As usual, fun, miscellaneous, non-organized content. Much on slant parallels and indexing and the power of Shimano and the smallness of SunTour. But, perhaps this is worth a breath: sure, everyone nowadays wants 13 in back and trouble-free electric, indexed shifting. BUT! I would not be surprised if there is a market "out there" for honorable consumers who *like* to develop the skills required to do things for themselves. After all, there was the fixie craze during the 10 speed indexing period, and -- I am no expert on current culture, but is there not a trend toward self-reliance, authenticity (not sure how to define this, but at least, don't buy what you can't do), simplicity, and durability? The sorts of people who use knives instead of processors, and knead bread dough instead of using bread makers? (Both for me, tho' I'm no gourmet chef.)
The same from another angle: every time you gain with a machine that makes it easier for you to do something, and for neophytes to get into the action, you also *pari passu* lose skill and expertise, which itself is very often a large part of the pleasure and self-affirmation of practicing some craft, be it only shifting a derailleur system. Now, if you perfect -- as Rivendell's Silvers do --"do-it-yourself manual shifting, might there not be a small but sustainable market for well-meaning, earnest, honest people who'd like to aquire these minimal self-sufficient skills with tools perfected for the purpose? It seems to me that Rivendell ought to actively market to this audience; not the theme, "We're diehard holdouts for old-fashioned skills," but "You want the pleasure and self respect of learning how to do things for yourself; we can equip you with tools perfected for this" -- whether shifters, axes, bags, clothing, what have you. IOW, not "we're holdouts" but "you don't want to be subordinate to the machine; we are on your side with the right stuff." Those new Silver shifters might well be a design that entices me away from beloved SunTour barcons.I didn't like the older, long-levered Silver bar end shifters, but the new ones may make me change my mind. Casting back to the last blahg, with Archie Bunker: I never watched All in the Family until just a week or so ago when I looked it up. I have to say that, from the very few episodes I fast forwarded through, it was well done, and I usually hate TV. That is, it portrayed a bigot well as a bigot in a humorous way. What I have watched what may be BBC's antecedent to the show which, as an Anglophile, I like quite a bit. As usual, as with anything literary or dramatic, the Brits just do it better. Grant, this one's for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0-leRNxhmg *Today when you're picking out baby and toddler toys, the groovy thing to look for is a toy that requires the human to do 90+ percent of the work. A book versus an audio book or video game, Tinker Toys versus online building things or whatever. Adult toys used to be that way, but bicycles, more than most, have eliminated the need to make mechanisms perform. All riders have to do it push to the click, or share the task with a motor. It's no skin off anybody's nose, who even cares?, except that I think everybody should have at least one bike that is more manual than automatic. It's not a matter of trying to make simple things harder; it's more like not seeking out the easiest, most brainless way to perform a function that formerly required a little skill, and then feeling puffed up for your "smart shopping."* *SILVER shifters and any modern slant parallelogram rear derailer (Shimano makes good ones) is a good way to go. A little practice and you'll be fine in a week!* -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgs_Ppt-LwWfqmR7RDrcLJUhf6%2BxZXk1Jp-WXL_q3eydFA%40mail.gmail.com.
