i've owned a couple bikes of which i've had the opportunity to chat with the people that designed & built them. while they may not have been measurably superior to the offshore factory built hardware of the time (in some cases, they possessed notable flaws, due to quirky design choices), they also turned out to be the most loved bikes i've had. two of which i'll keep forever, another i regret selling, despite it being patently ridiculous by modern standards. it's a silly intangible, but there's something to be said about character / soul imbued inanimate objects. chris & mike are icons of local framebuilding; so much history between these two torchwielders. if you have the means to buy locally handbuilt, and have pseudo justification in terms of mid(ish)-life crisis, i say go for it. and keep it forever.
Oct. 10, 2017, 1:38 p.m. - Perry Schebel
i've owned a couple bikes of which i've had the opportunity to chat with the people that designed & built them. while they may not have been measurably superior to the offshore factory built hardware of the time (in some cases, they possessed notable flaws, due to quirky design choices), they also turned out to be the most loved bikes i've had. two of which i'll keep forever, another i regret selling, despite it being patently ridiculous by modern standards. it's a silly intangible, but there's something to be said about character / soul imbued inanimate objects. chris & mike are icons of local framebuilding; so much history between these two torchwielders. if you have the means to buy locally handbuilt, and have pseudo justification in terms of mid(ish)-life crisis, i say go for it. and keep it forever.