well, you know what they say about lug carving- never do it. made the mistake of taking a little material off the head tube/top tube lug and now i’m already thinking about how to modify the next one. got a good ‘before’ photo this time. in front of some of the classics.

again- nothing fancy. just there was SO MUCH material on that lug. it was begging for some re-work. it’s hard to imagine there being enough hours in a lifetime to pull of a stunt like these though-

something about hetchins makes me want to barf a little though. even doing my comparatively rudimentary alterations took an hour. it flies by too, which is the weird thing. this is how builders go out of business, i’m guessing. it seems like it would be very easy to lose a few days getting into this stuff without even noticing and then bills start piling up and you’re skipping meals and not turning the heat on and out on the street talking to yourself constantly for the few moments a week you do get outside, completely oblivious to the stains your clothes are developing and alienating and embarrassing your friends and slipping ever deeper towards your inevitable untimely, tragic end. all because of LUG CARVING.

still, these look nice as a set. i think it was le corbusier who famously said that lug carving was modernism’s last hurdle to overcome.

but i would have to remind him that ‘a bike is a machine for looking at,’ and that no one really liked modernism anyway.