Every week, BikePortland publishes a "Monday Roundup" of bike and transportation items in the news, and this week the New Yorker article on Grant and Rivendell was featured, and received the following response (Bold print is the poster's, not mine). For your entertainment:
"The mean-spirited regresso-grouchery (regressive retro-grouchery) of Grant Petersen and his supporters helped delay the wide-spread adoption of widely used technologies (e.g. disc brakes, carbon forks, e-bikes) that make transportation cycling* a more pleasant experience. It’s one thing to prefer a certain type of bike and a different thing altogether to constantly slam those who do not prefer your particular flavor of bike. For example, Petersen derisively referred to disc brakes as “motorcycle parts” and often described e-bikes as mopeds or motorcycles. A real world example of how Petersen’s ideology has been harmful is that many local “steel is real” bike shops have historically refused to work on bikes with disc brakes, internal cable routing, carbon components, or e-bikes despite their popularity (and some still do). *not racing bikes but every day transportation bikes" I responded, of course, including a comment that I thought "Grant Suppressed Disc Brakes" would make a great bumper sticker, and that I thought they were exaggerating the influence Grant had/has on the bike industry. the poster had more to say: "I think the formerly wide-spread attitude of people who think like Grant Petersen delayed wide-spread adoption of disc brakes. You must be confusing Grant with someone who actually has some kind of influence The guy who put ****ing Bridgestone bikes on the map, has a blog that millions have read, has published widely-read books reviewed in the NYT, is a major foil of the Bike Snob, has created an enormous cult-like fanbase, and is de facto leader of a slow cycling movement has absolutely influenced the bike industry — and, more importantly, has influenced cycling fans who work in or own bike shops. Grant Petersen has done an awful lot of amazing things that I respect but that does not mean he should get a pass for being a jerk about the bikes that many of us now ride." Sheesh Mike M -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/23443610-3d48-48c7-bba4-b38e59956994n%40googlegroups.com.
