Originally Posted by
louison
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.
Atlas Shrugged was referring specifically to the skills needed for brazing or welding a steel frame. Those basic skills can be acquired fairly quickly and easily. Design considerations are important for a one-person operation, but the vast majority of steel frames in existence were built by workers who had no hand in designing the frames.
Lugged frames, of course, don't require quite as much skill to build as frames without lugs. Filing and shaping of lugs can make a bike a bit prettier, but, historically, the use of lugs was originally introduced (in about 1897, from what I've read, or about 27 years after the invention of the penny-farthing bicycle) as a cost-cutting measure, to eliminate the need to miter tube ends.