"Not everybody can afford the high quality components that Riv insists on selling, and it's great that there are options for people who want not-dumb bikes, and can't afford top quality."
iamkeith, I agree wholeheartedly with this, though I take issue with most everything else you said. As for the bits Rivendell designed but do not own, they did that windingly to get the produced in the first place, knowing what has happened would happen. With abandon, Patrick On Wednesday, January 29, 2014 12:43:20 PM UTC-7, iamkeith wrote: > > I agree completely, and might even take it a couple of steps further: > > Don't forget that many of those products that are available elsewhere were > actually designed BY Rivendell, with a significant outlay of their time > and/or other resources. It's not as if they even sell *anything* at > unreasonably high prices but, even if they did, I think there's an > obligation to patronize them ESPECIALLY for those products. It makes me > uncomfortable to see MKS "lambda" pedals, Tektro bigmouth brakes, Silver > shifters, Nitto Mark's Racks, etc., etc. sold on other websites at all - > but especially for a "token" discount over Riv Prices. (And again, they're > NOT always cheaper!!!) I'll probably get some flack for this, but the one > that REALLY bugs me is Velo Orange. I mean I'm really glad that this > particular market segment has grown large enough to support a cheaper > derivative / knock-off company, but that's where it should end. Not > everybody can afford the high quality components that Riv insists on > selling, and it's great that there are options for people who want not-dumb > bikes, and can't afford top quality. That's fair. Even if it > means buying from China, since that's the other alternative anyway. But > selling cheaper knock-off products is one thing, while also undercutting > Riv by selling actual Riv-designed products, for a tiny bit less money, is > kind of slimy. > > > On Wednesday, January 29, 2014 10:25:03 AM UTC-7, Joe Bernard wrote: > >> Branching off comments in another thread - and no doubt generating much >> unpopularity, but I'm a liberal who chats regularly with conservatives on >> politics sites, so I'm ok with it - this topic has been an edgy one for me >> for quite some time. There's much buying/selling that goes on here for Riv >> and Riv-ish things - I do it, too - which is fine: If you have a bag or >> stem lying around you're not using, might as well sell it, right? Right, >> but when it comes to actively searching around for "a deal" on things >> Rivendell sells, I get a little queasy about this being done on a Riv Forum >> as opposed to Ebay or Craigslist. >> >> What concerns me is that we've developed a secondary market amongst each >> other for things we can buy new from RBW, and if that market continues to >> flourish at the expense of the folks who originally provided the products, >> we're eventually going to find ourselves wondering what happened to those >> nice folks in Walnut Creek. Of course I'm not saying we have to stop >> selling things we don't need anymore, but I think we should be careful how >> hard we push the 'search' part of this activity on a Riv-specific forum. A >> while back I needed a DirtDrop stem, a headlight, and some reflectors. >> Rivendell sells them. They came expertly packed in a nice little box. >> >> Joe "soapbox" Bernard >> Vallejo, CA. >> > -- 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.
