Quality Building: Bikefanclub.com

Awhile ago I had the privilege to see a slew of frames all hacksawed up, cut across the lugs and in ways that revealed the underlying construction. A few things came to light.

First, frames without paint do NOT reveal what's going on inside the lug as far as penetration and completeness in brazing is concerned. In the vast majority of cases the frames that had poor penetration were not less safe nor were they likely to fall apart or even handle a crash poorly---though in one case a "famous" builders frame came easily apart in a crash and the view from the inside of the lug revealed work that would make even an inexpert eye look with askance. Of course, taking a hacksaw to a bicycle frame could mean that you don't ride that one again anytime soon. Everything has its price.

Second, I was repeatedly reminded that most European made frames, including those from very famous builders, are not even close in quality to even the average Japanese or American work. The brazing penetration and overall cleanliness of the job was not favorable in comparison, even though, again, this is unlikely to affect the ride or the consequences of longevity or a crash---it's almost a matter of quality that doesn't matter, in a certain way, unless you think it does. Euro frames from this eccentric point of view would never sell by quality standards in terms of build so either you like the geometry, the ride, or the romance but if you knew what was in that sausage...yikes!

Third, I gathered a new respect for Japanese builders. Of course, junk is junk and I'm not talking about that. But I saw a handful of frames from the Toyo shop in Osaka---the six person operation that currently builds for Rivendell and used to build for Ritchey before those bikes were moved to Taiwan to save money. Toyo's frames were nearly as nice as the best one-off American framebuilders just in terms of simple quality of the brazing and construction details, down to the millimeter of placing bridges and bits.

Last, the best American builders are unsurpassed when you look this closely. The VERY impressive work that I saw belonged to Curt Goodrich and Joe Starck (who no longer builds bikes). These builders so _obviously_ surpassed others that it was like day and night. I shan't mention the famous builders whose work was less than impressive in comparison but it's all in the details since, like I said at the outset, there is no reason to think that the bikes won't stay together and ride just fine.

This comment has nothing to do with geometry or design and even less to do with the "ride" which is even more intangible. But it says plenty about skills and attention and levels of detail that can't otherwise be surveyed or easily. But, to me, this was interesting to see. I'm not likely to bring a hacksaw to my new Nagasawa but there are nice pictures of it here: <http://yellowjersey.org/trnaga.html> But I would bet donuts, real, live, tasty donuts that this bike is in league with the best in terms of pure brazing build qualities---but that too we would not know with paint or without it, unless we did something _very_ painful, costly, and foolish, like hack it apart.

Sometimes on this little group I feel like I'm talking primarily to myself. Thanks for that, Kahuna. I mean, I've started every thread so far and traffic seems low, but at least I get to talk about the stuff I find interesting. Anyone out there? Got hacksaw blades? Got Italian rigs we can cut up?

dbrk

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