i'd like to think i'm an informed customer. and as an informed customer i have this to say:
a hobbiest is not a builder. i don't care how pretty the bikes. how earnest the attempts. or how intense the passion.
buy bikes from a builder.
the road to hell is paved with good intentions. i support the joy and passion of hobby building. but you can't pay me a million bucks to ride anything from the workshop of a hobby builder.
like all things, anyone can call themselves a builder. but an informed customer knows that there's actually not nearly as many builders out there as you might think. and of the young builders... only a few that have it (and its a young it, so know what you're buying).
listen to e-richie. its legitimate to think of him as not only a builder, but a master. and not to kiss ass... but a lifetime given over to building makes for a point of view that has some weight.
i get why a hobby builder would hate to read this. but one thing has so very little to do with the other. and no amount of good will or desire will change that.
when you think of someone like dario, building a frame and then riding his scooter alongside the team as they trained, watching the guys positions.... and think off all the contract work and designing and tweaking, and of the relationships building and designing for the best of the best riders...
its an insult for a hobbiest to think of himself as a builder just because he makes a bike frame. sometimes you can't get there from here.. or only a very few do. and those few are obvious.
and in the end... its really just part of being an informed consumer.
shrink, terrorist, poet, president of concerned cyclists for the abolishment of bovine source bicycle parts and head of the disaffected commie dishwashers union.
Bookmarks