In the long distance hiking community there's a saying "Hike your own hike." It applies equally well to bikes. --Andy
On Wednesday, May 9, 2012 11:15:32 PM UTC-7, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > > Maybe there should be a spoiler alert here - be advised that I will be > discussing various aspects of the new book, so navigate away from this page > if you prefer the content of the book to be a complete surprise. > > I finished reading the book tonight, which if I can summarize in a line, > is about all the good things about bikes that appear only when you toss > racer prejudices and attitudes out the window and Just Ride. After the > first few chapters, I thought that maybe the editors really sanitized GP's > historically familiar against-the-grain opinions to be more blandly > vanilla, hopefully to be appealing to a broader audience. The general > content wasn't unpredictable to me, having read the Readers and Catalogs > and most everything else Riv going back to 2004 when I wanted a touring > bike and couldn't find any to buy except the Atlantis (that's how I first > found Riv in the internet universe). But I was somewhat surprised that > there was little to no discernible lug evangelism or quill stem absolutism > or singing the praises of friction shifters, and the Retro-Grouchiness was > held to a dull roar. > > But as I got further along in the book, I started to think that maybe Mr > Petersen has simply mellowed about the trivial details over the years (I > know I have!). Or maybe more accurately, there's less to be peeved about in > the bike industry now than there was 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. > After all, smart, sturdy bikes with ample tire clearance and useful > braze-ons and some attention to classic, non-billboard aesthetics have > become, dare I say, normal. If racing bikes and gear are the status quo in > the world, then I must live in a lucky bubble in South Minneapolis where I > ride and fix bikes every day, as I see lots of reincarnated 1980s > sport-tourers, old steel MTBs, and new(ish) Surly Cross-checks and LHTs on > a daily basis, but feel like I see relatively few "road bikes" being ridden > by obvious faux-racers. To the extent that bike trends have steered toward > the benefit of the "Unracer" over the past decade or so, my opinion is that > Grant and Rivendell played a large part in it. This is not to say that all > smart bike designs and product offerings are shameless Riv-ripoffs, but > that Grant gave voice to a backlash movement and opened a long-neglected > market to a lot of smart, creative people who maybe couldn't or wouldn't > have done it without some pioneering coattails to ride on. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/oLew1TKMWisJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
