Fellow vintage folk:
The subject above I always find curious. First of all most pantographing was never done by the original manufacturer, so who is to say what is original. Here is an example. let take Roger DeVlaemnick when in the late stages of his career he was riding Colnagos. Most of the other teammates had no pantoed gear on there frames but he did. Basically since he was the star Ernesto found a sub contractor and sent all the Campy and 3ttt gear out to be done. Believe you me that could have been any number of Subs as I am sure Ernesto was looking for the cheapest price. My attitude is this if non of that gear is produced and you produce a product that is honest in it's reproduction so much the better. Obviously the key is "Honesty". Basically anything I have ever tried to do I have pains takingly tried to make the reproduction dead on. I also believe that is keeps the vintage aura intact for the future collectors, I would hate to see things like this disappear.
As a comparison the engraver that does my work also has a stable of clients in the vintage auto sector. I have seen his reproduction work from anything like a model "T" to a high end work for a 37 Bugatti which was shown at Pebble Beach and the last time I checked that "T" type blue Bugatti roadster is worth a lot more than say a Confente. But that always bring up another discusion for another day. Most of the Car nuts are not much for "Patina". On the autos side they like it bright and shiny. I guess we bike Nuts (some of us, you know who you are) like it with the orignal rust, mud etc.
So my thought is if someone can reproduce the gear and make it look dead nuts on I say have it. If I want my Masi to look like it came out of the the Carlsbad factory with all the goop on it why not, the stuff looks really cool!
I am sure this will open up a huge can of worms.
Regards,
Jack
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Jack Gabus
jgabus@gmail.com
Laguna Beach, CA
USA