Originally Posted by
Bandera
Having had the "Artisanal" production of more Italian pseudo-quality framesets inflicted on me for final assembly "back when" than I care to recall fondly many were simply haphazardly made badly (un)finished product that required an enormous amount of time (for which we charged) to finish into a saleable/rideable machine.
A well designed and controlled production environment will produce product that falls within the upper and lower control limits of Quality, "Artisans" not so much.
The Columbus SL frameset that I've raced and ridden for the last 39 years: Trek 900.
-Bandera
Well certainly, if all you care about is the utilitarian functionality of the bike, then artisinal craftsmanship won't be your thing. I personally also value the aesthetics of the bike, and the craftsmanship that went into it. And frankly, my Trek and Lemond and made by Panasonic Schwinn don't match the aesthetics of my De Rosa and my Tommasini. But I will concede that the former 3 bikes are just as fast and as well-functioning as the latter two. But they are not actually faster, hence the superior aesthetics puts the Italian hand-built bikes above the other factory-built ones, on style points alone - at least to my personal taste.