Re: [CR] blacked-out Brooks logos

(Example: Production Builders:Cinelli)

Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:40:28 -0400
From: "John Betmanis" <johnb@oxford.net>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
References: <20100316.230318.4753.0@webmail08.vgs.untd.com>
In-Reply-To: <20100316.230318.4753.0@webmail08.vgs.untd.com>
Subject: Re: [CR] blacked-out Brooks logos


Are you sure the nameplates are painted out and not just worn from cleaning and rubbing so only the black paint is left? I have one here (date 73) that the nameplate is black, but I can still make out the name in shiny letters. Seems the white (or silver?) printing has just worn off. I'm no Brooks expert, but I've seen other saddles with embossed nameplates where this doesn't happen.

tom.ward@juno.com wrote:
> I've ended up with several Brooks saddles over the years that had had their logo-plates painted out (solid black), and seemingly long ago. My question is: was this "a fashion"? Was it some kind of anti-glare politeness in the Criterium? Maybe representative of a general antithetical feeling about logos and branding--or perhaps a hopeful anti-theft measure, i.e. camouflage?
> Was there a dialogue about such a practice at the time? I'm a few years too young to have been part of the zeitgeist. I was riding a road bike in the Seventies, but it was a Junior (I do know that it was french, and that my older brother painted it something very like Raleigh's bronze-green because he was painting our grandfather's former '66 Jeep CJ5 that color, and had left-over paint. He also installed Suntour derailleurs.). We also painted my first cub-scout "pinewood derby" car at the same time (bronze-green metal-flake with gold mist fade "windscreen"; I was twelve in 1979....
> Is there anyone here who actually painted out a Brooks nameplate back "in period", and who might comment upon their younger self?
> Tom Ward
> Bonita, California, USA
>

--
John Betmanis Woodstock, Ontario Canada