Craig,
First of all, congratulations for taking the plunge and ordering a bike and waiting for the delivery of a ture custom and a piece of metal art. I'm sure you will be pleased with the outcome.
One of the "secrets" I'm circumlocuteing at this time has to do with the extreme versitility that will be designed into the bike I dubbed the "A eroTour" over two years ago. It is in fact the key element of the design of both the bike and the parts and accessories that will be available f or the bike. Performance, comfort, versitility, and high style will be t he hallmark of this steed. Before I'm completely finish designing and bu ilding this creature, it may take until the show in 2007; that's how ext ensive this project is. The first wave will be ready for 2006, but there will certainly be more time neccessary to do everything I have planned. There is a ton of prototype work to do, some tooling up for various ope rations, and even some welding skills to learn as I enter the manufactur eing stage. It's like planning a trip to the moon; which I've never done before.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
> Olof Stroh:
> The constructeur approach comes with a price both in money and in
lack
> of versatility. It is sometimes good to be able to change wheels, rack
s,
> lights after different needs and uses and over time!
> I would like to fight a small battle for the well-thought-out,
> versatile, well-prepared bike that may take different shapes with
> standard equipement and develope with its master.
> That doesn´t at all hinder a touring/audax/commuter approach!
> It also means that a good bicycle designer should not only put his
> abilities to the frame but to the other (_all_ the other) parts as wel
l.
> And their interaction.
I'm financially and spiritually in sync with Olof on this one. His description reminds me of what Mick, Norris and others of the UK branch have described as the typical English bike of the 30's thru 60's; one capable
(because it had to) of commuting, touring, and time trialing with the buddies, depending on its particular incarnation. The constructeur's bik e is the Shangri La of the builder's art, but to most it dwells in the realm of Yuppie Dreams. I've found this thread interesting because I just put mys elf on Dave Bohm's 2 Year Waiting List. He's going to build me a touring fra me that will very much fit into Brian's definition: tourer, fast rider, uti lity machine. Though Dave and I discussed a couple points from the "constructeur's point of view" my machine is going to be more in the vei n of an "English" model: I'm buying a frame on which I can bolt it on and tak e it off, depending upon needs and fancy. In fact, I took him my '65 HR Morri s and said, "Let's replicate and modernize." It won't have the harmonious finesse of a constructeur but it'll be beautifully pragmatic much like o ur Rivs and Herons are today and my '52 Viking Road Path was fifty years ag o.
Craig Montgomery in Tucson-where I'm trying to figure out how I'm going
to
pay for this thing :^$