|
For master builder Richard Sachs, the customer’s brief was clear: build me a frame using 70’s standards materials and 70’s standards building.
Why? Well, some see the 1970’s as the high-point in the evolution of frame-building. Sure, there have been advances since then, with oversize, air-hardened tubes, TIG welding and investment cast lugs, but in the 1970’s , there was less of a diversity in materials; lugs were nearly all pressed steel, tubing almost exclusively the ‘classic’ inch and inch-eighth diameter configuration. So, with a level playing field as far as materials were concerned, for a framebuilder to stand out from the rest called for a display of superior building skills and expert finishing. Lugs required a high degree of shaping and manipulation before building; evidence of skill and care with the torch a visible commodity, while the degrees of accuracy in setting the tubes before and after brazing became evident in the ride quality. In other words; no room for error, no shortcuts to success. Word of mouth and customer satisfaction were the marketing tools of that era, not the multi-million dollar sponsorship deals of today.
[...]
The bottom line is a frame that stands out from the rest; a frame head and shoulders above the ‘me-too’ art-décor paintjobs and soulless, production-line assemblies. A frame, as Richard put it “….remind(s) me of how beautiful frames once were—the result of hours of skilled hand labor. Those days are gone, but many of the bikes are still around. If you have one, hold onto it. If it is damaged, it can be fixed, and you can ride it almost forever, as its maker intended.”
| |
