I have several thoughts about people's complaints about the "hidden menu". Here's how I think about it, in the form of two parables, one made up, and one real.
Made up parable: Imagine you owned a cheese shop. Imagine you sell a particular goat cheese. It's very good cheese and you have customers who like buying it and it's kind of a trademark for your business. You call it "House Chevre". As time passes, the supplier who sells you the cheese increases the prices steadily, and sometimes can't supply it at any price. Your customers buy less because it is so expensive, but some are willing to order it. Sometimes the supplier takes so long to deliver your orders that some of your customers lose patience and cancel. It gets harder and harder to sell it. Then, you find another vendor that has even better goat cheese. It's flat out better (in your judgement), AND it's half the price. The vendor is super reliable, so you have it on the shelf. Some of your customers know there's been a change, and say "I want the old stuff, it was good" You agree, it WAS good, but this is better and half the price. Some of your customers insist. Other customers of yours get annoyed that you've made it harder to buy the old overpriced cheese and complain about it on a forum. It's true that "the customer is always right", but in the situation above, would you really keep selling the overpriced product from the unreliable vendor? Or would you stick to your principles and continue to try to "push" the product that you sincerely believe is superior, and way cheaper? You're kind of being a pompous jerk presuming you know more than your customers, but in reality, that's why you own the cheese shop. Real life parable: In the late 1980's through early 1990's, Kona Coffee became super fashionable. It was convincingly marketed as superior coffee. It was super expensive, maybe $20-$25 a pound when other high-end coffees were $12-$15 a pound. Very conspicuously, Peet's didn't sell Kona Coffee. I knew (know) people in the upper levels of management in the Peet's organization, and those people made it clear to me why they didn't sell Kona Coffee: because it sucked. It was objectively mediocre coffee. Their customers demanded it, but Peet's didn't care. They cared about curating the very best coffee in the world, (by their own judgement) and hoped enough people would appreciate their efforts enough to buy it. They weren't going to "sell out" and supply a "just OK" product that was absurdly overpriced, despite what their customers claimed they wanted to buy. I think Rivendell is trying to offer the best bikes they can at the best price to us. I think they are doing things the way Peet's did things in the 1990s (Peet's has subsequently sold out on several levels, but that's another story). I think Waterford is not a great supplier to Rivendell. I'm not surprised Rivendell is pulling away from the Waterford models. I owned a 56cm Bombadil, which was a good bike. My 56cm MIT Atlantis is a better bike in every possible way and costs less than half of what a new Bombadil would cost today. I owned a 58cm 700c MUSA Atlantis. It was a very good bike. The combination of my Sam Hillborne and my 650B Atlantis are better. The off-menu bikes that Rivendell should offer (and does), is the ultra fancy step-throughs: Glorious and Wilbury. The Roadeo is out there. The cyclocross race bike just needs a name. I think all we're left with is a $3000 Hunqapillar frame. Who on this thread is dying to buy a $3000 Hunqapillar. I would not trade my 650B MIT Atlantis for a Hunqapillar in my size. Bill Lindsay El Cerrito, CA On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 6:39:02 PM UTC-8, Kurt Henry wrote: > > Roberta, I'm with you. I'm not sure I understand the "hidden menu". I'm > sure Grant and company do it for a reason, but I don't know what it is. My > guess about pushing frames in inventory vs. made to measure is pure > speculation and being curious out loud. And I think you're right about > there being some groups of people that would be in the market for one set > of models and not the other. Until recently I was firmly in the "not > really interested in long wheelbase" camp. I think I'm starting to come > around, or at least around enough to be open minded about it. > > I definitely appreciate your offer of a test ride! I haven't done a good > PBH measurement, but run a saddle height of ~75cm and am 5'10" (even if > that darn nurse at my checkup pegged me at 5' 9-3/4" a while back, I'm > claiming that extra quarter inch!!). I suspect the sizing would be off by > a bit, though maybe you've let someone my size test ride before? > > Kurt Henry > Lancaster, PA > > On Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 7:42:20 PM UTC-5, Roberta wrote: >> >> Kurt, >> >> It seemed to me that if a business has something they are willing to sell >> (I assume at a good profit), they'd let potential buyers know. (That is >> just my unused marketing degree talking. I don't mean to be armchair >> quarterbacking of running their business.) I wonder how many who have read >> this thread and now that they can put down money on their grail bike will >> do it. I'd also guess that some of the potential buyers who'd want a >> previous model might be different buyers than those of the current models. >> No company is immune from this, even the one I work for. Some of our >> customers buy items from other companies because they didn't know/we didn't >> tell them that we ALSO sold them. >> >> I hadn't heard of Rivendell until only a few years ago. I test rode a >> few and they were all very nice. Then, I got on the Joe Appaloosa and >> OMG!!!! I purchased it right away. I'm in Philadelphia and my Joe A. is >> 51 cm. If you are nearby, I'd be happy let you ride it or my 54.5 AHH or >> both. I rarely go west, but I could also meet you at Valley Forge or >> thereabouts. >> >> Roberta >> >> -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/6133a4ad-e3ab-4628-bc5a-552ff87abf1f%40googlegroups.com.
