Alex,
The Japanese dictate the current market price (atmo) for French high end bikes so I would say the answer lay within the land of the rising sun.
I agree that the original bike is more valuable than a cobbled together Herse or Singer. But because the frames are so rare, buyers are primarily looking at size, year and model as opposed to originality.
Mike Schmidt Stirling, NJ USA
On 10/9/08 3:49 AM, "alex m" <alexpianos@yahoo.fr> wrote:
> This price is not really surprising, many Rene Herse bikes were modernized
> over the years and ended up with just the frame original, so there are more
> incomplete bikes out there than there are parts. And Rene Herse parts were
> specific to Rene Herse bicycles, so there is no "exterior" supply of parts
> from lesser bikes, as is the case for Cinelli, Masi, Colnago, or other con
> structeur bikes who used Mafac or Stronglight.
>
> What is surprising and to me illogical and beyond my understanding, is that
> the price of a complete and original top of the range bikes isn't higher :
> how can you possibly justify the fact that a complete and original bike wi
> ll almost systematically sell for less (sometimes a lot less) than the sum
> of its parts and the frame sold separately? A bike (re)made up from a sum o
> f parts, even correct (and how can you know for sure what the bike was orig
> inally anyway in the case of a handbuilt where no two bikes were identical?
> ), is not as good as the bike with its own parts as it left the workshop...
>
> Maybe one day the market will come to its senses? But how many lovely bikes
> will have been taken apart in the meantime?
>
> Alexander March
> Bordeaux
> France=0A=0A=0A