Originally Posted by
Otis
I am not and would never want to be a frame builder. But I have made some attempts at filing lugs. Shaping and thinning a set of pressed lugs and BB shell really taught me a lot about what I was looking at on these vintage frames. I've also been lucky enough to see a lot the classic Italian machines from the 60's and 70's without paint on them. Seeing the bikes in person is the most important thing.
Otis is right on the money. You don't have to be a framebuilder. It helps. It helps to see bikes with the paint off. But you still develop a pretty strong sense of what you like and why by paying close attention to the details and having some appreciation, no matter how rudimentary, of what it takes to sweat those details. You have to talk to people who know this stuff, and look closely at a lot of bikes. The very good and very poor and more interesting examples really aren't that hard to spot. Then when you know what you like and why, you can look beyond the names and the chrome. Even those Italian bikes from the 60's and 70's that have flaws without paint, or evidence shortcuts, still sometimes evidence a particular aesthetic, or sensibility as to the relationship between the details and the whole, or neat little touches or flourishes, that make them worthy of attention, IMO.