That's not a robot right there.
Live music is better than recorded music. It’s a given. Having that connection, where you’re sharing the same space as the artist is a unique experience that can’t be replicated on a plastic disc. To receive the gift from the giver personally is a moment of intimacy not possible if it arrives in a package in the mail. To be able to garner instantaneous gratitude, be it by applause, cheers or a smile is the reward that the artist lives for, else they wouldn’t be there. Showing appreciation for the gift returns the favour in kind. The performance feeds the audience, and vice versa.
Vinyl records hold the same sort of appeal that steel bicycles do; both materials revolutionised their respective industries and held the mantle of the best, the only choice, for decades. Then both were usurped by smaller, lighter composite materials and while the convenience and perceived performance they offered took over on a wholesale scale, a handful of purists held on to their Electric Ladyland limited edition LPs along with their Colnago Masters and Merckx Leaders. Vinyl may have been suddenly deemed cumbersome, inconvenient to use and harder to source, but it still offered a timeless sound quality that just had something about it, something that CDs and MP3s would struggle to achieve.
Same with steel bikes. There’s an indisputable and indescribable feeling that comes in the first few pedal strokes on a steel bike, and like pulling out that dog-eared copy of Hunky Dory, you know exactly what you’ll be getting, and you’re gonna like it. Picking up a hand-built bike from the person who made it is like going down to the studio to grab a signed slab of wax that Nick Cave hands to you himself. Straight to you.
Where the vinyl record remains round, grooved and black, the steel bicycle’s tubes remain round, straight and flat. You can’t improve on what’s proven. What’s perfect. Only the touch of the hand of the artist can make each one unique, where things that are really just simple things (a record, a bicycle) can be themselves set apart by the signatures laid upon them by their creators, curating originality (Jagger, Jaegher). To say it’s pretty special to see your own bicycle being made, your name on the tubes as they come together to be joined forever by the heat of the torch and the deft touch of the electrode, would be a modest assessment. To finally ride it, might be impossible to describe.
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@brett
Belgium or not people at customs and excise appreciate only one thing - your money. The more, the better. They should have sent you a letter that they are holding your package until you pay the required fee.
Customs are fuckers, no questions about that but it's your own fault too. Why sending groupset from New Zealand here? Why not buying it here in one of the Campagnolo dealers and have it shipped to Jaegher directly? Pay using your card and change delivery address?
Did you at least try to mark the package as a gift, promo items, sample material etc?
@David
Fixed your post.
@markb
Slowtwitch used to do one for TT bikes, but it hasn't been updated lately. With more and more integration, it also made less and less sense since "stack" and "reach" to the headset mean nothing if it's a proprietary system.
I don't know one for road bikes.
@Ron
They don't mention specs beyond the Athena mechanical group the photos are promoting, but the rims are definitely Golden Tickets.
@David
Comfort? What is comfort to one is a discomfort to other. Soft ride of steel is something I don't appreciate too much. The road soaking properties can be achieved with the right wheels, tires and the pressure. Plenty of comfort while the frame remains stiff in the right areas.
@frank
"Do you know Kung Fu?" "Were your parents a big fan?" "Aren't you buried in Seattle?" Nope, nope, and hell, no, not yet!
When I think I've heard it all, Frank, you come though with a winner. I like it!
Your newly renamed fan,
Bruised Lee
@Ron
I will look closer at the other details shots posted on Facebook. These look like low-profile tubulars (Campa, Mavic, Nisi, etc) to me. You may find what you want as a clincher, but they would most likely be polished. These hard ano rims are keen on being tubular. These discreet rim labels (pictured) could be Nisi.
@TommyTubolare
Yep, did all that. I bought it here because it was less than wholesale, and couldn't get close to that deal if I'd bought overseas...
@brett
Can we expect regular updates here? Or is there another place to follow progress? Sorry to be intrusive, it's just custom bike builds are a beautiful thing.
@DCR
Yes, there are two previous posts on the process so far... and there will be more to come.
http://www.velominati.com/defining-moments/where-have-you-been-all-my-life/
http://www.velominati.com/defining-moments/how-soon-is-now/