Originally Posted by
Poguemahone
I own an Eisentraut. I wouldn't let anyone touch it to do those things without having the man himself do it. Except for the riding part, that's for me.
That makes two of us. And having "The Man" do it is getting more iffy by the day.
Interestingly enough, if you look at a lot of Herse and Singer rando bikes from the 50's and early 60's, they've been updated over the years to take more modern components, especially rear derailleurs, but also brakes, etc. And the work was usually done by the original builder.
That said, I wouldn't hand my 'Traut (or Herse or Singer if I had one) over to any old Joe to take a torch to it, except MAYBE to replace a broken tube (which I do need to have done) or dropout.
As an aside, I approached Albert about repairing my frame after the collision which resulted in a cracked headtube, and he was distinctly cool to the suggestion. He wasn't big on doing frame repairs in general, saying that "if it cracked there, it'll just crack somewhere else later. Time to move on".
SP
Bend, OR