Restoring to admire not ride.

[We_are_Stevo]

Ultimately, any given bike is an inanimate object created to meet the current demands of a particular trend dreamt up by marketing men whose job it is to make a profit for their employers...

...they are not works of art, nor even the expression of the designers personality, they are a functioning machine designed to compete with rival manufacturers. They are then advertised at great expense in an effort to persuade us to choose 'Product A' over 'Product B' so that said manufacturer can return a tidy profit, some of which goes into producing the next 'must have' replacement!

What the person at the bottom of the pile does with their purchase is entirely up to them...

...just because we have a particular interest doesn't imbue our personal preference in make, model and use with any more creedence that a little kids' £99 Hypermatket BSO (a particularly incongruous analogy if LGF's pathos is to be believed :? ) who probably loves his bike just as much as we do, if only for a little while?

As several people have mooted above, it is Mankinds unique capacity for intolerance that creates these divides...

...and as the same people have said, there is no correct answer.

 

[highlandsflyer]

There is a huge amount of artistry in bicycles.

There is definitely art there.

There are certainly artists producing bikes. Always have been.

 

[FMJ]

...they are not works of art, nor even the expression of the designers personality

I (and I'm sure Paul) disagree.

 

[sylus]

So I said to the wife.... after taking the line from this discussion

Hey..you have something that needs to be ridden, never mind just giving it a clean and tidy, it needs to be ridden not just looked at

She replied..that's what you think buddy..it's mine and it will get ridden when I decide

 

[toaster999]

...they are not works of art, nor even the expression of the designers personality

I (and I'm sure Paul) disagree.

if a bike isn't rideable then art maybe, ( BSO!), otherwise it's just a bike. Two wheels, frame, saddle, etc.

 

[FMJ]

if a bike isn't rideable then art maybe, ( BSO!), otherwise it's just a bike. Two wheels, frame, saddle, etc.

It's a reproduction of an 1888 Whippet, and yes, it's rideable.

 

[petitpal]

if a bike isn't rideable then art maybe, ( BSO!), otherwise it's just a bike. Two wheels, frame, saddle, etc.

It's a reproduction of an 1888 Whippet, and yes, it's rideable.

Bit of an aside I know - but followed that build (in the genuine sense of the word as opposed to bolting bits to a frame) with great interest and genuine awe. Now bore as many people as possible by telling them about it.

 

[petitpal]

Back on topic: it all gets a bit pointless when we only define a bike as something that's ridden. A bike's a bike - in motion or not.

 

[Tazio]

I built up one of my "I want" bikes last year. A Sunn soft tail. I rode it, enjoyed it and then got the fear that the frame would break if I rode it the way it was intended to be ridden. I also couldn't bear it just being something I rode on canal paths or in town. So I stripped it down and put the bits on another frame or sold them. However I still have the frame, just in case. Not sure why but it is there in the corner of the room looking rather lovely. I'll work out what to do with it eventually.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Someone said something along the lines of, "You are the poet, and the greatest poem your everyday words."

Sums up how I feel about the false opposition between art and craft.