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It was 'Demo Day' yesterday, lots of distributors including Orange, Moda, Turner, Cove etc.
Lots of exciting new road bikes from Willier too including a £10k Di2 monster.
Anyway, they know I'm into 'old stuff' and one of the directors introduced me to a chap from one of the distributors - we had fun showing off the Overbury's and the Verlicchi and talked about how bad some of the old bikes were and how dodgy some components could be.
Then the pic of my Zaskar came up... ''I respect the old stuff but I wouldnt ride it now, new stuff is way better'' or something like that. I had to point out that that frame and UN72 BB had covered some 60,000 miles in its life and is not that much different now to the Hans Rey machines of old.
''Yeah but its rubbish compared to new stuff''
Oh dear... oh dear oh dear. I think someone had swallowed too much of the corporate line (which is fair enough, it is his job to sell as much stuff as poss after all) but to simply wipe away some 30 years of 'proper' MTB history plus some 120 years of cycling was a step too far. I saw red and then introduced him to another tech who'd had 3 Rocky Mountain frames fail within a 4 month period and why they failed. I then pointed out his so called technology is nothing new (my same old spiel on this forum too) and that the only reason why bikes look the way they do is the magazines have to sell advertising and generate revenue. So, they big up the trail centres and if you dont have bike X you are rubbish and need to get said bike before you can be a real rider.
The guy was almost froffing at the mouth when I pointed out it was the rider and not the bike. But I didnt get that far, his analogy was that he owned a VW Beetle and that his diesel Astra was way better. Piss poor analogy! A wheezy pre-war design is no comparison. I pointed out that when Tom Ritchey was building his first batch of frames, cars were available with air bags, computer controlled fuel injection, traction control and stop start technology (Mercedes, BMW and VW).
That didnt go down too well and I think people started to pull us apart before it got messy.
Somewhere in this rambling mess my point is that I have a whole shop of modern to play with and apart from the road bikes, I'm not impressed. Theres countless 'old stuff' I'd never want to own either but that failed to get a look in. I'm a cynical bastard in my old age and am a tough nut to crack when it comes to selling me a new bike. I am not a typical customer so I dont expect anyone else to share my view. Was just a little pissed off by the guys attitude and being accused of rose tinted.
Semi rant over...
Lots of exciting new road bikes from Willier too including a £10k Di2 monster.
Anyway, they know I'm into 'old stuff' and one of the directors introduced me to a chap from one of the distributors - we had fun showing off the Overbury's and the Verlicchi and talked about how bad some of the old bikes were and how dodgy some components could be.
Then the pic of my Zaskar came up... ''I respect the old stuff but I wouldnt ride it now, new stuff is way better'' or something like that. I had to point out that that frame and UN72 BB had covered some 60,000 miles in its life and is not that much different now to the Hans Rey machines of old.
''Yeah but its rubbish compared to new stuff''
Oh dear... oh dear oh dear. I think someone had swallowed too much of the corporate line (which is fair enough, it is his job to sell as much stuff as poss after all) but to simply wipe away some 30 years of 'proper' MTB history plus some 120 years of cycling was a step too far. I saw red and then introduced him to another tech who'd had 3 Rocky Mountain frames fail within a 4 month period and why they failed. I then pointed out his so called technology is nothing new (my same old spiel on this forum too) and that the only reason why bikes look the way they do is the magazines have to sell advertising and generate revenue. So, they big up the trail centres and if you dont have bike X you are rubbish and need to get said bike before you can be a real rider.
The guy was almost froffing at the mouth when I pointed out it was the rider and not the bike. But I didnt get that far, his analogy was that he owned a VW Beetle and that his diesel Astra was way better. Piss poor analogy! A wheezy pre-war design is no comparison. I pointed out that when Tom Ritchey was building his first batch of frames, cars were available with air bags, computer controlled fuel injection, traction control and stop start technology (Mercedes, BMW and VW).
That didnt go down too well and I think people started to pull us apart before it got messy.
Somewhere in this rambling mess my point is that I have a whole shop of modern to play with and apart from the road bikes, I'm not impressed. Theres countless 'old stuff' I'd never want to own either but that failed to get a look in. I'm a cynical bastard in my old age and am a tough nut to crack when it comes to selling me a new bike. I am not a typical customer so I dont expect anyone else to share my view. Was just a little pissed off by the guys attitude and being accused of rose tinted.
Semi rant over...
