Three days after the end of Velo Rendezvous, I am still blissfully reminiscing about the event. I truly enjoyed the opportunity to spend a few days in the company of my fellow cycling passionate whack jobs.
I found the symposium presentations to be well prepared and informative. Personally, my motivating reason for attending this year was to listen to Jay and Charles' presentation about restoration. I am beginning to conclude that, at least in the U.S., ours is the first generation to attempt to meaningfully address the issues inherent to the restoration of vintage lightweight racing bikes. While the field of collectible automobiles has clearly addressed restoration parameters for a number of years, this is relatively virgin territory for lightweight racing bikes. I was intrigued by Charles Andrews' narrative as to his own evolution with regard to restoration. He spoke of when he first began restoring bikes, the goal seemed to be, more often than not, one of taking a worn bike back to its original showroom floor condition. He then opined how, 10+ years later, he can now see the charm and beauty of a bike with "patina" and leave it as is.
The wonderful thing about the whole concept of restoration is that at the end of the day, it's your bike; do with it what you want. The one caveat I would interject is that once you make the decision to restore (particularly a repaint), you can't turn back the hands. I think that's why I am so hesitant to touch an otherwise functioning bike. With something like vintage poster restoration, you can normally undue all the restoration with relative ease. The consequences are very different when you strip the original finish off your 1960 Bianchi to opt for fresh paint.
To Chuck, thanks again for the effort you put in. Velo Rendezvous is truly a labor of love.
Brett Horton San Francisco, California
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