old hotrod
Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Not that it matters but...here is my take.
After hovering around the fringe of the bike hobby for years...decades actually, I can compare it to the last 20 years of the VW hobby. In the beginning, deep pocket collectors drove the demand and prices beyond logic. NOS, NOS was all anyone spoke. Then came the repops. What I noticed was that when the product was made with integrity-a quality piece, customers were willing to pay a little more for the assurance that it would fit and operate properly. Nobody ever bough a fully 50 year old, restored VW believing that the wiring harness was NOS. But when the product was made as cheap as possible, and didn't fit or last, the customers got frustrated and went away.
That is where we stand now. Jerry has repopped some parts that I have not been too impressed with (pedals) or feel that should not have been done (lights and reflectors). At the same time, I don't own a bike worth putting $200 Torrington pedals on so I have no problem with the Signal and #10 pedals I have seen because they seem to be of a high quality.
So I guess my point is if all that was available for my 39 Rollfast was NOS or used pedals and old tires, I would have been gone long ago...and most of the old bikes would be getting scrapped or turned into rat rod bikes. And for those selling repops as NOS, karma will catch up to them sooner or later...
After hovering around the fringe of the bike hobby for years...decades actually, I can compare it to the last 20 years of the VW hobby. In the beginning, deep pocket collectors drove the demand and prices beyond logic. NOS, NOS was all anyone spoke. Then came the repops. What I noticed was that when the product was made with integrity-a quality piece, customers were willing to pay a little more for the assurance that it would fit and operate properly. Nobody ever bough a fully 50 year old, restored VW believing that the wiring harness was NOS. But when the product was made as cheap as possible, and didn't fit or last, the customers got frustrated and went away.
That is where we stand now. Jerry has repopped some parts that I have not been too impressed with (pedals) or feel that should not have been done (lights and reflectors). At the same time, I don't own a bike worth putting $200 Torrington pedals on so I have no problem with the Signal and #10 pedals I have seen because they seem to be of a high quality.
So I guess my point is if all that was available for my 39 Rollfast was NOS or used pedals and old tires, I would have been gone long ago...and most of the old bikes would be getting scrapped or turned into rat rod bikes. And for those selling repops as NOS, karma will catch up to them sooner or later...