Originally Posted by
doomridesout
If there's anything I think a custom builder with years of experience dating from previous 'eras' of framebuilding should take away from NAHBS (and the age of the internet photo gallery in general, which NAHBS is a symptom of), it is that the primary challenge for them going forward is going to be communicating what that experience entails. In other words, why is a veteran framebuilder a commodity compared to a recent UBI grad? The importance of geometry, having the wheels in the right spot, and specifically sorting through the 'noise' in customer input- this is the kind of thing that makes an established builder a cut above the glut of younger peers. Example-- leaving out the name, I can think of a pic I've seen of a bike by a younger builder which is obviously super-stiff- 44mm head tube, ginormous stays, massively shaped and oversized tubing, with a slammed-forward saddle, bizarrely rotated bar/hood position, and short stem. In other words, the builder took fit numbers at face value from a customer who didn't know their fit, and built the bike as if Andre Greipel was going to be contesting sprints on it, because it was a 'race bike'. It looked uncomfortable and unnecessarily stiff. If I were an established builder who knew better, in terms of fit/filtering customer input, etc., my question would be how to communicate that experience in ways that don't shit on younger builders or say 'no' overtly to be customer (including insulting the wattage in the cottage). I've been interested in custom bikes for a few years, entirely in the age of the internet photo gallery, and if it's taken me that long to figure out these differences between the lifers and the recent entries into the scene, the established builders need to work on finding a new way to communicate what they do to the public. Maybe this is a problem I'm making up, but it should be obvious what Don Walker, J.P. Weigle, et al have to offer that a newer builder doesn't, and not just some sentimental tripe about tradition, either. Its not just the end user of the bike who needs to know, either, it's anybody who would pick up a torch in 2013.
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