Originally Posted by
FBinNY
That's downright insulting.
By extension, you'd claim that a skilled cabinet maker cannot turn out good work without the latest in tools and machinery. Or would have a house painter tell Mr. DeVinci how it's done. In any case, let me return the insult (with apology) by suggesting that you don't have the credentials for your opinion on this to matter.
Why insulting. I didn't criticize something he has no control over. He is the one who is insulting his customers. He can choose to do the right thing anytime he wants. And it isn't just about wheel building in which I do have considerable, albeit amateur, experience. In a broader sense it is about manufacturing quality control and assurance on which subject I spent a large part of a career and am actually quite expert. It is inexcusable for a manufacturer to say that quality control and assurance isn't necessary because he knows how to do the job right. That is just plain BS. Attitudes like that are exactly how Detroit was overcome by Japan in the '70s auto war. Likely also how Schwinn lost out to Giant and Trek, et al. You can bet your life no one at GM or Ford is saying stuff like that now.
Regarding your analogies to craftsmen and artists, you picked two areas which are judged subjectively and not defined by objective dimensional specifications. There is no similarity between them and what we are discussing here.