Anton Tutter wrote: >I would love to read BikeSnobNYC's take on of all this.
I expect he has run into this sort of reaction before. BSNYC might allow for the possibility it is written tongue-in-cheek, just as he writes. He even may be sufficiently perceptive to think, "Small group of people, closed comments, not much use of Web 2.0 connectivity - maybe there are some inside jokes here. Maybe I am not the intended audience." He hardly could be unfamiliar with obsessive cyclists taking umbrage with what he writes, and how that proves the points of his barbs at their onbsessiveness. In any event, it is seldom a good idea to attribute thoughts or motivations to anyone without the first-hand knowledge of dialogue. Therefore I should not speculate further of what BSNYC would make of this, especially as he does not have the advantages of knowing the person who wrote it, as Anton does (a little), or of sharing mutual friends amidst the tiny audience for which it is written (who have ample opportunity to comment or razz, give as good as they get, and are able to laugh about our shared obsessions). Mr. Weiss also could not know that the author is an old time Bridgestone rider, long-time Rivendell customer, and has spent a lot of time on road and trail with his Riv-riding, BQ-reading friends (all of whom joke about double top tubes, low- trail, and other matters of the intertwined communities). If lampooning the bike sects sends me to hell, I will have lots of company, including a few from this list. Anton goes on to write: >The author explicitly expresses his distaste of these fenders and of the Rivendell aesthetic, and preaches sanctimoniously about French "re-enactors" and "anachronistic affectations" yet it was a Riv product he chose as the basis for "re- enacting" a set of Bluemels. Ahem - this is about re-enacting the SKS P45. One might dial down the umbrage meter and ponder, having invoked BSNYC - who seems to have a great relationship with Rivendell despite sometimes poking fun at their bikes and following - the possibility that this text was not written in scorn. It might come from somebody who knows this stuff from the inside, for a long time, sees in it humor that he shares with like-minded pals, and is hip to the common RBW trope of “drinking the Kool-Aid.” The Web, like bookshops and libraries, is full of texts that are available to the general public, in a public place, but not written for every reader, or forced on any. If I do not like to read something disagreeable to my opinions, or disagreeable to me in style, I may ignore it (especially from so inconsequential a medium as an obscure blog), grumble privately, or, if I happen to know the author, I might discuss it with him or her. Not long ago I revisited iBOB and RBW, from which I had been away quite awhile. I was delighted by the contributions and adventures of Deacon Patrick, whose voice and spirit keep me coming back, and who wrote on this topic: >This seems applicable. http://xkcd.com/386/ I like it. This is how I take the original post, while not missing the tip of the spear as it prods me. Steve Palincsar, old-time iBOB ally in a protracted, poorly argued (from the other side) debate on threaded forks and headsets that I was dumb enough to let myself be dragged into, wrote: >How, I wonder, is recreating the look of a 40 year old Bluemels fender by dremeling now "appropriate"? Again, this is about making a Longboard into a P45 with a different color, to a length useful for some conditions in which my friends and I ride. Though willing to add a preliminary warning for the Very Serious, I cannot prevent misreading or steer interpretation, and neither would I care to. It is written for a few people, nobody's attention is solicited, nobody has to subscribe, and it's not as if it so important that I would post it to an internet forum in order to stir up a fuss. > And I completely agree with your comments re: sanctimoniousness. Smarminess, too. Not only that, but I am impious, overweight, and make sarcastic jokes among friends. Chris “Author, Author “ Barbour, near Boston -- 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 http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
