Re: [CR] Alex Singer lady's bike on French Ebay

(Example: Framebuilding:Norris Lockley)

In-Reply-To: <JJEEKLDDELHGFDGDBELBKEIKGOAA.avitzur@013.net.il>
References:
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 17:42:58 -0800
To: Amir Avitzur <avitzur@013.net>, Classicrendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] Alex Singer lady's bike on French Ebay


At 11:01 PM +0200 2/3/09, Amir Avitzur wrote:
>I am always impressed by collectors who are awestruck by their favorite
>maker;
>as if they could do no wrong, nor stoop so low as to make pedestrian,
>off-the-shelf,
>bicycles when times are hard (or for a few extrea bucks).

Singer did go through hard times during the 1960s. They made most of their money selling general sporting goods. Roland Csuka worked at Renault, and came in on weekends if - and that was a big if - there was a custom bike on order. There were years when they made perhaps 10 bikes.

But that doesn't change the historic facts... and the economies of production (see below).
>I don't know much about Alex Singer, but I wouldn't be surprised if the ebay
>bike was his,
>and I wouldn't be surprised if people paid a small premium for his
>pedestrian bicycles when they were new.

A bike like that would be hard to make in a small shop. There are many features that require big machinery. When Herse did make lower-priced bikes (albeit not as pedestrian as the e-bay Singer), many of the braze-ons, etc., were the same as on his higher-end bikes, simply because they were lying around the shop. The tubing was cheaper, there was less filing of the lugs, the components were much more basic, but the general craftsmanship was the same as the high-end bikes. They were made by the same people...

Beyond that, the economies of mass production mean that it probably was cheaper to buy the whole bike ready to go, than to hand-build a custom low-end bike from crappy tubing. Similarly, you can buy a whole cabinet at Ikea for less than it would cost to buy the wood and glass!

Rene Herse sold Velosolex motorized bicycles in his shop. I doubt he made those in-house, either!

I doubt anybody who bought a mass-produced "Alex Singer" or a Velosolex "chez" Herse cared much about those names, and was willing to pay a premium for the brand. By the 1960s, bicycles no longer were a status symbol as they may have been in the 1940s. And even then, the names that won the Tour de France probably had more cachet than a small constructeur known only to a few knowledgeable riders.

How many average consumers looking for a cheap commuter bike at REI would pay a premium today for a Peter Weigle bike made in Taiwan, if such a thing existed? Most would consider it less attractive than a similar Trek.

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com