I dunno, Joe. If we're going to make a special to effort to buy MUSA, then maybe it's important to define what MUSA actually means. Otherwise it's an empty feel-good term. If vintage parts, no longer made, are acceptable, why not just cut to the chase and buy an old Schwinn ballooner, in its MUSA entirety, from a yard sale? I once had a Toyota that was made by Americans (I assume) in Indiana. When I say "made", I mean final assembly. The components most likely were made somewhere else. By that definition, any bicycle assembled at RBW in Walnut Creek, or by my shop in Minneapolis, is MUSA. Is it better ir worse than a good MUSA Ford, assembled in Mexico? Paul and Phil and White and the other boutique brands left in USA use aluminum, which almost certainly is non-MUSA, since the US lacks that resource. Riv frames use Taiwanese lugs and a mix of different tubing. Paint and decals? Who knows! What if Taiwanese Maxway used American-sourced frame components, but Waterford used Taiwanese-sourced frame components? Which, if either, is MUSA?
My point with all this is not to be snarky or ooutside the scope of the discussion, but to illustrate that the MUSA vs non-MUSA distinction ain't as simple as it maybe was 40ish years ago when "cheap imports" (cars, at first) came into the American consciousness. My opinion: you buy what you feel good about buying, and hope the guy you bought it from doesn't do something disagreeable with the money that was formerly yours! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/nllu6PAutAkJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
