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Charlie was not one to force his ideas on people, especially when they really wanted to buy a bike and wanted it to look pretty. So, when Charlie began selling bikes, he decided to offer them two ways; exactly the way he thought they should be, and in forms that were closer to prevailing expectations. This included offering two different frame geometries, sloping or horizontal toptube, big diameter or standard seattube, several fork choices, Cunningham or standard cantilever brakes, extra wide or standard front hub widths, modified dropbars or flatbars, and … even paint!
Charlie's feeling is that with reasonable care 6061 aluminum bikes don’t need paint to prevent corrosion the way steel bikes do. In fact, he considers paint on an aluminum mountain bike to be a liability. If the bike is really being used as intended, the paint just gets trashed. More important in his mind is the fact that without paint, if the frame is damaged, it can be repaired quickly and easily … sometimes without even disassembling the bike!
Regardless, to demonstrate that paint can be available when important to the buyer, Charlie chose to paint two of his many personal bikes, blue #11 road bike and green #12 mountain bike, but his opinion that paint is a nuisance was always known. Of course, in later years it became fashionable to sell unpainted aluminum bikes. It's hard for people today to imagine how mountain bike culture, so strongly associated with radical departure from tradition and unrestrained innovation, could have had early proponents in the beginnings that were uncomfortable with such things.
Charlie in his workshop circa 1992.
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