Tom:
I pretty much agree with you, but here's a different angle on it. My only on-topic bike, a 2nd or 3rd-tier one at that, has survived its whole life apparently without modification, which I think is unusual and kind of cool. How many unrestored 36-year-old bikes still have Hunt-Wilde handlebar tape, albeit yellowed and peeling?
For Cirque-worthy bikes, correctness is the ideal, so a looser attitude towards originality may be refreshing to you.
But maybe the opposite is true for more run-of-the-mill bikes. After all, how many of them have had preening owners owners fussily preserving their originality over the years? For them, an eclectic mix of parts is the norm. So, to me, it would be different and refreshing for a "rider" to have original stuff. Not for correctness, but for the unusualness of it. My funky old puke-green-over-chrome bike will undoubtedly catch some eyes at the rest stops, once I get it on the road. With a Cinelli saddle, waffle-textured plastic bar tape, and red Universal brake shoes, it's sure to hold those eyes a bit longer, and I find that fun. A conversation starter, an education for those who have grown up in the Carbon Age.
(Further proof of my contrariness: the huge trend with old American cars these days is massive wheel/tire combos, sophisticated retrofit suspensions, and late-model fuel-injected engines. It even has a name - "Pro Touring" (don't ask). But the more popular that way gets, the more I enjoy having skinny whitewall tires, evil handling, and a leaky carburetor, on my '64 Chevy).
Again, just coming at it from a different angle. Bikes are an unequivocal good, however they're kitted out. (Well, some are gooder than others).
Cheers,
Jerry G. Prigmore, Clovis, California, USA
Archive-URL:
http://search.bikelist.org/
From: "Tom Sanders" <tsan7759142(AT)sbcglobal.net>
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:34:13 -0400
Subject: [CR]On originality...so what?
Regarding the cable housing colors Jerry Moos wrote, "Well the difference
is that the changeout of Campy bits improved performance rather undermining
it. Lined housings pull and return more easily, ball-bearing Bullseye
pulleys definitely have less friction, and Malthauser pads definitely stop
better than the originals. There were changeouts in the day that were
cosmetic, or which actually undermined performance, but most of the ones I
rememeber being common were definite improvements.
I agree exactly not only with such comments on cables, brake pads, etc. but
to lots of other things that owners commonly put on their bikes back when
those bikes were relatively contemporary. Saddles, tires, wheels most
anything was fair game to upgrade or replace purely as a matter of taste.
I still do this with my own bikes. I am shameless in this. I have tried
period perfection on a couple of bikes and never found it to be as much fun.
Yet, it is not uncommon to have folks treat these changes as "wrong"
somehow. I think one can be overly anal about having a bike just the way it
came from the factory...or ...wait...could it be the bike shop or is it the
builder? Yet so many were sold as frames either to the ultimate customer or
the bike shop that to attribute rightness or wrongness to the stuff on a
bike unless it is way out of the time line is a bit superficial. Thank
goodness that folks sought to individualize their bikes...how deadly boring
if they did not!
Those who think they know exactly the only way a bike should be are sure
welcome to their beliefs and I love to see what they do. Now, let's hope
that they can stand the things that I do to my bikes or that earlier owners
did to them. When I get a newly acquired bike, I don't even like to have
folks see it until I get a chance to make the changes that I feel make it my
own...I sometimes wonder if this is not all a bit strange...I guess we all
are a bit crazy one way or another...What fun!
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi USA
_______________________________________________
Classicrendezvous mailing list
Classicrendezvous(AT)bikelist.org
http://www.bikelist.org/
_________________________________________________________________
Make every IM count. Download Messenger and join the im Initiative now.
Its free. http://im.live.com/
_______________________________________________
Classicrendezvous mailing list
Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
http://www.bikelist.org/