Charge Plug

Guys, not all of us have time to chase second hand component after second hand component to build an "interesting" bike.

you mean you don't have the patience or inclination. I spent six months getting my first bike together. it's nothing remarkable. It ain't a track frame. but the frame's 531 and the components are better than an OTP will ever be coming close to for the price I got it together for. On the way I learned a lot about what I was going to be riding, the quality of different components and how the market was changing.

For most of us, it is about having something that you can ride, brakeless or not, and enjoy. So as long as it doesn t fail, it does the trick.
I don't get this bit. You're stating the obvious but at the same time your statement will be read in several different ways by people on here. For example, I just wouldn't enjoy riding a Langster or indeed the majority of the OTPs half as much as the bike I assembled and put together with hillbilly one evening. Handing my cash over in one go at a bike shop to get something that has been formulated by a company wouldn't mean as much as sorting out an old frame for a good price and putting together an aesthetic of my own. I love the aesthetic element of people's builds.. I wouldn't have got as excited about it at the start if it wasn't for people's enthusiasm going into their own builds. The fact is the OTPs that are sold for the street market are for the most part only existent as a result of people back in 2005 / 2006 etc. building their own bikes out of old stuff. Charge's style decisions can be traced directly to the aesthetics of messenger and fakenger builds from certain years (eg the bullhorns giving way to 'track' drops and risers)

And in terms of it failing? It seems to me that almost everyone I know with regular OTPs feels the need to start upgrading components soon after they get it. So there's some sense of an OTP not doing the trick there or this wouldn't be happening.

And if the color scheme appeals to pedestrians on King's Road, all the better, they ll come to the beauty of your painstakingly reconstructed vintage parts track frame eventually...
I wouldn't really care about that to be honest. If you feel like a million dollars riding your bike who cares what the colour scheme is and whether pedestrians notice?