Patina... shmatina...
First, my fetish is decals. Love em... I love seeing authentic 60 year old decals on a bike that have survived for so long
On the other hand, patina? All that does is screams "RESTORATION" loudly in my ear. Yep, it's signs of a bikes past life, which is why it's seriously time that it had an overhaul and a new lease of life! Now for a shameless plug
This (which has been featured numerous times) is my 1905 Sunbeam...
There's a whole album on my profile if you want to look, but this bike has a lovely story. It was built in 1905, some time in the late 1910's/early 1920's it was taken back into the Sunbeam factory and given a revamp. Sunbeam offered this service where they updated a bike to the latest model which is why it has the 20's look. The owner never collected the bike, nobody knows what happened to them, and it couldn't be sold by the factory as it wasn't a 'new' bike, so it ended up a shop display bike in the window of a shop in Poole, Dorset (England) alongside a 1914 Humber with a similar story.
It stayed in the shop until the 1960's, gradually becoming more of a museum piece than a display bike(!), and when the shop closed the owner passed it to his son. His son didn't have a need for it, but ran a welding shop, put the pair of them on the back wall of an outback storage barn, and there they remained until I bought them earlier this year.
For you "Patina brigade", it shows every sign of its entire history... rust throughout... but you'd rather see that than it back into its gleaming black livery? To an extent I see your point... it LOOKS old... but I'd restore it.
Now for the plug... I've given up hope on ever doing anything worthwhile with it, it's surplus to requirements, and I'm selling it to raise money to fund a shop to sell brand new vintage English bike parts... rod brakes etc... so if you're THAT into patina, here it is...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330738792345?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
