if i had the cash i have found a nice second hand bike in my size

[Blue Hills]

What is wrong is some customers will accept a poor standard of workmanship on bike frames. I wonder if they would buy a new car with visible welds like that on the exterior of the body? Somehow I doubt it!

Yes I too have wondered about the car parallel.
How have they managed to get folk to accept it?
There is such a thing as economy simple agricultural manufacture and making a virtue/chic thing of it.
And passing the savings on to the buyer.
I'm thinking of the original Fiat Panda - a very clever bit of design - it had external door hinges covered by plastic cowls - but it never stooped to such things.
And some of these ally terribly welded things aren't cheap.
Talk about things/bikes going backwards.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The word you are looking for is "rustic", marketing speak for crudely cobbled together. I think they try to sell untidy welded alloy frames as a high tech alternative to "old-fashioned" steel. You know, "this is the modern way of building bikes, aluminium welding looks like that".
My Land Rover has exposed door hinges, and they all had them right back to 1948 and is actually useful because you can easily take the doors right off. On a utilitarian vehicle, such features are not out of place but they would be ridiculed on a luxury model.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I think the debate of weld quality is neither here nor there compared to the significance of this bike.
This is one of the two bikes that were in "that" stage on Ventoux, where Pantani faced off with Armstrong and they went hell for leather, both ripped off their tiny tits on E's and whizz. It's a truly iconic, dramatic, and memorable TdF moment.
It's like Schumacher's Benneton from the Hill / Williams collision coming up for sale, or Ben Johnson's running spikes from the Olympic 100m final. And the forum bore is going on about big welds. Talk about missing the point.

 

[Adam4868]

's

So that where he got his inspiration.....

View: https://youtu.be/gWwxdW4OlmE

 

[DRM]

As I said, it’s an historic item, but it’s a bit too expensive, and small for me!

 

[DRM]

View: https://youtu.be/GS0N4EBZKeQ

And here it is when it was new

 

[cyberknight]

went for 66 000 euro apparently

 

[DRM]

went for 66 000 euro apparently

Not surprised at that winning bid

 

[Cycleops]

This is the sort of Bianchi you should be looking for @cyberknight A proper steel frame and almost at a @SkipdiverJohn price.
Bought down here a few years back for about forty quid.

 

[Cycleops]

went for 66 000 euro apparently

Blimey that's Jeff Bezos territory.

 

[cyberknight]

View attachment 563635

This is the sort of Bianchi you should be looking for @cyberknight A proper steel frame and almost at a @SkipdiverJohn price.
Bought down here a few years back for about forty quid.

around here they would ask £200