tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post540274223193707362..comments2024-03-18T08:41:35.438-04:00Comments on Lovely Bicycle!: Signs of Richard SachsVelouriahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-74234456037309973692012-11-01T10:19:15.323-04:002012-11-01T10:19:15.323-04:00Oh by the way, I did quote from the conversation w...Oh by the way, I did quote from the conversation with him. ("Make sure to get the watch")Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-29064683607738351562012-10-31T01:02:58.636-04:002012-10-31T01:02:58.636-04:00He sure has : )He sure has : )Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-80563070400454275942012-10-31T00:22:52.709-04:002012-10-31T00:22:52.709-04:00Wow. I hope RS has not seen this pic.Wow. I hope RS has not seen this pic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-79248100766072117552012-10-30T21:53:24.457-04:002012-10-30T21:53:24.457-04:00To me, your question is a bit like asking "So...To me, your question is a bit like asking "So when does something salty cross the line into something green?" <br /><br />They do not cross; they are entirely separate realms. Something can be impressive and excessive at the same time. Or just one of the two. Or a bit of one and a bit more of the other. Or neither. <br /><br />I cannot decide for you or anyone else whether something is impressive and/or excessive; that's everyone's judgment to make for themselves. Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-53442832147023707222012-10-30T21:45:30.019-04:002012-10-30T21:45:30.019-04:00So, can you articulate when impressive crosses the...So, can you articulate when impressive crosses the line to excessive? ThxAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-68118891747643670772012-10-29T14:07:23.182-04:002012-10-29T14:07:23.182-04:00This is 100% the owner's setup.This is 100% the owner's setup. Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-37922818507776554022012-10-29T14:01:21.128-04:002012-10-29T14:01:21.128-04:00Well that was unexpected. Is that how the owner ha...Well that was unexpected. Is that how the owner has it set up, or did you lower the saddle?Petenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-45031870732755692932012-10-27T23:42:48.053-04:002012-10-27T23:42:48.053-04:00BTW: Found a picture of the Richard Sachs bike I r...BTW: Found a <a href="http://instagram.com/p/HXC5fLD7kL/" rel="nofollow">picture of the Richard Sachs bike I rode earlier this year</a>. Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-11311194737732742282012-10-27T19:48:42.610-04:002012-10-27T19:48:42.610-04:00Heh heh heh... Dude, you like, got racked.
Spindi...Heh heh heh... Dude, you like, got racked.<br /><br />Spindizzy<br /><br />Books drool, blogs rule.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-91920178720204885352012-10-27T16:50:11.961-04:002012-10-27T16:50:11.961-04:00I waited 6 years for mine and received it last yea...I waited 6 years for mine and received it last year. Certainly it is at least 10 years now. <br />JeffAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-55480945103521250062012-10-27T13:35:00.811-04:002012-10-27T13:35:00.811-04:00Spindizzy: great story; team up with Velouria on a...Spindizzy: great story; team up with Velouria on a book. It's even better than mine about riding, age circa 15, with friends from one house to another at about 1 am after smoking a lot at house #1, all on borrowed bikes, I, low on the social totem pole, forced to ride astride a Pletscher rack that, inevitably, broke half way, allowing me to experience the incompletely anaesthetic properties of weed.Bertin753https://www.blogger.com/profile/02860648732848589740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-91698651241229929602012-10-27T08:26:14.965-04:002012-10-27T08:26:14.965-04:00Yes, Spindizzy, most do it simply by letting the f...Yes, Spindizzy, most do it simply by letting the frames speak for themselves. And the vast RS edifice would collapse in a moment if his frames did not speak.<br /><br />You can still buy a Della Santa. You won't wait too long or pay too much. Della Santa has palmares far beyond what RS has or will ever have. Have you ever even heard of Della Santa? I don't think Roland much cares if you haven't.<br /><br />Myself I ride a Rickert. Some plausible internet accounts will tell you Rickert has more palmares than any builder in the history of the sport. For a time his waiting list was all of the giants of the road. No assistants. His wife Doris did the paint, which is holding it much closer to the vest than shipping them back and forth across the continent to Joe Bell. And the two of them operated a fulltime LBS and built the frames in the back room. Mine was $300 as a complete Campag NR bike.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-825873112363616872012-10-27T08:00:15.197-04:002012-10-27T08:00:15.197-04:00Well why didn't you say so?! Commuter rails ar...Well why didn't you say so?! Commuter rails are fairly notorious for providing an atmosphere that encourages people to drop their tableaux.Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01285886035638697215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-73619820853421793952012-10-27T03:26:10.115-04:002012-10-27T03:26:10.115-04:00I used the term in a tableau vivant sense.
