Is a custom frame for racing always an "upgrade"?

On Mar 5, 6:01*pm, " wrote:

Maybe you've wasted your time all these years in academia and should
have tried to make it as a soprano recorder player?

:-) I wonder how many people worldwide "make it" as recorder
players?

We were in Tallinn, Estonia last year, spending lots of time in its
marvelous medieval town center. Heard some excellent musician on
recorders as well as other period instruments. But one ensemble was
connected with academia; the other was probably working for $10 per
hour at a tourist restaurant. America has relatively few medieval-
themed tourist restaurants.

Last year, I happened to help a woman on campus who was looking for
directions. We talked a bit, and it turned out her son, who she said
was brilliant at math, was in the process of changing his major to
music. He had a garage band and figured he'd make it big as a rock
musician.

As I told her, I think music is a wonderful hobby, but a lousy career
choice. It's hard to make a decent living doing something hundreds of
thousands will do for free. (In that way, I'm part of the free
competition.) A kid with talent in a marketable but "not fun" area
can write his own ticket, and should probably head in that direction.

And I speak as parent of an award winning musician with a degree in
performance from a very prestigious music school, who has performed on
several well-reviewed recordings - and whose big career break was
becoming a corporate executive in an unrelated industry.

- Frank Krygowski

Op 5-3-2011 21:36, Frank Krygowski schreef:
On Mar 5, 2:05 pm, Lou wrote:
Op 5-3-2011 19:57, Frank Krygowski schreef:

Honestly, I've never been much of a connoisseur or trader, whether
we're talking musical instruments, bicycles, cars, motorcycles,
stereos... Usually, I'm slow and careful making a purchase, but then
I don't trade around hoping for something better. One guitar since
1984 or so, one decent fiddle since 1990 or so, one motorcycle since
1986, one little house since 1980, etc. (One wife, too!)

Frank what DO you do with all the money you don't spend? Charity?

I do that a lot.

That's good.


I just don't get a lot of joy out of buying stuff or having stuff.

It is about the joy off using nice stuff Frank.

Lou

On Mar 5, 9:17*pm, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Mar 5, 6:01*pm, " wrote:



Maybe you've wasted your time all these years in academia and should
have tried to make it as a soprano recorder player?

:-) *I wonder how many people worldwide "make it" as recorder
players?

Closest I can come up with is this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBws-gApi0A&feature=related

(give it a minute or two, there's a nice build and I can't imagine a
better marriage of movie and music).

We were in Tallinn, Estonia last year, spending lots of time in its
marvelous medieval town center. *Heard some excellent musician on
recorders as well as other period instruments. *But one ensemble was
connected with academia; the other was probably working for $10 per
hour at a tourist restaurant. *America has relatively few medieval-
themed tourist restaurants.

Not to mention the fact that many in "musical academia" are hustling
gigs for $10/hr., working at restaurants in the summer, etc.

Last year, I happened to help a woman on campus who was *looking for
directions. *We talked a bit, and it turned out her son, who she said
was brilliant at math, was in the process of changing his major to
music. *He had a garage band and figured he'd make it big as a rock
musician.

As I told her, I think music is a wonderful hobby, but a lousy career
choice. *It's hard to make a decent living doing something hundreds of
thousands will do for free. *(In that way, I'm part of the free
competition.) *A kid with talent in a marketable but "not fun" area
can write his own ticket, and should probably head in that direction.

Yeah, it's not the 60's or 70's anymore. The suits own the show. "You
(performer) get to be famous, I (suit) get to be rich".

And I speak as parent of an award winning musician with a degree in
performance from a very prestigious music school, who has performed on
several well-reviewed recordings - and whose big career break was
becoming a corporate executive in an unrelated industry.

America places no value on artistic culture.
--D-y

On Mar 6, 6:45 am, " wrote:
On Mar 5, 9:17 pm, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On Mar 5, 6:01 pm, " wrote:

Maybe you've wasted your time all these years in academia and should
have tried to make it as a soprano recorder player?

:-) I wonder how many people worldwide "make it" as recorder
players?

Closest I can come up with is this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBws-gApi0A&feature=related

(give it a minute or two, there's a nice build and I can't imagine a
better marriage of movie and music).

We were in Tallinn, Estonia last year, spending lots of time in its
marvelous medieval town center. Heard some excellent musician on
recorders as well as other period instruments. But one ensemble was
connected with academia; the other was probably working for $10 per
hour at a tourist restaurant. America has relatively few medieval-
themed tourist restaurants.

Not to mention the fact that many in "musical academia" are hustling
gigs for $10/hr., working at restaurants in the summer, etc.

Last year, I happened to help a woman on campus who was looking for
directions. We talked a bit, and it turned out her son, who she said
was brilliant at math, was in the process of changing his major to
music. He had a garage band and figured he'd make it big as a rock
musician.

As I told her, I think music is a wonderful hobby, but a lousy career
choice. It's hard to make a decent living doing something hundreds of
thousands will do for free. (In that way, I'm part of the free
competition.) A kid with talent in a marketable but "not fun" area
can write his own ticket, and should probably head in that direction.

Yeah, it's not the 60's or 70's anymore. The suits own the show. "You
(performer) get to be famous, I (suit) get to be rich".



