Bravo Tom! I completely agree! I'm increasingly excited about the less common makers plus some of the well known, but still limited volume makers. As you know from the Cirque, I've got a Stump and a Stout. I've also got bikes by: Celmins, Cuevas, Ryall, Jack Taylor, Sachs, Hetchins, MKM and Laing. Certainly these makers are not unheard of, but they're not seen as often as many other fine bikes. I was in my workshop a few minutes ago and my eye happened to fall on a nice De Rosa and the thought spontaneously came to me: "Why am I keeping this? I'm not so excited by it". I'm thinking of selling my two De Rosas, my Medici, my two Colnagos, and my two Guerciottis. They're great bikes -- no question about that. But my collecting tastes are shifting toward the more obscure and/or the individual craft builders.... I'd love to have a Weigle....
BTW -- I received the DVDs. I've not yet had a chance to view them, but look forward to doing so soon. Thanks! Would you like a few $ for costs? Happy to!
Cheers,
David
David G. White Burlington, VT
Tom Sanders wrote:
> It seems there are small esoteric shops all over building small amounts of
> quality products that fall well below the eye even of most collectors.
> In this country we had (and have) folks like Chris Pauley, Michael Celmins,
> Rich Gangl, Dave Bohm, Peter Mooney, Mark Nobilette, Richard Moon, and a
> host of others who are certainly not well known, a couple of these guys
> would not even be known to many on this list. All have produced bikes of
> exquisite quality...some still are.
> I recently discovered some similar folks in Great Britain that I had not
> heard of until last year...Rotrax and Carpenter, for example, who were just
> great.
> To me this is just exactly what the excitement of collecting is all about.
> Not to denigrate them, but just about anyone can get their hands on a
> Colnago or Raleigh or even a Cinelli SC...show me a Chris Pauley or Richard
> Moon in my size and I am riveted...
> Every time I go on impulse and buy a bike not made by one of these great one
> man shops, I end up wishing I had saved my money for something more like a
> Doug Fattic bike...
> Ain't it grand that we have all these differing tastes? Imagine if we all
> liked the same thing...only Bill Gates would be able to afford it!
> Life is good...
> Tom Sanders
> Lansing, Mi USA