[CR]Aluminum Frames, etc. (long, boring, hit Delete)

(Example: Framebuilders:Jack Taylor)

Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 17:07:13 EDT
From: <TADCPDAJD@aol.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Aluminum Frames, etc. (long, boring, hit Delete)

Our frames look beautiful to us because they represent the frames of reference (!) from which we grew our appreciations. My sons do like the Star Wars look of newer bikes very much but view my bikes much the same way I view a '55 Studebaker. They even find a certain beauty in the flow waves of the welds (the harmony of the pushed toothpaste look). Their frames of reference are different from mine. Their reasons for riding a bicycle are different from mine. When they are my age, with disposable income (I hope!), I do not think they will be looking for a classic era Masi or Confente, and what we judge appreciable in a frame today, they may not in two or three decades. Although the Hetchins recently on ebay drew a number of bids, it did not approach the recent Masi (about a four decade difference, and I would guess there are afficionados of the Hetchins lugs who view Masi lugs as little more than "touched-up" and not as artistic as the Hetchins).

Of the offending frames themselves, it is the geometry of the frame that dictates comfort. Someday, someone will find the geometry for a ti or al bike that will be the perfect balance of comfort and speed.

In the meantime, I see the antithesis of this thread summed up in a closing line by Aldo Ross a few weeks ago, "Real cranks are cottered." By extension, I believe most cottered cranks were steel, and this raises an interesting question, "If alloy 'go fast' parts, why not alloy frames?" Certainly, the nascent forms of those frames existed during the "classic" period. Artists know that oils on certain media will last for centuries, but have no such assurance about acrylics, yet most tradable art today is executed in acrylics. We rhapsodize over the timelessness of steel frames, but we are not yet sure if the thinner walled steel bikes of the third quarter of the 20th century will last as long as the heavier steel of late19th century bicycles.

I confessed to someone today that I have never ridden a bike with indexed, Ergo, or STI shifting, so I don't know any better in regard to that argument; I do know that my sons shake their heads over friction shifting. On what may be a similar note, however, although I was once quite facile at rebuilding them, I never intend to drive a carbureted car again! Tom Donahue Melbourne, FL (overcast and threatening)