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Italian/steel frames need more prep?
I got my new MTB frame in the mail yesterday, and the first thing I noticed
was that it was totally clean. Spotless. Greaseless. Honed, sparkling, radiant. The BB shell was clean with no paint in the threads, the headtube the same, and the dropouts properly prepped with no paint where the axle sits. This was a $200 MTB frame from Taiwan. Now, flashback to two weeks ago. A customer's crash-replacement Made-in-Italy Bianchi Pinella frame ($1800 retail) comes in for me to build up, and although there's no problems on painted areas, there's virtually no attention to detail when it comes to the bottom bracket or headset! There's slag strewn everywhere inside the BB (even bits I can break off with my fingernail), there's bubbling on the opposing side of the welds, it's totally unfinished with paint all up in the threads, and the headtube looks plain discolored and ugly. This was a steel frame, so I don't know if the rules governing steel are different from aluminum, but upon first look, I would have been ashamed if I were a framebuilder and let one go out like that. Sure there's prep required on the bike shop end, but can there really be so little workmanship pride on these high-end frames? What am I missing here? -- Phil, Squid-in-Training |
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