Whats your take on Replica frames?
 

What's everyone's thoughts on replica frames? I've got an decent shape Schwinn World Sport f/f except the paint and all the decals are scratched to hell. I think it got into a scuffle with a brillo pad and lost. I was thinking of picking up a Masi decal kit from Cyclomondo and rebadging it. First things first, I don't plan on selling this as an actual Masi. More so when someone does a kit car with something they could never really afford like turning a Fiero into a Ferrari.
This will probably be my last build for awhile since I need to put most of my income on bills to pay off before I quit my job and go back to school full time this fall. I think I'll do a replica of Dave Stoller's bike in "Breaking Away".

If the paint bothers you just paint it all one color and leave all the decals off of it. Anyone who knows anything about bikes will know that it isn't what the decals say. It will also save you the cost of the decals. Roger

You know they had a "stand in" Masi for the crash scene right? It was a SEARS FREE SPIRIT, painted up to look like the Masi. The paint job cost more than the bike did, but the real Masi would only give the producers one bike. So if you're going to make a copycat bike... good choice, but watch out for frame pumps.

If I had a generic so so bike repainted, I probably would have decals with just my last name, or even "Thrifty Bill". Part of the fun. I would not use an actual brand name.

Do what you want, but it'll ride like a Schwinn so I'm not sure of the validity of the "replica" status. Most kit cars have some sort of performance increasing parts.

I'd prefer some play on words or something as well. Instead of "Masi" it could say "Maybe"

do whatcha want, but IMO re-badging a bike, especially a Schwinn as a Masi, offends my C&V sensibilities.

I do agree that re-badging with a funny variation would be cool. A friend of mine had a vintage McBain track bike that he added this pic to:

http://www.behindthehype.com/wp-cont...wolfcastle.jpg

But what about the other six billion people who might make a mistake, thinking the bike actually is a Masi? That said...

In my quest to purchase this Cyclops, I almost bought a repainted something or other that was not a Cyclops(don't have a picture of that one). Lucky for me, the $400.00 price tag slowed me down and I managed to better research my intent to purchase. But I almost blew it and, you know what...?

The gentleman selling the bicycle, bought the bicycle used, thinking it to be a Cyclops. I sensed his resentment, at my questioning the bike's authenticity.

Then there's the question: "What is a MASI?"

Just thought I'd mention it.

-Kurt

Having a "pretend" Masi wouldn't do it for me. I'd be reminded that I don't have a Masi everytime I rode it. I'd probably go with something unique to me if I were painting it. Maybe a decal saying "My other bike's a Masi" on the TT?

Do what you want. It's your bike. If someone has their religious undies in a bunch they can stuff it for all I care when it comes to things like this. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but it stops at that. In the end it is YOUR bike. Do what you want.

Until, of course, you go and try and sell it and pass it off for what it isn't -that's just wrong. Full disclosure and all. Anything less is fraud.

Pesonally, I don't see a problem, for example, with someone making fake Rolex watches that are so close to the real thing that even many professional jewelers and horologists can't tell the difference. That's an issue between the Rolex company and whomever is making them. As long as they are not passed off as REAL Rolexes to unwitting consumers when sold. The rest is just a copyright issue that is a matter for corporate lawyers to fight out. Not my concern.

If you want to build yourself a replica anything that's your own purview and your own private property. You aren't even required to tell anyone the truth about its actual origin if you don't want to as long as you aren't selling it -and then only the prospective customers.

It's a free world, or at least it should be free-er.

That's my $.02

Haro doesn't seem to have any problem with selling their Taiwanese crap as Masis. The World Sport is at least as good as one of those.

SP
Bend, OR

I've wanted a cool 50s English racer forever, with a two-tone paint job. But those bikes, in presentable shape, in my size are impossible to find. I've got an International with a trashed paint job. I've consider rebranding it Holdsworth or something, and going to town on the paint job.

The problem I have with it is you can never match the patina of old paint. No matter what you do, it will never look like an old bike - it will look like a new bike painted to look like an old bike, at least for the next 40 years. In the end, it'd not give the off the same aura of 'old.'