And I speak as parent of an award winning musician with a degree in
performance from a very prestigious music school, who has performed on
several well-reviewed recordings - and whose big career break was
becoming a corporate executive in an unrelated industry.

America places no value on artistic culture.

"Anyone could see the road that they walked on was paved in gold
And it's always summer they'll never get cold
They'll never get hungry
They'll never get old and gray"

On Mar 5, 10:31*am, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Mar 5, 8:47*am, Peter Cole wrote:

On 3/4/2011 8:32 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

BTW, this tandem was a custom, built many years ago. *But when I went
to pick it up, there were about a dozen things that were different
from what I specified. *The builder said "Look, I'm heading for
Europe. *Do you want it or not?" *I grumbled and took it. *Two years
ago, the super-thin-gage fork blades broke off at the crown. *Watch
who you buy custom from, and make sure his name isn't Jim Bradford.

Which raises the question of whether, overall, a custom bike is
necessarily even as good as an off the shelf bike.

I really, really thought about that a lot after the forks broke. *Of
course, it was only then that I could measure the wall thickness of
the fork tubes. *It was 1/3 that of the contemporary Reynolds tandem
fork blades. *It was criminal.

At 6'10" and 240 lb,
I've had several conversations with both frame makers and owners of
large bikes and came to the conclusion that I'd likely be less happy
with a custom than I would be with a tweaked standard bike.

On the tandem front, I decided it was just hopeless to fit a
conventional tandem, custom or otherwise, given my absolute size and our
team weight, and our relative height difference.

Well, we had a couple in our bike club. *He was about 6'8", she was
probably 5'4". *Their tandem was a custom Santana, IIRC. *The big
design decision was that she couldn't get her feet anywhere near the
ground. *It didn't seem to bother them at all; they rode many tours
and long distances on that bike.

*I built a 3 wheel
articulated tandem for about $100 added cost to the donor bikes. In many
ways, it is a superior solution to a conventional tandem. I got the
inspiration from years of technical off-road cycling with my daughter on
a trailer bike. The result: standard wheels and drivetrain, 3 braking, 2
driving wheels, standard suspension fork (if desired), independent
cranks/cadence, long stable wheelbase that articulates in tight corners
or bumps, spacious stoker cockpit, easy storage and transport, even the
ability to quickly revert back to 1 or 2 separate bikes.

That sounds pretty cool. *I can see lots of advantages. *I wonder why
it's not more popular. *Did you find many disadvantage?

- Frank Krygowski

You Know a custom made frame will be made in the country the builder
lives in..

OTOH most 'brands ' are made by a relative few contract manufacturers
in Asia .

But heck in Cat 3-4 the one down all on the ground crashes and
resultant bike damage ,
will be easier to take on an off the shelf bike.

Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Mar 4, 2:52 pm, James wrote:
On Mar 5, 4:14 am, Frank Krygowski wrote:

Are you claiming any possible, theoretical, microscopic advantage
might not be absolutely critical??? Whoa!
That kind of thinking has gotten me into a lot of trouble with some
folks around here!
Microscopic advantage?

Absolutely critical?

Why not one small advantage makes immeasurable difference?

Wouldn't a dozen small advantages add to a measurable advantage then?

Oh hey, there's one of them now! ;-)

Ooops - your reply got lost in the noise.

JS.

Jay Beattie wrote:

There are reaonably good reasons for going custom that are not just
fit related -- not to mention the bling-bling appeal of steel art.

Yes, there is that. My custom is fillet-brazed, then I sprung for a
custom paint job (Stephen Bilenky and Brian Baylis, respectively). Even
though I opted for a single color, it still is purty.

When building the bike, I remember Stephen talking to me about tubing
choices, and that's another, albeit small, reason to go custom - I'm
typically very easy on bikes and bike components, so he was able to use
lighter tubing than he would have needed to for someone heavier and/or
stronger.

-S-

On Mar 4, 9:15*am, landotter wrote:
I'm a little unpopular with my industry friends today, as I opined to
a bike enthusiast that purchasing a locally made steel road racing
frame is no upgrade from his current Cannondale. My only concession
was that--of course there's a psychological edge to custom, and steel
does have the ductile advantage in case of a crash. But if you already
own an aluminum Cannondale that fits--it's silly to throw money at a
lateral move...

I don't currently work in the industry, but from the outside--it does
strike me as a religious order in many ways. For all the truth Muzi
encapsulates in the quip "it's for selling", when referring to
unnecessary "improvements" foisted upon us from year to year, I'll
take the unpopular stand that this is true for a lot of boutique and
craft items as well. Sometimes craft truly makes a difference--see
Paul hubs, and sometimes commodity manufacture can give a fabulously
cheap and functional product--see crabon racing frames on eBay for
that. I just am especially annoyed at the fundamentalist position I
see my friends take in support of expensive components--and the fibs
they tell--to sell things which offer no advantage to a consumer, but
offer paycheck to a buddy.

land "vertically compliant" otter

I bet that u can't run very fast ;-)

I need a 54 seat tube with a 57 top tube and a 120 stem. Short legs,
short arms, long torso. I can't run worth ****.