woodchuck69

This isn't me. I was joyfully surfing the web yesterday looking for some classic tubular rims when I ran across the yellowjersey website and found this picture.

I almost vomited in my mouth. Now that I look a bit closer, it appears as if they have replaced the entire rear triangle. I still don't understand. White pedals, brakes on a fixed gear, cowbars, GIANORMOUS frame for the guy's size....why oh why.

These bikes sold for $1199 or so with Ultegra back in 1999 at colorado cyclist.

Pictures like this are why I'd rather let my 1984 Rossin SL hang in the basement rather than sell it and become mutantized.

unworthy1

thanks, I stole it...don't tell Marcel...

USAZorro

I wouldn't dream of hacking off dropouts, derailleur hangers, or anything else in the process of building up a fixed gear bicycle, but I'm sure not going to run it without brakes.

Let's say, for hypothetical argument's sake, that the rear triangle had been mangled beyond repair somehow, but that the rest of the bike was unaffected. If that was the starting point, I have no problem with what was done. Until we do find out what the starting point was, we're just speculating - and possibly getting worked up over essentially nothing.

backstory:

a few April 1st's ago, my attention was directed to an eBay listing for some lugs cut out of a Richard Sachs frame. I was appalled and sent a question to the seller - basically saying "what were you thinking, hacking up one of those?". I ended up with egg on my face, as Richard was the seller, and had posted the listing as an April Fool's day joke. Ever since, I've been a lot more willing to reserve judgment, and try to keep myself from jumping to conclusions.

FlatTop

So THAT'S what the whole "Drew" thing is about! I've been reading "Drew" this and "Drew" that for a week without getting it.

I hope Drew has quit bikes and taken up a new hobby.

Muttleyone

Mutt

soderbiker

we all "Do "

cudak888 

My exact thought when I first envisioned the new "Drew" term.

-Kurt

miamijim

The owner of my old Rossin removed every braze including hte top tube cable guides.

To the OP...

Downtube band style shifter bosses exist. They're similar to the old stlye Campy deal but they allow you to install Shimano stops for indexed levers. You may need to wack off the other boss but at least you wouldnt have to have the tube replaced. They actualy look OK.

As far as the FD braze on.... band style.

Muttleyone

I think I found my biking avatar.

Mutt

bikingshearer 

For some of us, jumping to conclusions is the only exercise we have time foir during the week.


Methinks it's a difference of degree, not of kind. Same crime, just less damage done. Sort of like the difference between a drink driver plowing into your parked bike and plowing into it while you are on it - both bad, one obviously more serious than the other.

Maybe it's the difference between being a "drew" and a "Drew" or a "DREW!"

soderbiker

I'll vote for a "DREW"

woodchuck69

Destroyed Ruined Eviscerated Worthless


Doodz i think i will powdercoat these and put a 20 tooth on it what color u think wood be good???

Old Fat Guy

Day-Glo green

luker

I think u should powdercoat the frame to match the wheels.

And don't be a baby. 16 tooth anyway.

alancw3

so is your frame a mid 80's or what. threadless fork steerer makes me wonder what year? whatever it is a gorgeous frame!

RideTommasini

WE CAN REPLICATE THE PAINT SCHEME - find RIPA on the forums, we did one for him last year and he absolutely loved it. Also - if you send me the photos of the frame directly at inquiries@ridetommasini.com - I'll see if we can fix that frame for you. We can do a lot with our steel frames. If you have it fixed or repainted by anyone other than the factory, it is no longer original.

cb400bill

Actually, even if the factory repaints it, it is no longer original. It may be correct, but it can only be original once.

RideTommasini

Original in the sense of maintaining Tommasini quality - it will lose value if anyone other than the factory repairs or repaints it.

krems81 

Like taking a highlighter to Robert Frost's notebooks.

But I say you're safe to build as a single speed as is, ride it for now, and have it repaired if you ever want to build it geared. It would probably make a very nice and safe single speed as it is now, and you might find that after a while you enjoy the rest of the bike so much that you can put it's gruesome past behind you.

+1. It will lose value even if the factory repaints it. But look on the bright side, in its present state, at least is has a history that can be told to your children. Its damage are the markings of a (backwards) culture, and its original paint and construction are the remnants of a time when everything was right in bicycle manfacturing. The best and the worst all there before your eyes. It almost be a pity to repair and repaint for that reason. If I had a cycling museum, I'd want that bike, as is, to help illustrate the mindset of a cycling culture that exists, and is changing the world. This fanaticism is something that has not happened with bicycles in a very long time. We have to accept the good with the bad, because any time something becomes taken up in a huge way by popular culture, there will be misled individuals who misunderstand or go too far. The overall trend of people getting on bikes, however, is a very good thing, and so I think it is best to look at the crazy things some of these people do through the eyes of an Anthropologist, as much as it pains us to see those frames destroyed.

mkeller234

This thread is like the springfield tire fire featured in the Simpsons. It burns forever!

cudak888 

Drew makes good Foo.

-Kurt

metaljim

I think getting the frame repainted by the retired factory painter is FAR more original than having it redone by Tommasini USA. A factory repaint would still lose value no matter what. But having the original painter (or at least a guy who was painting those frames at that time, even if the guy next to him painted that specific frame) would be of no detriment to value, maybe even boosting it.

B17

He may as well have a new shifter boss brazed onto the frame. If he goes geared, someone's going to have to braze something no matter what. He'll need something to keep a band mount shifter from sliding down the DT.

B17

Fair enough- I've never seen a band clamp without a stop brazed beneath the tube, but I certainly haven't seen every bike in the world.

cudak888 

I've never seen an additional retention mechanism ever used on a clamp-on FD. For that matter, there is negligible vertical force being placed on it as opposed to lateral force.

-Kurt