Re: unabashed plug, Crumpton

On May 7, 1:28=A0pm, Chalo <chalo.col...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> dustoyevsky wrote:
>
> > I guess this would fit in the "local pride" category:
>
>
>http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1137960420?bctid=3D1539..=
..
>
> > Yeah yeah, I know the source. Offered in spite of.
>
> > Suffice to say, the guy who owns this bike is somewhat patiently
> > waiting for it to re-appear from the bowels of ****pping (and Bicycling
> > Magazine).
>
> Funny-- I've been part of the cycling scene here in Austin for over
> twenty years, minus the years of 2001-2006 that I spent in Seattle.
> I've never even heard of Nick Crumpton or his bikes. =A0I guess he must
> limit his public interface to only the scowling plum-smugglers of our
> fair city.
>
> I wonder how much he'd charge for a longtail cargo bike frame? =A0Or a
> sociable tandem? =A0I think handbuilding should be used where it yields
> noteworthy benefits. =A0I mean, can't someone buy a plastic road bike
> basically indistinguishable from that one just about anywhere for a
> whole lot less money?
>
> I guess a lot of folks who are indiscriminate enough to drop $9k on a
> bike must want something just like what they've already got, only more
> expensive. =A0If one of the consequences is a guy making bikes by hand
> and earning a decent living for his work, though, then that's OK by
> me.

You could equally well argue that any of the small
American frame building shops in the 70s and 80s that
made steel bikes, made race bikes that were more or
less just as good for racing as an off-the-rack Benotto,
Bianchi, or Cinelli, and therefore none of them should
have bothered.  That would have been a damn shame.
And most of them couldn't have kept the doors open
by building only for tourists and commuters without
the trade from racers.

I have no particular desire for a stupid-expensive frame
like that.  I do see that even people who do things with bicycles
that aren't to your taste might appreciate a bike that is made
custom, or just like the idea of buying something from
the person who made it.

Small businesses like framebuilders aren't a zero-sum
game.  A guy who spends his time building high-zoot
carbon frames isn't taking away any chances for others to
build useful bikes.  I would argue that the more small
builders, the better, as it makes more people aware
that you can get things from craftsmen as opposed to
conglomerates.

What that video really made me wonder about was,
where were they riding?  I thought they said near
Pasadena, but some of those roads looked a lot more
rural than I'd expect for that area (and some looked
too flat to be the Angeles Crest Highway).

Ben