Dave Anderson wrote:
>Fluff, "Mojo", Hot Air, thats all the same. It won't make your bike any
fast
>or handle any better. That goes double for a "sliding cool scale" etc.,
etc....
>...I agree with you that Haro isn't out to make the best bike possible, but
>neither was Mario Confrente, Alvin Drysdale, Rene Herse.
>Strange as it may sound to you, bike builders are in business to be in
>business!
I am reading through the posts, and I am not yet caught up to present, so I may be missing someone else's response, but here's mine anyway.
Dave, You are saying in the first clip above, that you value a "fast" bike and a better "handling" bike. Those are *your* values. What you call "fluff", and "hot air", and "mojo", someone else might call "paint", or "graphics", or "decals", or how the builder lives his life, or what clothes they wear, or how articulate they are. Do these things have anything to do with speed and handling? Of course not. Do they influence purchase decisions? Sure! What's wrong with that?
If I had a chance to buy a bike that was a fantastic handling machine, but was black powder-coated, and tig-welded, or one that had a gorgeous paint job, cool (by my standards) graphics, lugs, with chrome here and there, but a teeny bit less fast in racing conditions, I'd buy the fluffy, hot air one, in a heartbeat. I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Regarding the second clip above, I have a different view of custom, small production frame-builders. Many of the ones I know put absolutely every ounce of their heart into the production of each and every frame with the FIRST priority being building the best bike possible... Absolutely. Phrased another way, these poor bastards are not building bikes "to be in business", but rather because building bikes is their calling. My guess is that many builders do braze-ons, braze-offs, rear-end spacing, repairs, paint, decals, etc., because they have to put food on the table, but building frames is their passion, and not something that most can do exclusively from a financial standpoint.
John Barron
Minneapolis