Hi Sifau!
Welcome to the Forum. Your Nomad has a wonderful "patina of use" -- not a bad point at all!
I usually judge finish on on a used vehicle by the race-car standard, many of which look good-to-great at a distance but up close show signs of racetrack use -- sand-blasting from track debris, some straightened panels, and paint chips. "Five-foot paint jobs" look acceptable unless you lean closer. "Fifteen-foot paint jobs" are fine if it drives by on the street in the near lane while you're on the shoulder. There's a few that look good at twenty feet driving past in the opposite lane, and some that look rough no matter the distance.
When I was a kid, I saw one of Eric Carlsson's SAAB 96 rally cars on display after a race in which he once again earned the nickname “Carlsson På Taket”, Swedish for “Carlsson on the roof”:
http://silodrome.com/erik-carlsson-aka-carlsson-pa-taket/ It was a thing of beauty in my eyes, 'cos it was
authentic and had seen genuine use in the heat of battle. Even just sitting there, the car told a story. Much better than if it had been restored to pristine condition.
I'd say this Nomad has about a 3-meter paint finish, and actually gets
better up close 'cos of the travel history. There's certain tools (and bikes are "tools") that -- past a certain point -- simply look more "right" with the patina of use. It's not the dreaded "first chip" that makes a flaw..rather, the "right" look occurs when many of those little flaws flow together to make a whole of their own. Nice bikes can be the result! This one looks wonderful to me.
Best,
Dan. (...who thinks of a chip as a flaw if there's only one)
