Originally Posted by
Burton
It might be more accurate to say 99.9% of cyclists wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Which if the cstoners that cone through out doors are any example - isn't exactly a complement. Most of them apparently also can't tell when a pedal arm is loose, teeth are missing on a cassette or when brake pads are worn down to the metal.
None of which changes that's its good practice. The assumption that bicycles are carefully assembled in some factory by conscientious employees is pretty much a fantacy unless you're talking about bikes worth many thousands of dollars. Just another reason I like to build my own stuff up from scratch.
I agree. I recently had a +$2000 custom True Temper s3 frame faced by our Trek dealer and watch closely as I got nervous when it took them a while to find the tooling. It was clear when he stopped a couple time for me to look that once through the paint the metal shaving was required from my perspective. While far from OCD I admit to being a retired mechanical engineer with some knowledge of bearing life w/o ideal seating, and I love this frame. I think it was $20 whole dollars and maybe $4 for gas.