I'm OCD so I like my bikes as pristine as possible, although I can understand and accept beausage if said beausage is obtained in the line of duty. Battle scars if you will. To me, however ugly I find beausage (remember: OCD), they at least remind me of the times and good times I had with the bike.
Thus, I cannot really understand the relic'ed option. Why would I want to pay extra for an essentially banged up item that I have no history with? I know this mentality exists outside of guitars. For example, a dude in Japan is charging hundreds of dollars to "brass" black paint Leicas, so they look like heavily-used pro equipment. I suppose the brassed look can be nice, but it's not really authentic and I'm old enough to not care about image. Anyway, to answer your question, I'm fairly sure there's a market for such a product, although I'll hazard a guess that it's small and probably transient. But then again, I do not belong to the demographic that relic'ed guitars and Leicas are created for. BTW, I see the aged range from Brooks quite differently. The Brooks are aged in the sense that they're pre-softened for immediate comfort. These don't look used and the user still has to break in and mold the saddles to her/his butt. On Friday, September 21, 2012 6:54:30 PM UTC-7, lungimsam wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > You all have been around Riv-culture longer than I. I was wondering what > your opinion is of Rivendell having a custom line of factory relic-ed > (beausaged, in Riv-speak) frames one day. Is there a market for it? > > Let me explain: > In the guitar and bass instrument retail world, makers manufacture special > lines of their instruments, called "relic-ed", for high prices. > People seem to lust over these and pay thousands upon thousands for them. > The reliced versions have chipped, worn off paint, down to bare wood; aged > hardware (rusted and oxidized metal parts); and discolored, "aged" plastic > parts. This is done at the factory on a new instrument. > So, you can have a guitar that looks well played and 40 years old, if you > think that looks nice. > > Personally, I prefer to do all "relicing" myself to my instruments (and > bikes), through years of lovingly playing (riding) and using them. So I > like to buy new, standard models. > > But there is a *HUGE* market for this in the guitar world. > > Is there a market for this in the Rivendell world? > Would you buy a Rivendell, made with dinged paint, environmentally worn > components, gassed gumwalls, and discolored plastic parts, for a more > "artistic" look? Everything functions perfectly, of course. > > I wouldn't, as I like leaving my mark on things myself. > Just wondering if you think there is a market for these kind of models. > Pre-Beausaged bikes. > > Looks like Brooks has already started doing this with their saddles, as > they have an aged, line, I think. > -- 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/-/w0xoLfag0bgJ. 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.
