Originally Posted by ink1373
matthew, i love your bikes. really i do. but it's a totally different operation. you sell frames. he sold interesting setups that looked pretty.
i don't mean to suggest that someone couldn't make a pretty, interesting setup out of a kogs frame, but thats the difference, from my meek, bicycle consumer standpoint. (aka your target market)
i have, at multiple times, been very close to buying a kogswell. currently i own a crosscheck with the decals stripped and a "momovelo-esque" build. i guess that says a lot about how i shop. my bicycle is my "third place".
Exactly.
I teach special ed during the day (when my friends in Taiwan are asleep.) My favorite moments as a teacher are when I'm in an art class and I can coax a kid into learning to express himself for the first time. That's the best. When you see that look on a kid's face that says: 'Hey, that's me on that canvas.'
What Kai does is show people his interpretation of beauty. And that's fine. It's like going to an art exhibit. You learn from others.
What I object to is people going home and making momo-esque bikes.
I don't want to see your interpretation of Kai's interpretation of beauty.
I want to see
YOUR interpretation of beauty.
It isn't easy.
I watch young people and old struggle with it.
But once they get over the initial hump, the payoff it spectacular.
Here's a photo of a Kogswell D model that some guy in Staten Island named Tony bought and painted:
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When he sent it in, he mentioned that the orange was Mopar Orange, the color of a '68 Dodge Roadrunner. That's what I'm talking about. Tony knows himself and expresses it through his bikes. In my book that make him a perfect Kogswell owner. I think that shows in Tony's other work. He's not afraid to take his own lead and run with it.
Maybe you and Kai are the same person. Maybe everything he is is everything you are.
But on the odd chance that you have something inside you that needs to be expressed, I'd rather see a ink1373-esque Crosscheck.