Hiro11

Richard Sachs himself just posted this on his Instagram account. I think he sees the humor.

livedarklions

I don't think you have anything to apologize for, just don't ride it around with his name and designs on it now that you know. A little orange paint should do the trick.

Up to now, the instagram posting indicates all you've cost him was a good laugh at your expense.

sbarner 

Stale post, but I couldn't resist. I could see someone with a sense of humor spotting the Sachs components and doing a parody of a Richard Sachs bike, but not something that might be truly misrepresented, as this one certainly was. He could have made it a Ricardo Sachs, or even a Richard Sucks, and modified the logos to eliminate confusion, though I think most knowledgeable people would consider this bad taste. An equal misrepresentation is to call this a racing bike. To do so, implies that someone would enter a race with it, and other than a token kid's lap at a crit, this bike would never been within blocks of a real race. On the other hand, perhaps that's what the bike was painted up for, as a joke bike for some local event. I recall that, back in the 1980s, Marinoni in Montreal had decal sets for fictitious brands for people who wanted to dress up no-name bikes that were in for repainting. Given how the number of brands greatly outnumbered actual manufacturers in those days, I saw no foul in this practice. I have a Masi and a Torelli that are identical in every detail, yet I believe both were built by Mondonico. Richard Sachs never built bikes with someone else's brand on it, nor did he ever put his brand on someone else's frames. He has always been a one-man shop.

However, I agree with those who say that the immorality of painting a bike up this fraudulently is offset by its value. The paint job alone is worth what the buyer paid. It's just too bad he couldn't peel it off and reapply it to a real Sachs.

Oh, and that rear derailleur design dates back to the early 1960s, decades before Huret was absorbed into Sachs. I believe the model was called the Svelto, and it was one of a bunch of similar models made of stamped steel as budget changers. Campagnolo had their own version, named Valentino, in that grand tradition of successful industrialists naming some new piece of garbage after their sons (think Edsel). The brakes look like the cheap Shimano ones that graced the Huffy Aerowind, which proved that aerodynamics have virtually no impact on the ride of a 40 lb. department store 10-speed. They were a low-end version of the Dura Ace AX binders--duplicates in every way except in quality, materials, finish, weight, and stopping power: all at a budget price.