[CR]pinstripes and suchlike

(Example: Framebuilding)

Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 18:05:06 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
From: <chasds@mindspring.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]pinstripes and suchlike

Ken Toda wrote:

Hi, Fred and Jack,

I looked the image very carefully, I think it is ORIGINAL. I am not a Paramount expert, but I one tried to outline the pinstripe. Even on Prugnat lug, it is so hard and you got to be a master craftman/artsit to the the work.

Didn't I hear some one said there was only one person in Schwinn who can do the pinstriping?

Anyway, if you ever try to do it , you will know how it should looks like, or what you can do. I remember seeing Brian Bayles's job, it was great, but I am sure with his natual talent, it took him for over 30 years to get that point.

Best Regards,

KEN TODA, High Point, NC

****

At the risk of getting that creature down in SD annoyed at me, unless things have changed, Brian outsources pinstriping. He has a good striper he uses, apparently. To judge from what I've seen of this striper's work, I'd have to agree with Ken.

Pinstripes are an interesting problem in restorations. I've seen a number of Mondia, Taylor, Allegro, and other restorations where the pinstripes were flawless, but leaden. They just sat there on the tubes, doing nothing.

A proper pin-stripe job should be very lively, even skittish, if I can use that word to refer to pin-stripes. Check out the pinstripes on an early 70s Mondia Special or Allegro. Whoever was doing them really WAS a genius for the job. The stripes appear to have been applied very rapidly, but with great precision, and they look like they're about to fly right off the tubes. A proper pinstripe job like this gives a frame a wonderfully raffish effect.

Risking a bit of egoboo here, the late 1950s Condor Pathracer I have that won Best Original at the last Velo-Rendezvous (Thanks Sterling..!) has pinstripes similar to an Allegro or Mondia, but even more elegant, in my opinion, and with the same liveliness..

The 60s Paramount pinstripes have that same liveliness (I'm still jonesin' for a canary yellow 60s Paramount with chrome head-lugs and the red pinstripes throughout. What a lovely frame that is. Anyone have one to sell in a 56 or 57cm c-t in clean, original condition?????)

It's an art, and, I imagine, something that can be learned, but not easily. It'd take a fair amount of practice to get it just right.

So, if you're gonna have pinstripes done in a resto, make sure whoever does it, understands this problem, and understands how to do it right.

Charles "Mondia nut" Andrews
SoCal