-----Original Message----- From: Dave Patrick [mailto:Patrick@aardvark-pro.com] Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 1:24 PM To: 'Richard M Sachs' Subject: RE: [CR] Repro Campy hoods
Richard,
Yes, I agree, there are lots of issues here. Hoods would be feasible, certainly. Cables, housings, perhaps certain chainrings, etc. I can certainly understand Campy's hesitance at jumping into the repro game. The market is the driving force, and the vintage bike enthusiast will have to put his $$$ where his mouth is. Special Gillot fork blades? I don't think so. Lobbyists? Nah. I'm not suggesting that. But I look at the classic car market, which I've been involved with on & off for 25+ years. Pick up a Hemmings Motor News and look at the specialty suppliers of repro'd parts. Obviously, the market dictates their existance. The Detroit companies license repro'd parts thru a lot of these suppliers, cooperating by suppling molds, blue prints, etc. I own a '67 Mini Cooper S and these cars are supported by a very large aftermarket network in the U.K. There is even an official "British Motor Heritage Trust" that has the original panel dies for the body parts. Of course, there are a lot more Mini's than NR/SR groups out there.
OK, I'm rambling. By the way, how many official repro'd Campy world logo gum rubber hoods would you buy, if they were reissued on a one-time basis at a suggested retail price of $45/pr.?
dp
-----Original Message----- From: Richard M Sachs [mailto:richardsachs@juno.com] Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 1:03 PM To: Patrick@aardvark-pro.com Cc: GPVB1@cs.com; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] Repro Campy hoods
Patrick@aardvark-pro.com wrote: "Candidly, as a collective unit (the CR list) perhaps we should try to petition Campagnolo to maintain or start up some sort of "historical" division, as they could possibly replicate other sought after parts from time-to-time..."
does anyone want to venture a guess as to the market for this stuff? if the CR list has 600+ subscribers, i still think it's the same 40-50 listees that do all the posting. from these numbers, i still question how many people really want these items, how many really need these items, and how many would pay for these items. what next? a picket line at the old simplex factory? a lobbyist to work within the italian trade commission? you tell me! if the fork on your old gillott breaks, and the only 531 blades available for the repair are drawn to a different shape, do you pester reynolds to re-manufacture to their 60s specs? lotta issues here... e-RICHIE chester, ct ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ snipped from: Actually,
You can cut your mold costs significantly by going to Taiwan/China/Hong Kong etc. Expect to save 60-70% over U.S. prices for tooling, which makes the proposition a whole lot more attractive. I source parts from Asia all of time, including custom plastics etc., and their quality is excellent. And you could then lower your price point, if so desired. The kicker would be to get Campagnolo to authorize a third party to use their registered trade-marks, as I suspect that they would protect them very aggressively. Without the world logo, the repro hoods would not be worth replicating, in my view at least.
Candidly, as a collective unit (the CR list) perhaps we should try to petition Campagnolo to maintain or start up some sort of "historical" division, as they could possibly replicate other sought after parts from time-to-time. As the Reynolds tubing ad used to say, "there's strength in numbers". Take the issue right to the Campagnolo family (Valentino?). There must be quite a few projects/items they could reissue. The pricing would be steep, I'm sure, but it seems market prices may be support some of this. How about a reissue of the Cambio Corsa? Do you think they could sell 500 pieces world wide? 1000 pieces? I'm sure they could contract out some of the manufacturing to third parties. Then we could get Bianchi etc. to build a replica bike to incorporate the Cambio Corsa dropouts etc. Look out, I'm getting carried away here! I feel light-headed!
Anyway, just a few thoughts.
Dave Patrick
Chelsea, Michigan