Friends, colleagues, and defenders of all faiths,
I am heartened to see the deep convictions of our many members expressed so regularly, so readily, and so vigorously on these various matters of faith, doctrine, and bike-related orthodoxy. The world needs more defenders of the faith to "man the barricades" against all manner of "unbelievers" and CR and cycling "sacrilege."
(I often find myself among the heretics here, but then again, I am an Episcopalian to start with and neither a "true believer" nor a fundamentalist... :-)
Our members are always ready to express their deepest feelings on matters of doctrine and defend the "one true religion, no matter what the doctrinal heresy happens to be : Reynolds versus Columbus or Durifort, Italian versus French or British frame designs, Masi versus Cinelli or Colnago, Mafac CP versus Campi SP brakes, Dawes as "rubbish" or not, whether the earth--or British time trials--were flat, and so much more.
To all such efforts, I say "Amen!" (I am an ecumenical cyclist at heart. :-)
Just how many 3MM or 4MM Campi dropout adjusting screws from 1952 can dance on the head of a pin, anyway? :-)
Thank you all for your passion, your commitment to the smallest details of history, provenance, and freewheel threading. I may yet have my "road to Damascus" conversion experience and repent of my non-CR tendencies.
(Pray for the salvation of my CR soul.)
A deeply appreciative fellow seeker after enlightenment, true wheels and true doctrine, and at the last, the Ultimate Ride,
Jon Spangler Alameda, CA (in the land of the unchurched, the San Francisco Bay Area)
Whether true believers
On Feb 8, 2010, at 8:35 AM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org>
wrote:
>
> Message: 14
> Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 08:35:55 -0800
> From: "P.C. Kohler" <kohl57@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [CR] Respecting the Heron
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, Anthony Taylor
> <ajft1942@yahoo.com>
> Message-ID: <94784.51982.qm@web54401.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> "Heresy - Sacrilege - and other expletives!!!
>
> Wonder no more Dean - they were and are great bikes
>
> Where are you Peter Kohler - man the barricades there is a non
> believer in
> our midst!!!!
>
> Mike Mullett
> Reading UK "
>
> Oh Mike, sometimes even I don't rise to the bait around here. But
> now that you ask....
>
> I don't even like the notion that to be a "plain ol Raleigh" is
> something to be sneezed at. Show me a more classic or timeless or
> practical bicycle than a Raleigh no.1/DL-1 roadster or a Raleigh
> Sports. Or a Lenton Sports. John Lennon rode a Lenton, not a Quinn.
> So there!
>
> But at the higher end, I'll match the workmanship of my '48 RRA
> against ANY bespoke British frameset of its era anyday. And at
> least it doesn't have those scrollie lugs which make a racing bike
> look like a Victorian sewing machine or bendy stays or other
> faddish nonsenses. Raleigh chromework (theirs was the biggest
> chromeworks in Europe by the way) was the finest in cycling or
> anywhere. And a stock RRA with the delicious RRA specific
> components, all British made, is a lot cooler than a British frame
> with a lot of foreign made bits stuck on it to save a few bob in
> VAT. The RRA pedal alone is one of the most sublimely beautiful,
> practical and superbly made cycle component ever made. I suspect a
> lot of clubmen distained the RRA simply because they couldn't ever
> afford to buy one. And they sure weren't clocking in time trial
> records on one with an AC HUB gear like Booty did, now were they?
>
> And I'll match the workmanship, design and weight of my two SBDU
> frames against ANY Italian frame of the era. Compare the finish,
> too. Heck, the headtube decal on my '74 Colnago is on.. crooked for
> heavens sake! How many Italian frames do you see with their
> original paint? It was crap, pretty but still crap quality on
> almost all of them. Paint you can read a newspaper through. I had
> paint lifted off my Masi 3v with plain old tape! Not so with an
> SBDU frame. And I won't even have you tally the race and stage
> victories raked up by SBDU frames against ANY of their era. How
> many framebuilders did the kind of engineering and scientific tests
> and research the SBDU did? How many framebuilders developed an
> entirely new frame material like 753? And it was all done in house
> since, of course, Reynolds was part of the same "rubbish" TI family.
>
> Ah that feels much better now...
>
> Peter Kohler
> Washington DC USA
>
>
>
Jon Spangler Writer/editor Linda Hudson Writing
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