Quoting from an earlier posting: "The Toei's almost across the board, are better built and finished than
the French builders that he's imitating"
I see no indication that Toei and Hirose are merely imitating anyone. It seems to me much more likely that they are building their idea of quality bikes within a well established tradition of style. It is by no means that only the first person to build something is an original and everyone else is imitating the original. This is too narrow a conception of any kind of art. Are the Rolling Stones mere imitators of Little Richard. Hell no! Van Gogh was not a mere imitator of French Cave Painting (although Picasso may have been, at times!). Artists interpret things...not ape them.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi