this was in the most recent VO blog post.  its kinda bizarr-o if you actually know what modernism is and when it ended.  so being an uncle walter type i posted this comment:

‘this next bit can be preceived as a rant or just a helpful comment, which is more what it is meant to be:

modernism is done.  technically it ended in the late 1970s.  there are things being made now that are in a modernist style, ie the sogreni parts, new nitto stuff, v-o bikes, ect.  things like this, being made now are just emulating designs that  rose to popularity during, in this case, high modernism.  anything being done now that attempts to represent a break with this utopian vision should, at least, be considered contemporary (if it is current) or, if it is reactionary to modernism (very loose debatable, blah blah blah) it could potentially be termed post modern.

i say all this cause the term modern gets tossed around alot, not only in the bike world, but on the news and in other literature and conversation.  to an artist or an architect or a writer or a musician saying something is modern when its really contemporary is like saying bebop existed into the 70s, or that a house has nice colonial brickwork.  it doesn’t, it has it in the colonial style.

so, i think all this is a good thing: modern sounds better than retro-grouch, and design-wise has better conotations.  i would much rather be associated with Eames than some loose concept of ‘retro’, which mainly implys a certain level of out-of-date.

i hope this was helpful rather than jerky sounding.  i really didnt want it to be.  V-O is a company which sells things in a modernist vein, and thats nothing to be upset about.’

perhaps the best products contain a degree of hybridization.  if we were to fully embrace certain bicycle related modernist precepts we would stuck with alot of crap.  derailluers that needed to be tensioned seperately of shifting, cruddy french specific threads, breakable stems, narrow handlebars, poor lighting.  the best design takes the best of everything, a combination of modernism and contemporary thinking, and combines it.  this hybridization, arguably, could be considered post-modernism.  its all arguable.  some would posit to say that we live in an age of late modernism.  huey.  the utopian ideals are so watered down at this point as to be a stagnant swamp, a cess pool of recycled cliches.  those who practice it now with an fervor, are little more than historical reenactors.  i actually don’t know anyone who does that though.  most frames use better lugs now than were avaible, much better derailluers, better tires, ect.  it might have some of the aesthetics, but its not the whole enchilada.  (not that there is anything wrong with that, or enchiladas)