Originally Posted by
Torchy McFlux
Honestly, it's impossible to generalize by country. Some of the nicest quality and some of the worst have come out of Italy - sometimes from the same manufacturer. The Italian bike industry was cutting-edge in terms of marketing and hype to sell product. Pride didn't always match ability though.
Hand-built is almost always better than mass-produced, no matter where it's from. And those who pay attention to details in finish and alignment are what separate them from the rest. I'd rather own a North American built Eisentraut, Mariposa, or Strawberry than some vaunted Cinelli or Colnago.
That's a theme I'm beginning to understand, I should also have asked WHICH nation as opposed to stipulating only a select handful, my fault for being an inadvertently inward looking brit!