Hey Chuck...I was cruising up and down Grand and Olive in downtown LA (on my Gitane Mixte Reynolds 531 3-speed) the other day and rode up next to the "wall", you know, that place at 2nd/3rd and Grand on the West side of grand where all the messengers hang out? There were several butchered road AND track bikes there, set up as fixies. The riders/messengers were pretty cool though, and I just can't seem to bring myself to blame them for being 20+ something and trying to be 'cooler-than-thou" with their bike! However, I did see one guy with a recent Ridley carbon frame, set up as a fixie with an FSA carbon single ring crank....pretty odd to convert something like that. And you have seen these bike messengers in downtown, right?...not as radical as NY messengers, nor as fit as SF messengers, but they do have their own sense of daring~! Best, Dean Patterson Alpine, CA 91901
Alpine, CA, USA DPCowboy
--- On Thu, 4/17/08, chasds@mindspring.com <chasds@mindspring.com>
wrote:
From: chasds@mindspring.com <chasds@mindspring.com> Subject: [CR]re: trestina woes (I believe it's triestina, yes? ) To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Thursday, April 17, 2008, 12:17 PM
Tom Dalton wrote:
Charles Andrews used the word "philistine," Jerry Moos said "barbarian." I can't say that I disagree entirely, but it's hard for me to imagine that provoking this sort of response from old men isn't part of the thrill of doing what this vulgarian has done.
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It could well be that it was a quite deliberate ruination of a cool bike..but, since most people wouldn't know what it was in its new guise, the joke is lost on just about everyone..which leads me to believe the "restoration" was done with good intentions. He did turn it into a 20-something's fixie dream. I see bikes like this with some regularity out here, although I doubt they're Wiliers. Or cinellis. Or Pogliaghis.
I can't argue with anyone who would buy it, and ride it. Bikes are for riding. I can argue with the seller, for his bad taste in ruining a perfectly fine, vintage bike.
And if he did intend it as something rile the old guys, that's just a tad adolescent, yes?
Charles Andrews Los Angeles _______________________________________________
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