I doubt it's a black and white issue for Rivendell. From what I have read, I think Grant sees bikes continually developing toward the e-bike model, with more and more of the technology becoming "black box." You might argue that disc brakes, in and of themselves, are not that. But taken with other developments and trends, it's hard to deny that bicycles are developing into something "less simple" than what many of us grew up riding and wrenching.
Our culture is set up to believe in eternal progress, from the caves to the stars (with a side trip to Mars, courtesy of E. Musk.) But there is evidence aplenty that in fact this is not the way things actually work. In the 1970s, Ivan Illich, in Tools for Conviviality, writes about watershed moments--those points in time where a tool (and here he referred not only to tools in the sense of a hammer or a bicycle, but also societal tools like the education, transportation, and medical systems) reaches a kind of sweet spot. After that, it starts to accrue complexity for the sake of keeping itself going, essentially. Applying this theory to the marketplace, since our economy is based on eternal growth, the products within must constantly "improve" so we can keep moving toward the stars (and service our debt--till we can't). Now some will say that discs are an improvement, and they work, and are not overly complex, what's the big deal. Well, if you've thought about where bikes have been and where you see them headed and you care about that and you have a company and you have a few principles, maybe you are thinking that discs are a not so tiny step toward taking the bicycle into something that, in some ways, is no longer a bicycle. And so, perhaps after talking with family and friends, you decide, even though it might hurt sales, even though it might contribute to an earlier demise to your company, to not offer this feature on your bicycles. I could be totally wrong and not even on the bases, but I think it's not as black and white as hey, rim brakes have always worked fine, let's stick with 'em, just because we're Rivendell and that's what we do. I think might be part of a bigger picture view, and where the company wants to fit into that. It could be a watershed line they just don't want to cross, for any reason. Or I could have inhaled a bit too much Boeshield this weekend. On Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 1:23:43 AM UTC-4, Drw wrote: > > We’ve had 4(?) straight up calls for cash in the last year. I’ve > contributed to all. Bought a frame for one. I’d be concerned about anyone > saying they aren’t concerned. > > I truly believe discs would engage a whole new population. I also don’t > think in bicycle black > And white terms. If a disc brake is all it takes to get people to come > over. Who cares? Even the ibob group and Jan have been able to see this > issue with nuance for years now. Not seeing it with nuance and denying its > ramifications financially does seem, to me, like a.... desperate stand. > > Seeing the idea of having options and differentiation as an ok thing is > not the side that’s taking the stand. > > I’ll also stop now though. -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
