Ted wrote me a super nice and encouraging note either in '94 winter after Bstone announced its closing or early '95, in the first weeks of RBW---complimenting the XO-1 among other things, and it started a 25-year friendship. It was the first time I was aware of a stranger from faraway (Wisconsin) had actually understood the bike, and it fired off a synapse that would've been dormant otherwise. But 25 years ago--since Andy mentioned the InterBike show--I'll tell about my experience there. I'll keep it short. It was a huge event for me because it was the first showing of not just the XO-1, but also the '91 catalogue, which was a million miles different than all the other catalogues there. It had no photographs, it had seemingly irrelevant articles, and didn't put forth a progressive image. It was designed and made almost entirely in secret, even inside Bstone. It came out exactly as I wanted it. I found the design team via a tip from VeloNew's Felix McGowan. He told me to go to the DeFrancis Studio in Boston for the character work--they could do anything I wanted. Inside Bstone it was me and Ariadne Scott. She kept everybody on schedule and was so nice, so everybody who worked on it (the paper supplier, the printer, photographers who shot the bikes to be illustrated, and George Retseck, the illustrator) loved working with us. I picked authors and wrote myself and...it always stupefied me why there was so little internal curiosity, but I think it was more a combination of everybody was busy with their job, and people trusted me to come up with something decent.
At the show, the XO-1 flopped, because dealers couldn't understand it. Maybe not Andy, but most. I can't tell you how many times I was asked "...but what KIND of bike is it? A mountain bike, a hybrid, a road bike?' Looking back, I should have called it the Platypus, but that might have doomed it more. Anyway, those "category" questions made a huge impression on me. I couldn't understand how bike dealers, supposedly bike people, could look at a bike close up and be confused as to its potential, with the midsized slick tires and the funny handlebars, but they were, and said they couldn't sell such an undefined bike. I was marketing director, so I should have made it easier, but I just couldn't imagine that a bike person could look at it and not get it (as Ted did!) The catalogue got mixed reviews--about 50-50 at best. One big dealer-- E.B. were his initials, and he was a bigshot then and for many years after--- told me directly (to his credit!) that in 20+ years in the bike industry, it was the worst catalogue he'd ever seen. It had no effect on me other than befuddlement and resolve. My seeming stubbornness today came mostly from those two incidents in '91, and in a more positive way, from Ted's early support and the encouragement of so many others along the way (and the existence of this list, and Jim for starting it, and so many of you) It's starting to sound like a retirement send-off speech, or a surveying the kingdom speech, but neither is close or even appropriate. We're here, but it has always abeen a struggle, and we have a few big stressy projects and plans all the time. Anyway--dat's it. On Wednesday, November 30, 2016 at 7:23:48 PM UTC-8, RonaTD wrote: > > Please indulge me a little reminiscence. Riding home from work tonight on > on my Cheviot, I passed by the bike shop where, almost 25 years ago to the > day, I was handed The 1992 Bridgestone Bicycle Catalog. After about 30 > seconds of looking at pages 36&37, I handed over my credit card and changed > the course of my life. The XO-1 was exactly what I was looking for, as if > Grant Petersen had said, "So, Ted, what can we build for you?" Twenty-five > years and a reasonable number of bikes later, I am ever more grateful for > Grant's contributions to beautiful, common-sense bicycle design and > components. > > Ted Durant > Milwaukee, WI USA > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
