noglider 

When you come down to it, it doesn't mean much. Most bikes are made by makers with more than one worker, so the name is the name of a company, not the worker. And a company owns factories or it doesn't. None of this indicates a heck of a lot.

I have a McLean, which was made by a guy who worked alone in his workshop, made a few frames, then died suddenly at the age of 29. That's a special frame, for sure.

My favorite bike to ride recently is a Bianchi made in Taiwan in the early or mid 90's. It rides great. I would like it just the same with any other badge on it. Does the Bianchi company deserve credit for the bike coming out so well? Probably. They probably spec'd it and maybe designed it. It's impossible to know how deeply involved they were. But I'm satisfied.

iab

Deep in the Dolomites, the iron was mined by hand using a pick ax. The coal was had dug by a simple shovel just outside of Verona. While the aluminum was mined by virgin peasant girls in the hills of Sienna. The iron and coal was smelted into steel using the wood from fig trees outside of Rome. The steel was formed into tools and dies by a guy named Luigi in Torino using a half-round bastard and some jeweler's files. The aluminum was refined using hydro-electric power from Lake Como.

The parts were forged by the 40th generation of Milanese workers. The acetylene was extracted in Sicily. Giuseppe, Luigi's cousin, brazed the bike using flux from Venice. To ship the bike to me, they used cardboard made from Italy's most northern forest.







Or, someone, somewhere, made my bike. I like to ride it. That is all that matters.

noglider 

Superb, iab.

randyjawa 

This thread is both interesting and timely.

I have not ridden my Miele #17 for a few years and gave some thought to selling the frame set, after harvesting the parts. Problem is, that particular frame is one of very few made for Canadian athletes back in the 80s. I was pleased to find out that Miele #17 was actually built by Sante Pogliaghi. This information was shared with me from a fellow who also owns one of these bikes and he got his new.

Anyway, being unridden bothered me, so I did something about it on impulse about a week ago - I upgraded the bicycle. First time I have done something like this to an old bicycle but it sure seemed to work out OK. I love the bike again.



The question, of course, is what is it?

Captain Blight

It doesn't matter at all to me who built it, though I do have a bias toward European, rather than Asian, builds.

My three favorite rides, however, are the Pro, the VSX, and the Trek 616... which were all handbuilt, with the emphasis being more on quality than quantity (with some tolerance for drunkenness being necessary in the Raleigh's case).

KonAaron Snake 

It would ride better if you used imported water from a Piedmont well in your bottles.

wrk101

Funny, most of mine are just the opposite.

Lets see:
1999 Quintana Roo (Merlin frameset)
1999 Paramount Series 9C (Kestrel)
1992 Schwinn Paramount Series 5 (Panasonic)
1988 Univega Alpina Pro (KHS)
1987 Schwinn Prologue (Panasonic)

I do have a Trek 520 built by Trek, a chrome Katakura Silk (built by Katakura), a Colnago Master Lite, and a Colin Laing frameset to build up.

dwellman

I only have 1997 and older Cannondales so they were built in. . . Bedford, PA by whomever LB, SA, et al were.

KonAaron Snake 

I lied anyway...only around half were.

non-fixie 

Ceci n'est pas une Gazelle Champion Mondial:



Underneath that elaborate paintjob is a Koga-Miyata GentsLuxe. Now who would do such a thing?

Picchio Special

What level of workmanship is evidenced by the frame in question? What is truly distinctive about the frame in question? To what extent was the founder of the marque involved in ensuring that his ideas both design- and quality-wise were carried out in the building of the frame in question? Or to what extent was his legacy preserved and extended by the people who inherited the name - especially if a family connection is involved? Many Italian marques were small shops where a number of hands touched the frames and bikes - the question is the extent to which the quality, aesthetics, and ideas about what constitutes "excellence" were involved in the building of the bikes. This ideally involves the eyes of the person who launched the name being on the bikes and giving their "imprimatur."

vjp

Not quite right.

The early bikes were built for Jim Miele by Marc Rossin who used to work for Colnago. He opened his own shop in the early 80's and ended up owning the Pogliaghi name for awhile before it was sold to the Basso brothers.

I have seen a couple of early Miele and they had "Rossin" on the seat stay caps. Very nice bikes!

iab

A static brand will always die. The people running the brand are irrelevant to the promise of the brand. A brand cannot be all things to all people. People will always have different priorities of what they value in a brand. There is no right or wrong to how brand values are prioritized.

Picchio Special

I have no idea what any of this *&^%$ means. I just know I wasn't talking about "branding." But whatever.

Chris W.

My Woodrup was built by Stephen Woodrup, son of Maurice Woodrup. However, if my frameset had been built by Kevin Sayles (my first Woodrup very well may have been) I would still consider it a Woodrup

Cheers,
Chris

kaliayev

Mike Appel was a one man show. The one bike I have that I know who built it.

Bianchigirll 

Back in the day that was one of things that made Cannondale great. Everyone stamped the frame on its way down the line. When a quality issue was noticed you stayed after (on your own dime) to fixe the problem. Quality was job 1 back then, but alas even those torches have fallen siglent to the almighty profit margin.

robbied196

CIOCC from 1969 to 1980 with the legendary craftsman Giovanni Pelizzoli in charge. The history of CIOCC can be found here https://www.pelizzoliworld.com/history/

Oddly enough I've just emailed the great man himself as I'm now 90% certain he built some frames for another legend, Mercian founder Tom Crowther.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...-attached-bike

jr59

This does bring up a very good question.

I will use D.Dude and myself as example;

DD has a Davidson, so do I, But I am not sure that Bill Davidson made it!

My Ti Spectrum was designed and painted by the owner of Spectrum, Tom Kellogg,
yet the tubes were Merlin, and it was welded by Seven.
So who made it?

It's a valid question.

I don't think Bianchis were welded by Edroardo, maybe a few but not even a small % of them.
Yet if they came out of his factory, we say they were made by Bianchi?

Not picking on just these builders, just using them to make a point.

I would guess that if you had a Richard Sachs, then you could say he made it!

Gallo

Giovanni Battaglin is still around

At first glance my response would be no however I would however rave about if I were to ever get a Pinarello Radius and let everyone know it was really built by Dario Pergotti.

If I could ever justify the price tag I would get a Holland because I know who is building it.

Cyclists are vain creatures and love to talk about their bikes and riding.

While fit and price have been my driving factors in my bicycles purchases for me and those in my family, I would be lying if I did not say that I would not have more pride in a machine made by a master

Lenton58 

Chris W. Mine was built by Kevin Sayles, and I do consider it a Woodrup. (Sayles has built some fabulous frames carrying his own name/marque. They don't even look like Woodrups — to me at least.)

Chris W.

Kevin is back at Woodrup, turning out some incredibly beautiful "Woodrup" framesets ;-)

Cheers,
Chris