[CR] Rebuild/ restoration: Where do YOU draw the line?

(Example: Framebuilders:Norman Taylor)

Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:13:18 +0100 (CET)
From: "Nick March" <nicbordeaux@yahoo.fr>
Subject: [CR] Rebuild/ restoration: Where do YOU draw the line?
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


somebody wrote: Call me a Sinner. I helped my friend mike rebuild a 1970s bike to run with a Modern component group. There was nothing wrong with the original components.

Repent all thee sinners for the end is near, only the just shall be saved, the others shallt have their feet licked by goats. Boy, you have comitted a heinous crime, changing a mass produced plumbing job to something vintage but rideable by a kid. And I'm with you all the way, I shall chase away the goats.

I really do get the impression that a whole load of people imagine that things like Herses, Singers, Masis and whatnot turn up in full original condition, cherished by their owners as sacred cows not to be modified in any way. Let me rid you of your illusions: I see stuff like 60's singer or Herse with so much gear changed that were it not for distinctive lugwork, you'd think you were looking at a badly mauled PX10. Cyclotourers in particular were apt to modify their bikes to an extent unimaginable to anybody who has not known a real cyclotourist. Mofications of all types were tried, no part of the machine was sacred. If the guy, riding up to 150/200 k a day got any discomfort from a component, that component got replaced. Obviously, these three particular brands being sacred, they almost always now get restored to original NOS looking config. Ach so, it seem's I have unwittingly stumbled 'pon another point of interest: "downgarded" (in monetray sense) masterpieces of handbuilt cycles are not much different in most respects to heavily upgraded mid-range mass-produced machines. I have seen some beaut Motobecanes and suchlike, fitted out with the very best components available. Needless to say, nobody is even remotely interested in them. These are the bikes that get hacked for worthier brand restorations, or for ebay sales of parts. You will never see them on ebay, they get mauled well before they reach your eyes.

So what is my point ? I guess it must be that real cyclists constantly modify their machines, and that within a correct time frame, any decent component goes. Except on Museum pieces. And on mass produced gear, where anything goes until such improbably distant time as they become so thin on the earth as to be in need of preservation in original factory configuration.

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