Look ...I used the term in a <i>tableau vivant</i> sense. <br /><br />Look I rode the commuter rail for like an entire hour. Of course I expected full access to his unconscious. Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-80414675792172450852012-10-27T02:45:57.950-04:002012-10-27T02:45:57.950-04:00Nicely done profile, in the vein of Gay Talese'...Nicely done profile, in the vein of Gay Talese's famous "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold." Of course unlike Frank, your subject eventually does show up, though still, you never directly quote from your conversation with him.<br /><br />You use the word "tableau" several times in this piece; I assume, in addition to its being a synonym for picture, to imply its meaning as a kind of staged scene.<br /><br />It could be argued that some, most, or all of us go through our lives enacting a series of tableaux, but then again, so what? In any case, did you expect the "real" Richard Sachs to be revealed to you in your first (or tenth) encounter?<br /><br />I suspect one's projection of a "tableau effect" is often in proportion to that person's celebrity quotient. Take a talented and opinionated framebuilder with a proclivity for writing and send him into the early days of the Internet with its heated forum free-for-alls, and voila! A Richard Sachs persona. Not quite Ol' Blue Eyes, but Ol' Very Pale Gray Eyes. ATMO.Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01285886035638697215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-87879562992259962702012-10-26T22:59:41.687-04:002012-10-26T22:59:41.687-04:00CFRS stands for Cross Fckuing Rules and so does Sp...CFRS stands for Cross Fckuing Rules and so does Spindizzy. And Ramon. Ground Round Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09103163385322185034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-626300358166971822012-10-26T22:21:19.272-04:002012-10-26T22:21:19.272-04:00My bad re the paint.
Yes, Peter Weigle paints his...My bad re the paint.<br /><br />Yes, Peter Weigle paints his own frames last time I checked.<br /><br />I think almost all builders' waiting lists are estimates at best. The 10 year figure is at least in part tongue and cheek. Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-25191838904273163272012-10-26T22:10:05.154-04:002012-10-26T22:10:05.154-04:00There is not a ten year wait list. Never was. How ...There is not a ten year wait list. Never was. How would such a thing be maintained? Another of the stories RS creates. He is simply in the enviable position of choosing who gets the bikes he builds. No time lost talking sales talk about stiff this and flex that blah blah blah. No time lost answering "where's my bike?" phone calls.<br /><br />Yes his lugs and parts are nice and making them available to framebuilders is a real service. But others do this sort of thing as well. First that comes to mind is Andy Newlands who has been the one man of Strawberry for even longer than RS has been RS.<br /><br />RS uses Joe Bell paint. Weigle has and may still paint a few.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-44856281001651205552012-10-26T21:54:48.399-04:002012-10-26T21:54:48.399-04:00When I said that about him being one of the best b...When I said that about him being one of the best builders ever, I wasn't just talking about his bikes.<br /><br /> As a builder he's managed to do it ALL his working life, built a solid reputation and developed a line of bikes he gets to make the way he wants that people get in line to buy. Even if the bikes sucked(they don't)he's achieved something difficult that few other builders ever will. I wonder if anyone ever succeeds by simply letting the product speak entirely for itself.<br /><br />If that requires a serious P.R. effort to achieve and capitalize on than that's cool. We all go to work having "put on a face to meet all the other faces" as someone(I can't remember who) said.<br /><br />Spindizzy<br /><br /> <br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-19701394154152637042012-10-26T21:14:51.679-04:002012-10-26T21:14:51.679-04:00To put a fine point on it, its value is gleaned fr...To put a fine point on it, its value is gleaned from independent r & d and its assemblage; not just manufacturing craft, but how things work in a racing environment. <br /><br />Anyone can design stuff that gets down the road but few can independently come up with a design, in ferrous metal, that wins. "Nice riding" is almost a pejorative; the thing is designed to get across the line first. Ground Round Jimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09103163385322185034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-88886292903033934712012-10-26T21:05:34.884-04:002012-10-26T21:05:34.884-04:00And there still seems a resemblance to the Count :...And there still seems a resemblance to the Count :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-60070231574328347532012-10-26T21:04:22.584-04:002012-10-26T21:04:22.584-04:00Here's the story, it really happened although ...Here's the story, it really happened although I only actually witnessed the last hundred yards of the deal.<br /><br />Where I grew up in rural Texas you still see donkeys here and there in amongst the scrub cattle and goats that people keep. They eat about anything, do a good job of keeping the stray dogs away and don't call in sick much. They can be pretty endearing and tend to become pets. You can ride the friendlier ones (less murderous than your average butt$%#@ Shetland pony).