On the Classic Rendezvous list, where I have been a member
for a decade or more, there has been much discussion of the Concours d’Elegance
at the California L’Eroica and ride. I have been fascinated by the discussion,
because I have been a rider of high-end bicycles and a bicycle business
employee on and off since 1973.
“Originality” has become the holy grail of collectors. I
will agree that it is very cool to find a forty-year-old bicycle in totally
original condition. Cleaning it up and showing it would gather oohs and aahs
from the most jaded of collectors. I will admit having mightily lusted after a
1971 Peugeot PX-10 that had been for sale at a very reasonable price a couple
of years ago, right in my neighborhood.
But I have been thinking long and hard about “originality”
and what it really means. Looking at the PX-10 in question, it seemed that the
bike had been ridden a few times and then hung in the garage, gathering dust
for a few decades, then getting donated to a charity bike shop. How sad.
Bicycles are meant to be ridden.
A high-end bicycle bought in the 1940s or 1950s was not
meant to be a static piece of art. The buyer clearly made some financial
sacrifice to own a good tool. That tool was used. And as it was used, parts on
it wore out. Riders would rarely replace the parts with the originals,
especially in those years when everything bicycle-related was rapidly
improving. Would you really replace a Cyclo-Benelux coil-spring derailleur if
you could afford one of the newer Simplex or Campagnolo parallelogram units?
Would you continue to ride with wimpy brakes as the technology improved? Of
course not.
When I started working in bike shops, during the first 10-speed
boom, “original equipment” often varied wildly as parts shortages were a
regular occurrence. And the economical
race bikes of the day, the bikes that appeared alongside the more mundane
entry-level 10-speeds of the day, seldom left the shop in “original” condition,
and sometimes, were heavily modified even before they were ridden. One of my
colleagues bought a PX-10 new, stripped off all of the parts, sent the frame
out to be repainted with modern paint and clear-coat over the decals, then
rebuilt it with a mix of top-of-the-line French and Italian parts. The only
original equipment he kept was the Stronglight 93 crankset and V4 headset,
which are already very nice components. Now fast forward to 2015, and here’s
what the judges would say: Super LJ derailleurs with Retrofriction levers – not
original, points off; Mafac Competition brakes with drilled levers and full gum
hoods – not original, points off; Campagnolo Record hubs with Mavic Module E
rims, shod with much later Continental Grand Prix 4000 tires – yep, you guessed
it, not original, points off. So in the judges’ eyes, this bike that will keep
its looks longer, with a modern two-part clearcoat over the decals and will work
better because all of the parts were upgraded, is a less valuable bike than the
original, with plastic Simplex derailleurs, Normandy Luxe Competition hubs,
with their unique and unavailable bearing cones and integral dust covers that
cannot be removed for easy cleaning, and Mafac Racers with the silly half hoods
on the brake levers?
To my eyes, as a bicycle rider, not a bicycle collector, a
1940s top-end frame, with parts representing the best available from every
decade since, repainted when needed, and still loved and ridden by the grandson
of the original owner is far more interesting than the wall queen that was
ridden 100 miles when it was new, discovered by a collector and then polished
and hung on the wall as a sculpture.
And it makes me a little sad to think that the unridden bikes are the ones that people want to look at.
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