I agree with you Scott, in a sense. The repop tires I use are John's tires only! Would never put Kenda's on a classic! John makes incredible stuff! I have rode vintage tires since the 70's also, Bob. But after riding on new rubber, it's like nite and day! I classify tires, pedals, seat covering and bearings as things that will wear out. Therefore, swapping these things out is OK in my book. Oh ya, that repop badge looks real bad!
-----------------John is an anomaly in the reproduction field. He actually 'cares' about quality and making things 'right' and to
very exacting levels. My comment was not to bash the quality of Johns work but the inherent effect certain reproduction
items have on the market for and value of 'investment' quality antique/vintage parts, and that can also be said for tires.
Tires were always regarded as a 'grail' ingedient in the bike hobby and to a degree, but lesser now, still are. From what I've heard Johns tires are incredible riding tires. I get that. I ride on original tires from a purist standpoint, and don't do 'performance' riding or even serious commuting on vintage ballooners to justify needing that 'extra' performance edge, so I'm cool with rolling on original rubber for my
leisure 'cruising' which amounts to local beach strand cruises and local about town. I do have to admit the repro tire 'generic-izes' (is that a word?)
the look of these old bikes (communism? socialism? LOL) when so much of what you see now is a bright and shiny WW chain tire or typhoon, or those terrible Coker BFG's that used to be everywhere and still "sting" unsuspecting buyers today.
-----Reproduced parts will always be with us, I try to avoid using as much of what's available as I can on my projects. Ocassionally I'll do a 'buy-out' of a load of antique bike stuff and there will be repro stuff in the lot. Do I throw it out? I can't.....it serves a purpose and has value and was part of a bulk buy that I paid for, good, bad and ugly. A couple of years ago I ended up with a qty of 'rough cast" Schwinn cross bar speedo housings... I so wanted to just pitch these things but the market was revealing a 2-300 value a piece! If was independently wealthy? I would have scrapped them. But I'm not quite "Trump" yet.
----There are degrees of 'lameness' for this repop stuff.... And top of my list for just bad BAD idea repop are badges. I will always simply
reard these piles of sheet as Forgeries. Badges and Schwinn Fender bombs have screwed more unsuspecting people than
anything re-made in the bike hobby thus far.
