Louis,
There are tools I don't have that are expensive enough, and used infrequently enough to not justify their acquisition. My LBS faces, chases, aligns, and every once in a while gets things unstuck that I can't seem to persuade by my own efforts. I consider myself fortunate to have three very good LBSs in the area.
Cheers,
John Barry Mechanicsburg, (where one of those shops is) PA, USA
> From: Louis Schulman <louiss@gate.net>
\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Care of Vintage Bikes, was No Subject
\r?\n> To: kohl57@starpower.net
\r?\n> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
\r?\n> Date: Thursday, October 1, 2009, 6:44 PM
\r?\n> I can understand the feeling.
\r?\n> But this brings up a question I have
\r?\n> wanted to ask.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Do people on this lists take their bikes to shops? I
\r?\n> would think that
\r?\n> working on your own bike was part of this hobby. I am
\r?\n> 55, and I built
\r?\n> my first bike from parts (including lacing the wheels) over
\r?\n> 40 years
\r?\n> ago. I have owned and built a lot of bikes since
\r?\n> then, but have never
\r?\n> had the occasion to take a bike to a bike shop.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> For those of you who do take your bikes to a shop, what do
\r?\n> you have them
\r?\n> do? What would you allow them to do?
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Just curious.
\r?\n>
\r?\n> Louis Schulman
\r?\n> Tampa, Florida
\r?\n>
\r?\n> kohl57 wrote:
\r?\n> > I must say this is a profounding depressing subject.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > About three weeks ago, my longstanding, super, super
\r?\n> cycle shop repair guy
\r?\n> > who takes the most meticulous care of my machines to
\r?\n> the extent of wrapping
\r?\n> > the frame with foam when they come to shop managed to
\r?\n> get a swath of tape on
\r?\n> > the backside of the headtube of my otherwise near NOS
\r?\n> 1985 Masi 3v and, yep,
\r?\n> > you guessed it.. when it was removed, it took with it
\r?\n> a swath of the paint!
\r?\n> > Just jawdroppingly depressing. It's really too large a
\r?\n> bit to "touch-up"
\r?\n> > with nail varnish or brush methods.
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > Does anyone have a recent and positive experience with
\r?\n> any frame painter
\r?\n> > when it comes to touching up issues like this? I
\r?\n> could, of course, just have
\r?\n> > the frame repainted but I hate to do that as the rest
\r?\n> is in such fine
\r?\n> > original condition. And yes, alas, it's that very
\r?\n> fragile pearly orange-red
\r?\n> > of the early 3vs. The kind that mere scotch tape can
\r?\n> and will rip off a
\r?\n> > frame in one fell swoop....
\r?\n> >
\r?\n> > Peter Kohler
\r?\n> > Washington DC USA