Originally Posted by
rootboy
Which part?
The part of the quote that I replied to.
Look. In my book, none of this matters much, especially some 40 years after the fact. I'm not going to speak to the use of playing card figures as individual design elements used by bicycle makers back in the day, because that's all it was. Some folks needed/wanted a way to differentiate. Some used color (paint). Some had a unique confluence of tubes. Some had unusual fork bends. It was a simpler time, that's all atmo. There's no deep, hidden meaning regarding card suits and bicycle logos.
For my part in the thread, my own picture is in the OP and there are comments about the blade liners. The shortest way to cover all the bases is to paste in an unedited reply I sent to VeloNews ten years ago (
2004) when the same questions were being asked. I'll restate what may not be the obvious from my reply: the reason the parts entered the mainstream in the states (in the 1970s) was because I opened that door. I was ground zero here for them and, one by one and peer by peer, I gave them away or sold them or eventually hooked up my pals with my source. And I still have the letters Baylis, Serotta, and others wrote to me asking about them, and could I sell some.
Here -
Dear Lennard,
I think the best way to start is at the beginning, circa 1974. My best friend was in sales in the bicycle industry. There was a point in time when he traded lines with a European fellow; my friend represented the European fellow’s lines in North America – the other guy represented my friend’s goods overseas. In 1975, my friend met his guy in Belgium and the European guy was starting to sell framebuilding parts, the fork liner with the playing card figures was among these pieces. My friend returned with some to show me. I had my friend immediately order me 2000 pieces because I thought they’d give my brand some much-needed élan. Nothing more. Nothing less. In the ensuing years, whenever friends in the industry asked me about these parts and I freely sold from my inventory or gave the source information away. By 1980 these parts were so *^$%#? ubiquitous that I tired of seeing them on forks I made. Simply put, they became too common. Fast forward to 1992. That year, I added a limited edition 20th Anniversary model frameset and “re-introduced” the playing card pieces on my forks as a way to bridge the eras, especially since by that time most had forsaken using fork crowns and some even started using pre-built forks. In essence, I was the first North American user of this design. In the early days of my frame-building career I sought ways to have my look be unique and interesting. Had I not been as magnanimous, I could have been the only user, because my friend and his European contact did not see much profit to be made in these small low cost parts. The happy ending to all this is that about seven years ago I found the son of the original supplier – and he still had the remaining stocks of these pieces which had not been reproduced since the 1970s. I made a deal to buy all 9000-plus parts, partly to ensure that my supply would never run out and partly to be able to offer them with the Richard Sachs fork crown that I was about to bring to the market. So, to answer the “Why?” question about the playing card motif, the only thing I can say is “Because!”
Richard Sachs