Yikes.........with all due respect......I could blow a gasket....but I'll cool down........In my opionion there is simply no comparison between what goes into an Herse demontable and any of the bikes you mention. To make such a machine I'd bet you'd be visiting 7-8 k for any domestic maker to do it - the racks alone would be many hundreds each if made the way Herse made them.....best comparison is the Japanese makers who do clone Herse bikes. Maybe someone in the US would make a one-off copy as a labor of love, but it just can't occur on a regular basis. A modern top tier SS coupler frame alone usually is close to 2K and those are a walk in the park compared to building a demontable. Mike Kone
At 04:23 PM 3/14/01 -0700, Monkeyman wrote:
>>On the value of the Herse $4000 seems like a bargain if the repair work and
>>other faults are as Mr Bayliss(sic) descibed. One value that a vintage bike
>>must represent but is rarely mentioned is how much it would cost to
produce a
>>similar product with it's major features in today's world for comparison.
>>Think of the time put into a fancy lugged Hetchins recently found at the
>>fraud controle department?
>>
>>I don't mean the same just a similar crafted product.
>. . . (SNIP). . .
>>Could you frame building fellows construct one today ready to ride for
>>$8000.00? Would it be much higher? No pressure just curious.
>
>
>Just to start with on a modern basis you could get a Bruce Gordon custom
>tourer with custom painted racks and all the internal wires all top end
>parts, plus many of the nice touches Rene would have put on a bike for
>about $4000. If someone wanted a "demountable" like the the Herse I'd call
>Hanz at Bike Friday and have him build me a one-off and I could get all the
>little custom bits too for $4000. Hell, if someone gives me $4000 I'll
>make them a "demountable" as nice as that one. The reason the Herse sold
>for so much is it's a piece of history that has a history.
>
>I was thinking about the very subject of the value of "classic" bikes just
>last weekend and think "classic" bikes are a real bargain. Maybe not the
>Herse, since you're buying more than a bike there, but most classic road
>bikes. You can find top end mint bikes regularly for under $1500. That
>same $1500 will get you a nice mid-line steel bike today but the same
>builders. Even taking inflation into consideration you're still getting a
>better deal. If you look around a bit you can find a well ridden but till
>very nice all top end bike for around $500, this is where the real deals
>come in.
>
>To sum up, recreating something "classic" is easy, but giving it history is
>hard. Classic bikes are a real deal when compared to similar products
>today, though I do like the modern tubing much better than the old stuff.
>
>enjoy,
>Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
>
>
>Brandon and Mitzi's-- "Wurld uv Wunder"
>http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~capybara/
>
>Monkeyman's on going bicycle part garage sale <<<NEW LISTINGS>>>
>http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~mkirklan/salepage/garage.html
>
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