kenji this is helpful and interesting information. thank you for posting it. e-RICHIE chester, ct
kenji fusejima <QYP02710@nifty.com> writes: Many Japanese French bike enthusiasts do not ride on a bike. They just display their beautiful Toei bike. Since they do not ride bike, their main concern is the appearance of bike. They love beautiful finishings, technical works and rare parts.
Toei is just a "factory". It seems that chief builder of Toei do not ride on a bicycle. I think that he is eager for finishing beautifully and realizing complicated mechanism. Just appearance. Not riding performance. And, I think that Toei has not enough shame to making replica. Former Toei had the passion that the original feature would be made before. However, while they are building "object like French bike" according to demand of "not-riding customers", their passion faded away gradually, I think. Customers demand complicated and difficult works, even if there are no meaning. Since it is such a situation, we sometimes looked meaningless works at Toei bikes. If you want to get Toei bike which equipped Herse crankset, Singer stem, Goeland front changer and Routens finishing, Toei build really fancy chimera beast. However, Toei do not build perfect replica. In the range which does not affect appearance, Toei has improved them. Their originality may be able to be seen there.
Since Toei is just a factory with little opinion, the result of a bike is influenced by customer's opinion and knowledge. If the customer has sufficient knowledge, Toei will build a wonderful bike. It is because their skill is high.
Since I did not have the knowledge which makes Toei build a wonderful bike, I placed an order a bike to Hirose. I think that Mr.Hirose has good skills and opinion to "good bike".