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#46
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As to this comment. Yeah, I believe Chapman is in the Providence area where I grew up... Isn't he the guy who builds vintage-looking bikes with moustache bars, shellacked cloth tape, etc, or am I thinking of someone else? Is there a reason in particular that mid-century styling is more appealing than 70/80s Italian-inspired bike pron? |
#47
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#48
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Even though I have always been West Coast, I have a string of Fat City Yo Eddy > IF Steel Deluxe > Firefly with an Igleheart "all-rounder 650b" for good measure. Just wanted to wish "Igle" a happy retirement and remember Max Kullaway of Seven and 333fab.
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#49
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Yep thats him. He puts in crazy detail work into his builds. I believe his shop is near Cranston.
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#50
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Love that bike and my brain keeps wanting to see it with ee sweetings cranks to balance the ti stem and post.
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#51
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Chapman and Tomii make bikes that I admire for their detail, and Tomii particularly for the finishes. But I don't feel drawn to want one as a daily rider. I follow Chapman on IG because his little videos of how he makes custom bits are always worth seeing. Horse, Royal H, Geekhouse - what draws you with these builders? I'm a native Bostonian, so I get appreciating the New England base of these (Horse is Brooklyn?). Yet if I were looking for custom steel, none of these builders would take preference over getting a frame from Dave Kirk or Rob English (who is in my mind the leading innovator working in steel.) Finally, I should say my bias in aesthetics is simple. When I ordered my Bob Jackson in 1972, I could have had any number of bikes with more ornate lugwork (Hetchins anyone?) but the long spearpoint Prugnat lugs are what grabbed me, along with the diamond reinforcements on the bridges. Having had that frameset repainted three times now, I knew when I got my next forever bike it wanted the most simple finish (plus I live in salt air) so I chose Bingham because the level of craftsmanship is the art of his bikes. No decals, no anodizing, no paint - just some etching and polished bits. I had a stainless Anderson (another virtuoso) but on MV it did have minor corrosion, so an Onesto wasn't going to work for me, hadda be titanium. |
#52
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Perhaps wording some absolutist statements in this thread differently than simply basing them on "age" would help explain what one actually means by what builders/appeal to them.
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#53
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Geekhouse closed shop few years ago. They were just "cool" made lot of cross bikes. I had and sold one, kind wish I kept it, was flaming pink
Honestly the heritage of FF is reason went to them going back before Chance, Tanguy cycles, which is where Chris took over his shop. I learned to make a frame at Tanguy in 1976 using good old geometry from high school, slide rules sin/cosin tables |
#54
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http://www.myspace.com/thedolloff Last edited by Alexi; 01-30-2023 at 09:55 AM. |
#55
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Timberland was the antithesis of Somerville IF. Firefly saw the writing on the wall fortunately. GS was only in it for his personal collection of garage queens.
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#56
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Are you aware that D Kirk built bikes for Grewal? Or that Dario was cutting his teeth and building race bikes for contemporaries of LeMond and Grewal, plus an entire generation of professionals that came after? Does it register for you that Kirk and Pegoretti work with Reynolds and Columbus to get tubes designed to their spec to achieve the ride characteristics they’re after in their designs? Do you get the precision that Bingham builds with and the perfection he achieves not just in stacking dimes but in executing on design choices and tubing selection? Or the professionalism of all three? As for Rob, you do get that he’s building for clients, right? Check his galleries.. There are plenty of aesthetically perfect builds in there, including the ones he’s done for himself. He’s also one of the nicest and most genuine people you’re likely to meet. These folks are master craftsmen. They aren’t (weren’t) just taking a tubeset off the shelf and joining them on a production line. Nor are they gilding lilies with fancy paint and accessories. They’ve moved things forward and innovated. The fact that some folks 10-20 years older than you and me happen to appreciate their work doesn’t change any of that. And none of them are (were) resting on their laurels or turning out the same everything year after year. They aren’t The Stones or The Eagles. They’re Radiohead. And if you don’t get the difference.. well, your loss I guess. I dunno. I can’t stand Yo La Tengo, so maybe it’s just best we hang out with our own earbuds in. There’s room here for that. V
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Io non posso vivere senza la mia strada e la mia bici -- DP Last edited by Clean39T; 01-30-2023 at 12:55 PM. |
#57
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FWIW- I’ve never seen a Tomii IRL, but of all of the small builders mentioned, Chapman has been the only visual standout on appearance alone.
His bikes actually look like jewelry / art pieces with amazing attention to detail. The others on that list…not so much. Maybe that’s got something to do with it. |
#58
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I myself do happen to be partial to Yo La Tango, but man this is an all time forum quote. In terms of content, as someone who likely finds themself on the younger end of the forum, if I could have any bike right now, I'd be torn between something from what I perceive as the "old guard" of Sachs and Kirk, or something from what seems to be referenced here as the newer bunch–a Sklar or Chapman or Bishop. I'll give it to you that Kirk may be Radiohead, but in that case, maybe I'll say that a Sklar or Mone is more like Big Thief. New, but undeniably doing something beautiful as well.
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#59
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#60
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he goes on to say they are bikes his friends' dads lusted over it's his experience anyway, realistically are young people interested in RS bikes these days? surely no |
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