<br /><br /> So my friend Ramon has this donkey but no bike(we're right on the cusp of manhood, say 13 so he really want's some wheels)and sometimes rides it around to the little store or whatever, but he really wants a bike. <br /><br />In the fullness of time we have a respectable sized hurricane and the whole county floods up and there's junk and debris everywhere. Ramon spies what appears to be a BMXish looking thing way back in a field up under a wire fence with all the mailboxes and tanning beds. Now all he would have had to do was go up to the house and ask nicely if he could go grab it and he would likely have been in and out in 10 minutes with no questions asked and the blessing of the farmer, but we're like 12 so he decides to go get it in the middle of the night(well, like 10:30)and slip out quiteish.<br /><br />His plan was to ride over on the donkey, who's name I can't recall(the kid around the corner who used to ride his to the store pulling a stolen grocery cart full of returnable bottles named his Jezebel, I do remember that) and ride the bike home leading the donkey by the halter with a rope. All goes according to plan including the part about silently extracting the bike from the fence and wheeling it through the field to the path. There he discovers that the donkey is a little skittish about being led while Ramon rides, in fact he resents it kind of a lot. To the point of jerking Ramon off the bike into the sticker burs and pear cactus. He decides to drop the rope and just herd the donkey(I wish I could remember it's name, dangit)with the bike and sets off to do just that, when the rusty chain jumps off and kinks up solid. Damn. Plan "B" or whatever, is to ride the donkey(Pedro, maybe, I dunn'o)and "ghost ride" the bike(we didn't know it as ghostriding, or any other name although we did it readily enough when necessary, carrying a rider on the handlebars was known as a "pump" though. I remember that well enough, the term was universal and spelled C-H-I-P-P-E-D-T-O-O-T-H). That works marvelously for about a minute and a half till he leans over just a bit too far at the same time the front wheel drops in a hole and he ends up under poor Ferdinand(or whoever) and gets a hoof in the nose. Imagine the blood, now imagine more, and just a little more. There, you got it.<br /><br />So now Ramon just drags the bike and the donkey along for about half the way home when he decides the answer is to ride Persephone(doesn't sound right but whatever) and CARRY the bike. Tied across his shoulders with the rope. Really. It works but he can't sit up and has to sort of lay across donkeys neck. <br /><br />I'm out in the road riding my bike when I hear hooves, quiet sobbing and vicious cursing. I bravely hide in the ditch and soon enough I see a donkey(Chago! It was Chago, I'm like 40% sure of it) and my friend Ramon, having been taken prisoner(after a bitter struggle apparently) by a Huffy Pro-Thunder. We chat, he shows me his brand new bike and we part ways, him still bleeding a bit and coaxing along a very tired and annoyed Chago and me jealous as hell about how everybody else is so lucky and look at me having to buy my bikes for 17 cents a pound at the scrappy. <br /><br />Next day he shows up on his new Huffy with a brand new used chain and all is golden. Till the kid who's name was scratched into the number plate saw it at the store and re-claimed it after hanging a minor beating around Ramon's neck. <br /><br />Good times.<br /><br /><br />SpindizzyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-59437820548623689402012-10-26T20:58:02.325-04:002012-10-26T20:58:02.325-04:00Ahh, I think there are as artists.Ahh, I think there are as artists.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-66716709148289067852012-10-26T20:57:52.066-04:002012-10-26T20:57:52.066-04:00The main selling point, as I understand it, is his...The main selling point, as I understand it, is his approach to craftsmanship. RS might be the only builder today (not 100% certain though) who uses his own proprietary tubing and lugs. So the idea is that the bike is 100% Sachs, from tubing to lugs to design to mitering to brazing to finishing to paint. He works alone - no assistants, no outsourcing. And he's been doing it (mostly) the same way for over 40 years, which suggests a mature product. <br /><br />Do the bikes ride well? I am sure they do. The one I tried did. But that itself does not distinguish his bikes from the many other nice bikes out there. So my view is that the 10 year wait list and the pricing are based on the subjective value of the craftsmanship aspect of things.Velouriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00359329171411037482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6467858377106451384.post-58230932967600925082012-10-26T20:36:49.368-04:002012-10-26T20:36:49.368-04:00CFRS stands for... Canada France Redshift Survey. ...CFRS stands for... Canada France Redshift Survey. Or at least that's the only meaning I'm familiar with for that acronym!<br /><br />"Technology is no substitute form experience" and sometimes vice-versa. I really like the looks of those team cross bikes but even if I had the money I can't see waiting ten years for one (or any bike actually)nowherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12125582590094636085noreply@blogger.com