But if you are painting it for yourself, what the hell. The standard in the toy train field is to put a mark in some inconspicuous place to identify it as a replica. That done, you can do whatever you want and no one has any right to say anything.

Wait, I thought "Thrifty Bill" was a brand name. :)

Not my problem. If I want to hand-craft my own Rolex watch from scratch and put a Rolex name on it that is MY PROPERTY and my life and my world and it isn't hurting anyone else until and unless I try and pawn it off by selling it for something it isn't without full disclosure.

While I believe you have the right to your own opinion i don't want to live in your thought-crime universe.

I had deleted the post because I realized it didn't belong here...oh well.

Thank you for giving me the right to my opinion. Greatly appreciated.

Thought crime universe? Oh my. Sale on tin foil, aisle 5.

I specifically addressed the point you made about MANUFACTURERS, not consumers playing with their profit. What I wrote has NOTHING to do with this dude painting a bicycle. It has everything to do with illegal mass theft. Maybe try reading what was written. Whether you realize it or not, it does effect you.

By the way...making your Rolex knock off from scratch does become society's problem if you sell it, which you've acknowledged. That's my only point. You wrote it's between corporate lawyers, and it matters to everyone.

There are many watches I'd much rather own than a Rolex. They make a million watches a year in factories. Not that they're not fine timepieces, they are. But they're also a prime example of the ridiculous level to which brand names affect the people who so willingly pursue and flaunt them as ends in themselves.

When I think of replica, I think of something that looks similar to the original. For example if some guy started brazing up frames that had the same geometry, lugs and fork crown as a '84 Masi, then put on components that you might find on an '84 Masi, that would be a replica, and it might be just as good a ride as well. Taking a frame that looks like a Schwinn, rides like a Schwinn and weighs like a Schwinn, and putting Masi decals on it, is a lot like putting a flowing gown and lipstick on a pig, no matter how you dress it up, it's still a pig.

If you really want to rebadge it, how about putting your own name on it?

Case in point:

http://www.frameforum.org/newportal/...oject-gear-100

Over in the guitar world, you have your newbies who say "I think I'll build a replica of a valuable Martin and put all the correct decals, make it indisguishable from the real thing. What do think of that?"
The fact is, the guitar will look like a turd, and most will know what it is. If you have the skill to make a great guitar, you will mark it with your own mark.

If you have the skill to make a great looking bike, mark it with your own mark!

the only good reason I can think of for doing this is to pull some goldigger cycling tail, if such a creature exists.

I see it being called counterfeit rather than replica. If someone slapped one of our companies label on something we didn't build we'd be all over them.

Scott

I was thinking of something like this... somewhere on the bike, inconspicuous, but visible if someone looks for it, mark it as "Not a real Masi"

I would possibly also remove the Masi decals in case of sale, just to make sure that the next person didn't obscure the disclaimer marking and sell it as a real masi.

While I read your entire post the first time I'd suggest you also read the entirety of your own post as well.

I don't know how else to read "I radically disagree" than that you reject everything I said in mine.

Words mean things. If you don't RADICALLY DISAGREE with what I wrote then ignore the rest of it -I'll give you the same courtesy.

/tip of the tin-foil hat/ ;)

Speaking of ethics and what is right -I feel deleting something you said in a public forum to be pretty far down list of slimy things. Off-handed remarks that are deleted before they can be replied for is not Cricket in my world. But we are all entitled to own opinions (especially wrong ones).

1. It's not a replica, it's a frame with the wrong decals on it.

2. It's tacky to decal up (Masi, Colnago, etc. on a POS bike). But cool to decal down (Varsity on a Paramount, etc.)

Yawn...my initial post highlighted only the portion of what you wrote that I disagreed with. Nice try though. As I said, I deleted it, almost instantly, because it was off topic and inappropriate...like the rest of this chain has been.

If you want to feel persecuted, I won't stop you.