SimonCelsa wrote:Elegant & in my opinion quite beautiful. Not absolutely perfect but getting there.
Not mine by the way, photo is cropped from another forum
That’s mine! Nice to see someone else likes it. I like it myself, of course.
I don’t pretend it’s perfect, but what don’t you like about it? Maybe the spacers/headset/stem area?
Unfortunately it’s now using a less attractive Shimano FC-5600 chainset. Not sure if I’ll keep it like that or revert to the SunXCD in the photo above. Currently testing.
Generally, I think a beautiful bicycle is one in which form follows function. That may naturally include carbon fibre when used in speed-orientated machines. However, best of all is when functional form is combined with elegance. Classic road-racing bicycles up to about 1990 are the ultimate expression of this: they look bare and essential and elegant in addition to slim and lightweight and supremely purposeful. They remind me of a greyhound. They look fast standing still.
Some Mercians are decorative and highly accomplished in that regard, but decoration doesn’t have the conceptual weight of minimalist function, even when it’s backed by decades of tradition (fancy lugs, etc.).
Some day I will get a custom frame made and build a ‘perfect’ bicycle around it. It will be both beautiful and functional. Cash is the problem!
By the way, I think some bicycles are beautiful even though they are so large or small that they don’t achive the normal proportions. For example, there is something beautiful about Jobst Brandt’s enormous yellow bicycle, seen
here before his death and
here after it was restored.