Originally Posted by
unterhausen
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Usually, when people in here praise the lugwork on a bike, I have to bite my tongue. Modern lugwork has gotten a lot cleaner than most of the stuff done in the classic period. Those bikes were made to look good from standoff distance, not fingernail distance. And it really doesn't matter from a perspective of the bike's ride.
I personally think that the classic period bikes we lust after ( masi, pogliaghi, colnago, just to name a few) were purpose built machines, and that purpose was to race.
They were tools to be used not objects d'art. I would agree that the lugwork of a Masi special compared to say one of Brian Baylis, Richard Sachs, or Sacha White's creations would look crude indeed.
Then there are the British builders who took much pride in lugwork ( think Hetchins or Bespoke )
and they were a major step up from the italian or french builders in terms of clean shorelines, and
filed lugwork.
Marty