I should hope that the name "Richard Sachs" on the downtubes of my bike built in 1976 indicates a builder who "actually enjoyed building frames..." Irregardless, its the sweetest-riding criterium bike I ever owned or rode, and additionally one hell of a rush to descend on.
Dale Phelps, Longmont CO
BobHoveyGa@aol.com wrote:
Of COURSE most of these guys whose name is on the downtube left the shop as soon as they could... wearing a suit in the front office was a status symbol to be sure, a sign that your business was big enough and prosperous enough for you to be the boss and not to have to get your hands dirty. Still, there's
enough evidence that at least some of these builders actually enjoyed buildi ng frames and always kept their hand in, or in some cases continued, for a time , to build the frames that "mattered", for pro racers or special customers. Or knocked together the occasional prototype...
So if the evidence is that someone like Ernesto or Faliero stopped building frames, great. Does it then make sense to leave it at that and make no eff ort to find out exactly when (or even if) that happened? Or to show no interes t in the individuals they trusted enough to continue producing frames with their names on them? Listen, if I had the opportunity back in the 70's to go France and see the factory where my beloved old PX-10 was built, I know I'd almost certainly be disappointed by the slapdash construction and lack of ha nd work... but I would still be interested in how my bike was put together and would certainly enjoy meeting the group of people (as opposed to the single individual) responsible for its creation. As for my '68 Masi Special, I wou ld be delighted to discover that Faliero had even some small hand in its creation, but if not, I would still be very excited to meet the guys who did build it, whoever they were... whether Alberto, or some young kid, I don't care... I'd still want to meet them and hear whatever stories they'd be willing to share about
what the shop was like back then. Wouldn't you? Or wouldn't you like to chat for a bit with the two ladies who brazed all those Paramounts, even if neither one of them was named Schwinn?
I know some may view this as a tendency to romanticize what is really just a
commodity, a commercially produced object. I can understand that attitude,
and I can only respond by saying that we are not looking at something that i s black and white, where you have Colin Laings that are the loving product of a single meticulous producer on the one hand and PX-10's that are the mass-produced assemblage of an uncaring group of workers just waiting for th eir next coffee break on the other. There are shades of grey, and to see that one o nly has to ask Brian about the early days at Carlsbad... few of those frames wer e the product of a single individual, but Brian will probably tell you that ma ny of the folks doing the significant fabrication were guys who took a certain degree of pride in what they were doing, and many left the marks of their individual hands to the degree that a discerning eye can still tell who file d a particular frame. In a case like this I think it is not only nice to know who that individual was, but it would be a darned shame if no one was interested en ough to find out until it was too late and all these guys were forgotten.
Bob Hovey Columbus, GA
Pat Moffat writes:
>e-ritchie makes a valid comment concerning who built a specific bicycle.
I
have a 1971 Masi, and I have never wondered who built it, and I guess that I
don't really give a rip who built it, and the reason is...I never knew the guy. Compare Masi with Colin Laing, and the story changes. I suspect th at Colin has built every Colin Laing bike ever sold and badged as such. (snipped )
>From e-RICHIE (Richard Sachs) blog that speaks to the issue of whether
Faliero Masi built my bike or not or if it even matters for that matter...
"thanks, p?te. you've hit the nail on the head. finally. the focus, or preoccupation with the owner/operator mentality is clearly an american one. and it really isn't all pervasive. mr. minolta didn't make my camera. mr. westinghouse doesn't make the oven. no one named 'levi' made the jeans i buy... (snipped) i know-it's all very confusing if you expect this to conform to your fantasy of how it was/should be done. the fact is that these companys were never one-man shops, nor were they ever trying to cling to the romantic notion that the guy who signs the checks should also work at a bench rather than a desk. e-RICHIE"
_______________________________________________
Dale B. Phelps, 303 939 6967 303 208 8664 pager
"Never be afraid to try something new. The Ark was designed by amateurs. The Titanic was designed by professionals." - R. Buckminister Fuller
---------------------------------
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page