hi bruce,
what a hoot! this ought to fuel this thread for at least 4 or 5 digests worth of posts.
personally, i prefer my bikes to be "flawless," but sometimes "a nice piece of fish has a couple of bones in it." if i was ordering a custom frame, however, i'd expect it to be flawless, unless i know beforehand that the builder always (not just usually), leaves some filemarks on all his frames. in other words, i'd expect consistency. i wonder if the other nagasawa frames that richard sachs saw before his had filemarks on them.
you mentioned you noticed filemarks as well as flaws on e-ritchie's frame - if you care to elaborate, apart from filemarks, what flaws are you referring to?
ray dobbins
miami florida
>
\r?\n> When I first saw the pictures of e-Richie's Nagasawa I noticed what
\r?\n> seemed
\r?\n> to be several flaws. But, since everyone was falling all over each
\r?\n> other
\r?\n> saying how perfect the frame was, I figured it was my 8 year old
\r?\n> computer
\r?\n> monitor. I have since got a new fancy monitor, and now I can see the
\r?\n> flaws
\r?\n> better.
\r?\n> I am amazed and somewhat amused that people seem to like flaws, and
\r?\n> take
\r?\n> them as some sort of sign of craftsmanship. The customer is always
\r?\n> right
\r?\n> (my new mantra), so I am offering to add file marks and flaws to my
\r?\n> frames
\r?\n> at no extra cost. The customer can also choose the placement and
\r?\n> type of
\r?\n> flaw that they prefer. Maybe with this option, I can get some frame
\r?\n> orders.
\r?\n> I have tried for the last 30 years to make my frames as flawless as
\r?\n> possible. It seems odd that we have gotten to the point that we are
\r?\n> revering flaws.
\r?\n> Regards,
\r?\n> Bruce Gordon
\r?\n> Bruce Gordon Cycles
\r?\n> http://www.bgcycles.com