On Fri, 23 Mar 2001 09:32:39 -0800 Doland.Cheung@sce.com writes:
What does everybody think the pinnicle of the vintage lightweight
era might be?
>>>during the mid 70s, as the 'investment cast' era was being
ushered in, bicycles would begin to lose their soul. under
the guise of new/improved/better/etc., the frame makers
sold the bill that cast pieces advanced the quality of the frame.
in truth, particularly in that era, all that cast lugs, one-piece
brake briges, plug-in dropouts, and other similar parts did
was reduce the handwork involved to produce a finely made
frame. prior to that, it was a thousand little subconscious
decisions
that occured by each framebuilder every single time an operation
or a sequence was carried out. intuition. experience. training. it
matters not what you call it. it was needed to build frames then.
when the little parts started coming from foundries and casting
houses, most of the decisions regarding interfernce fits,
clearances,
aesthetics, etc., were taken out of the hands of the framebuilders
and susequently were made by mold-makers. in time, all one would
need to build a frame would be tubing and torches. the phenomenom
of learning 'how to make frames' versus 'assembling frames' would
spell the end of the classic bike as we CR listmembers define it.
it might be easier to state that many feel that pre-fab, cast
pieces
are 'imitaion art'. i believe this is so. anything that can be
bought
by anyone or used by anyone cannot be defined as 'classic'.
please don't read too much in to this; i'm not comparing eras
nor saying 'us versus them'. i'm just answering doland's question.
e-RICHIE