kind of
> service... but I have to confess it never occurred to me to pay 10% or
> whatever to Rivendell...
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Dmitry Yaitskov,
> Toronto, Canada.
>
> ------------------------------