Originally Posted by
PeteHski
The bike you buy is still defined/identified by its frame though. Nobody says their bike is a Zipp just because it has Zipp wheels. Or a Shimano Ultegra or whatever. They name it by what frame it has, custom or off-shelf spec. Doesn't really matter. The spec itself obviously matters, but the bike is still named by its frame.
My local UK bike shop used to have "House" branded frames, both custom build and off-the-peg. They had an in-house frame builder for a while, but I believe they used several reputable frame builders. This was in the mid-80s when everything was steel.
No but that's exactly the point of this possibly/probably apocryphal story about local Italian bike shops and their house brands. It wasn't the frame that people were identifying with because the frame was essentially a commodity--they were all the same. Just like saying, I like to eat wheat, but I don't care if it's this grain or that, they are all interchangeable.
But everyone felt the same commodity frames were totally different. So they created an identity that was the bike with what? i don't know, the decal, or the after the fact head badge, or the painted on stripes, or, most likely, the store, its owner, and their relationship.