[CR] How to promote hand built bikes...with apologies for its' lengthy nature

(Example: Framebuilding:Tubing:Falck)

From: Tom Sanders <tsan7759142@attbi.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 09:13:16 -0400
Subject: [CR] How to promote hand built bikes...with apologies for its' lengthy nature

It is no secret to those who know or communicate with me of my great love of hand built bikes, especially American ones. I had an insight yesterday on how to perhaps give them an economic boost. I was running a long downhill very fast a few miles behind MSU yesterday afternoon when my rear tire flatted in a most dramatic fashion. By the time I got stopped, the tube was actually wrapped in the freewheel and the tire was separated at the sidewall. No patch kit was going to get me out of this. It was a beautiful day and quite a few cyclists from the college were out. As I was pushing the bike home (for 7 miles, I might add) many of them stopped to offer help and commiserate. I had my Stainless lugged Columbine out. Without exception, these young folks on their Ritchies and Treks and other assorted tigged bikes were rather awe struck by the beauty of the Columbine. The most common remark, often made several times, was "My God! That's a beautiful bike!" I began to realize that they had not seen bikes like this before. It got me to thinking. I am wondering if the hand builders out there could get together a group of twenty or thirty beautiful bikes as a traveling exhibit and tour the collection to college campus locations around the country. If they could get the exhibition into the student union buildings or centrally located kivas and have no admission and a brief, low key seminar on the virtues of hand built bikes their client base might well increase several fold at a minimum. Different builders could accompany the touring group in different parts of the country as convenient for them and act to educate the many riders out there as to what was available to ride as an alternative to the merely serviceable tigged iron they are on now. These folks will graduate and become the affluent class that are the hand build builders costumer base and many of these students have considerable purchasing power right now. There are enough small builders out there so that this would not involve huge amounts of any one persons time. Maybe this is what they need to stay economically viable. Tom Sanders