Originally Posted by
Atlas Shrugged
Your comment how one identical bike would ride different than another confounding the builder is nothing but frame building lore and completely ridiculous. They know more than anyone that the business is based on nothing but marketing bs. Yes Sachs bikes can be beautiful however underneath the paint, subtle graphics and well finished joints they ride and perform like any other bike made of the same materials.
Originally Posted by
Atlas Shrugged
This mystique built around frame building is nothing more than an attempt at differentiating virtually identical products in the marketplace.
I am aware I am a bit of an outlier on this forums regarding this subject and the deification of vintage. I have been exposed to a diverse variety of metal fabrication work my whole life and bicycles are as basic as it gets. That is not to say that many high-end custom bicycles are not well-made and beautifully presented.
I need to put a disclaimer considering I am a neophyte into the vintage bicycle community and have been taught by someone who values framebuilding close to an art, so there's much of a bias.
However I'm confused, wouldn't you say not all frames are created equal ? I'm sure making a frame out of the same tubing as an absolute fact isn't hard as you said, but utilising the tubes properly, shaping them and picking properties for the frame to have should be a skill acquired over time and couldn't be learnt, or better put mastered, in a couple dozens of hours ?
I also can't help but point out that you used vague terms to argue : what is "one identical bike", "any other bike made of the same materials", "virtually identical products" ? Are you describing a "road" bike with "traditional" geometry and the same "Columbus SL" tubing from the same "era" ? If you do, then yes I think I agree with you, they couldn't be so different surely. But those are 3 different variables that could render a bike differently using the same "material", isn't that a lot of assumptions ?
I'm sorry if I come off as rude or anything, I'm very eager to confront many points of view as for now I've only had one.