If you don't mind a little off topic historical perspective. I collect and repair antique fly reels. The US-made reels were all good designs that came off an assembly line, where manufacturing process design was first and foremost. The Pflueger Medalist was the premiere American production fly reel for exactly 50 years. During that time, there were a few bench-made reels (even from Pflueger - the Golden West) from makers such as the younger vomHofe, AL Walker, Otto Zwarg, Stan Bogdan. The English reels of the same time, however, all came from artisan shops, where bench-made effort was first and foremost. The same manufacturing techniques were applied to their bicycles, including the industry giant, Raleigh. Smaller shops could focus on improved materials and lighter-weight frame design (lugs, etc.) The great American bicycle brands are Columbia and Schwinn, and they were focused on manufacturing technology. IMO, it wasn't until the 1980s that benchmade bicycle frames became significant in the US.
On Tuesday, December 17, 2013 7:24:51 AM UTC-6, Ron Mc wrote: > > My vote goes to Mercian. > > > On Tuesday, December 17, 2013 1:04:12 AM UTC-6, Tim McNamara wrote: >> >> >> >> > On Dec 17, 2013, at 12:27 AM, Michael <john1...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > >> > Who made the USA's finest lugged, steel, frames back then and what were >> the prices like? >> >> Albert Eisentraut was sort of the granddaddy of American frame builders, >> so perhaps him. Tom Ritchey built fine lugged frames in his early days. >> But most bikies wanting a great lugged frame ordered them from Europe >> (e.g., Cinelli) or the UK in those days (Taylor, Holdsworth, etc.). > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
