As it so happens, I came across both the new Breezer website (via Alan's post about his latest photo adventure -- http://www.ecovelo.info/2009/12/21/breezer-catalog-and-website/) and the new Garry Fisher catalog on the same day.
What I found interesting was the striking difference between the marketing of these two "fathers of mountain biking": Gary Fisher's words and images are all over the Fisher catalog -- http://fisherbikes.com/gary -- and he kinda looks like somebody's crazy uncle who takes his fashion cues from Hawaii Five-O. In stark contrast, on the Breezer website there is not much mention of Joe Breeze -- http://www.breezerbikes.com/index.php/about-joe-breeze.html -- who (based solely on the website photo) could easily pass as your friendly tax accountant. Like Grant / Rivendell, both men are really big proponents and advocates of Utility / Urban / Practical / All-Rounder kind of biking, but I would guess that your average cyclist would not tie any of these names to cycling for transportation / utility. So, this leads me to a bunch of questions (which I will limit to 3- ish): (1) Do you think Rivendell should include a little more Grant Petersen in their catalog? (2) How much of Fisher / Breezer's product clout comes via their perceived personal "legend"? (3) To my knowledge, there really is no "father of all-rounding" ... should it be Grant / Riv? What about Rene Herse or Alex Singer? Thanks for letting me put my musings into a somewhat coherent form, Bryan -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@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.